Story by: Terry Williams-King
Photos supplied by Terry Williams-King

Bluefin tuna have been caught commercially from the west coast of New Zealand since the late 1970s. The catch was a mixture of the smaller southern bluefin and occasionally its bigger brother, the Pacific bluefin, Thunnus orientalis.

The first big Pacific bluefin were landed by a boat called Daniel Solander, which also bought tuna at sea from the other boats fishing the area. The Daniel Solander was the first foreign vessel to be allowed to take a load of fish directly into Japan to be unloaded. Before then, the Japanese mainly took fish caught from their own vessels.

The area that is now making world news for these huge bluefin tuna is known as the Hokitika trench. The area is named for its abundance of hoki, a popular food fish which lives in the deep waters of this trench and in turn brings the deep-sea trawlers who fish the area until their quota is filled. The fishing ground is a short 16nm from the Greymouth Bar and runs north for another 40nm. Here the sea floor drops rapidly from 145 metres to over 760 metres within a very short distance.

Greymouth is located about a third of the way down the west coast of the South Island, roughly 450km from Picton. It is the closest port of call to all the action at the Hokitika Trench. However, while it may be close, it is certainly not easy access.

The Greymouth Bar is notorious for its treacherous bar entrance. At a bare 300m wide, it is open to the full force of the ever-relentless Southern Ocean, which is often whipped to froth by the prevailing south-west winds blowing from Antarctica. It's not a place for the faint-hearted. For this reason, these wild west adventures are very limited. Often the notice for these trips can be as short as 24 hours, with the weather windows often very short in duration, and at times lasting just two or three days.

Huge international factory trawlers working the Trench process their catch at sea and the mass of waste that pours out over the side is a perfect berley (chum) trail to attract and concentrate the bluefin for anglers.

GIANT TUNA DISCOVERED
In the past, commercial boats would experience solid tuna action but would get their hooks straightened by these big Pacific bluefin on their heavy hand lines. They also noted that when the Pacific bluefin showed up, the southerns gradually disappeared. The season for southern bluefin in the area starts around July and continues until the end of August, by which time the Pacific bluefin have usually taken over. By the end of October, the Pacific bluefin have also departed.

Since its discovery, only a few recreational trips have been made chasing these big tuna. Pioneering anglers Roy Woolley, Des Benson and Tony Haultain caught some big tuna on gamefishing tackle off hoki boats during the late 1970's and early 1980's. Noted NZ angler Fred Lewis and fishing mate Tony Beattie also caught several bluefin around the hoki boats in mid-2001. But the interest in this fishery really took off when our crew blasted down there to take up an opportunity offered to us by professional captain, Richard Orchard. What was to follow has ignited anglers and opened up a new and unique fishery on the South Island's wild west coast.

It's been 12 months since Richard, a commercial tuna fisherman for over 22 years and skipper of the tuna boat FV Koru II, first enticed fishing mates Paul, Aaron, Malcolm and I to Greymouth to chase bluefin. And since that highly-publicised trip, fishermen have gone crazy trying to organise trips to snare these monster balls of muscle. One thing's for sure, these fish are not small. The IGFA All-tackle world record for Pacific bluefin has been broken off New Zealand four times this year, and currently sits at 280kg.

Over a four-day period we saw, hooked, landed and lost some of the most powerful fish I have ever had the pleasure of battling. This year, Richard and the Koru have placed many anglers in the same lucky position. Richard is an amazing fisherman. In fact, every angler who has been onboard with Richard this year has landed a tuna – and seen some of the most amazing sights they could ever imagine. You would almost think he was part tuna, the way he seems to find them.

The Koru is ideally suited for tuna fishing. It has a large hold for keeping these fish if required, and plenty of deck space.

What's more, Richard has even gone to the lengths of fitting a game chair for those who wish to battle the fish from a chair.

Possibly the only thing that lets the boat down is its single screw, which at times can make the boat less maneuverable than a genuine sportfisher. But, like all top skippers, Richard knows the boat like the back of his hand and can make it do things that no one else would ever hope to.

