Fishing by the seats of their pants
The Thursday evening fishing trip off the cliffs near Tongaporutu hit pay dirt after the third cast when Mr Rasmussen (21) hooked the granddaddy snapper.
It took a half hour battle to get the fish to the base of the cliff and two more hours to get it up the cliff using a whitebait net on the end of a rope.
The net was on loan from a farmer who Mr Rasmussen had called on for help. I was hanging over the edge and my mate was holding my pants and the farmer was holding his pants and I hauled it up.
Halfway up it flapped and fell out so we had to get it again. Even with three of us a wave could have pulled us in if we got it wrong, Mr Rasmussen said.
He said the snapper was the largest fish he had ever caught and it had managed to escape from at least six other anglers.
When we got him up his mouth was full of hooks. I pulled out six. Some were new, some were rusted up. I think a fish this big could be about 60 to 80 years old, he said.
There are no plans to eat the fish, which is soon to be stuffed.
Its going to cost about $1200, but you dont catch a fish like this everyday. Its going to go above my bed so when I wake up every day I can say `I caught this, he said.
And while Mr Rasmussen was having his battle, the serious guys with boats were having their own battles, with game fish.
The New Zealand Big Game Fishing Councils national contest finishes today with the New Plymouth Sport-fishing and Underwater Club recording a good number of fish.
The biggest was a 153kg striped marlin caught on Thursday by a visiting team of anglers.
The guys who caught the marlin came down from Counties. The fishing was no good up there so they jumped in the car and came here. They put their boat in the water and hooked up soon after, said club radio safety operator Murray Maindonald.
About 26 local boats and seven visiting boats were registered by the club for the week-long competition.
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Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 at 4:26 pm under