I have had some great fishing throughout the years – all over the Pacific. I've chased sailfish, GTs, dogtooth tuna, blue marlin, yellowfin and XOS kingfish, as well as New Zealand's own mighty fishery for striped marlin. But never have I seen fish capable of doing what these bluefin brutes can do.

The fishing for Pacific bluefin consists of two styles: cubing at night on the drift and feeding baits into the cube trail; or trolling lures along the trench and, even more exciting, close in behind the factory hoki trawlers.

My first experience with these super-sized fish was from behind a Russian factory trawler. Our first pass of the trawler was within arm's length of touching its side. Hand signals were exchanged, asking if tuna were seen. Arms were waved, then pointed in the water, meaning they were below the boat.

The sight of thousands of birds following the boat and feeding on the rubbish was mind-blowing. The water was covered with birds for a mile behind this boat; fighting over any scrap of food that was dumped into the sea as the fish were processed onboard.

We followed the boat until they started to haul the nets in. As the bag popped to the surface, chocker full of fish, I saw a sight that I will never forget – giant tuna, and I mean big!

MASSIVE TUNA LEAPING OUT OF THE WATER
The bluefin were feeding on fish that were squashed out of the net bag, and on several occasions these monsters lurched half body lengths out of the water, onto the bag, and tore hoki out. Our hooting and howling off the deck was probably heard for miles.

I have spoken to some of the anglers that fished this year, and not all were able to experience this same sight, though some watched tuna steal food from the hundreds of seals that also follow the boats. We were unable to hook any of the fish on our trolling passes, but the sight had our pulses off the charts and will be etched into my memory forever.

This year, lure trolling anglers fared much better than we did, with 60 per cent of the fish Richard landed this year being caught on lures dragged next to the trawlers. Many fish were lost though - fish charging through the net cables on their first run ended in bust offs – and speechless anglers, shocked at the speed with which these fish hit.

Richard's most commonly-used lure is a Yo-Zuri squid rigged on 500 pound mono leader with a cork in its head to make the lure skip on the surface. This results in some mind-blowing strikes, with fish often coming their full body-length out of the water to crash the lure. The first fish we landed was caught on an aggressive surface lure made by Hollowpoint lures. It was savaged by a fish that porpoised out of the water on the strike.

The initial run is mind-blowing, with 800 to 900 metres of line easily melting off the reel in a matter of seconds. They just close their mouths, hold their breath and go for it.

Most anglers this year have battled away on 80lb or 130lb tackle, and noticed very little difference between the fish on the first run. Often, the heavier the drag, the harder they go. You just have to hope they stop before you run out of line.

One Aussie angler who fished with Richard had fought many black marlin in Cairns on 130lb tackle and he used the same tackle for these brutes. He commented that he had never seen line leave a reel like it before. Even on heavy drag settings – often at ‘sunset', there were long smoking runs right through until the bitter end. Fight times were often 2 to 3 hours of sheer hell for the angler. But the reward was often 200kgs or more of pure grunt on the deck.

CUBING AT NIGHT
The other method, more successful on our trip, was to work at night. We chopped up hoki and barracouta into cubes and fed it out over the side, into the night. Again, we used heavy 500lb leaders as the area is also rich with broadbill swordfish. To this we attached two big J hooks or circles (as used by some this year for the better release of fish).

The fish would show up at any time throughout the night and were often spotted on the sounder or sonar first as they approached.

Once they arrive, it's all action stations. Often, all rods would scream off at once and big tuna could be seen charging around the boat looking for a feed. The battles were brutal and the big fish lasted hours, powering off into the dark. Weary-eyed anglers struggled for their bearings in the pitch black.

After the fish was bought boat-side, there were tense moments while gaffs were sunk home and white water flew during the final battle to secure the beast. Once the fish was restrained, the next job was getting the fish onboard. When the fish lands on deck, the slaps on the back and jubilation is well worth all the torture the body is put through!

A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME FISH
All hookups do not end in cheers though. I'm not sure whether I would say we were lucky enough or unlucky enough to tangle with a fish that probably only comes along once in a lifetime.

At around 11 pm on our second night we were having a blast. Malcolm had just landed his first bluefin, a healthy 220kg specimen which was our third for the trip. We had just started berleying again and had three lines set. Almost instantly, the long line let howl. Then another squealed.

I retrieved my bait, and three big tuna chased it all the way to the boat. One caught it as it neared boat-side. Suddenly we were on a triple!

Unfortunately, mine went straight under the boat, breaking me off. Another broke the hook when the weight was applied. One still remained and did its finest impression of a V8 supercar charging down Conrod Straight. After two hours, the fish was still leading us around and we were madly in pursuit trying to get some of the several hundred metres of line in the water back onto the reel.

As the hours passed, it became clearly obvious that this was a much bigger fish. It just took line with ease at any stage it wished. Often the reel would look almost full and we would stare into the dark looking for the swivel to pop into view from the dark depths. But NO! Twenty-three kilos of drag meant nothing to this fish. As the saying goes, it was easy come, easy go. The fish just did what it wanted and we often wondered if it even knew it was hooked.

ITS RUN LEFT US SPEECHLESS
One such run, five and a half hours into the fight, left us all speechless. Again the reel was almost full when the fish decided to go for a sprint yet again. This burst was like no other – straight down for probably more than 700 metres, at a speed I've never seen a spool turn before. We were sure the only thing that stopped it from spooling us was the fact that we were only in 700m of water – so it probably bounced off the bottom!

It was at this stage Paul, the ‘unlucky' angler, turned to us and said “Get me out of this harness. I've had a gut-full of this…”. He'd been totally worn out and demoralised by the fish. We unclipped him from his harness and he passed the tackle to another angler while he took a short break.

Usually, the morning down there is spectacular. Because you can only go when the weather allows, the clear sight of the beautiful Southern Alps covered in snow is the first thing to greet you. This is a weird juxtaposition. Every person who has been down there comments on the bizarre feeling of setting lures for game fish in full winter woolies, with a view of snow-covered mountains in the background.

This particular morning may have been beautiful, but for us it was bittersweet. Paul was back on the rod after a 60 minute break. We had been on the fish for 8 hours; however, we certainly did not appear to be winning this battle. While we had not seen the fish at any stage, we knew it was a tuna, we knew it was big, and we knew we were being taken to the cleaners.

WE FINALLY GOT HOLD OF THE LEADER
At about 10am, after 11 hours of battling, we finally saw our nemesis. Words can't even describe it: huge, enormous, gigantic, incredibly big. We finally got hold of the leader and all hell broke loose.

I had the pleasure of taking the leader and we decided we had to hold on and get him then and there. That fish dragged me all over the cockpit, from one side to the other side of the railing. My ribs rattled the rails as we went. No matter how much I tried, I could not get his head up to get him close enough for a shot with the gaff.

It was well over 14ft long and simply had immense power to do what he pleased at any time. It all came to an explosive end as the leader snapped at the crimp.

We were all speechless. WHAT A FISH.

It won! It beat the crap out of us and had earned its freedom.

Later on, we managed to land three fish up to 224kg, and caught one that had its tail whipped off by a mako. Down there, even the sharks are huge.

A SHORT SEASON WITH LOTS OF POTENTIAL
Richard enjoyed a good season on the charter front this year, landing 13 fish and tagging three, up to 277kg. We still ask him how big that fish was that got away. He has seen plenty this year and still says it was well over 450kg. It's a fish we all will never forget.

With the tuna fishery firmly established on the west coast, charters are now booking fast. More fish are planned to be tagged and Richard is hoping to satellite-tag some next season.

The season is fairly short, running from July to October, but charters are very weather dependent. The exciting part is all the other great fishing that has opened up down there for sportfishing anglers. With reports of a great broadbill fishery, big sharks, albacore and southern bluefin, the potential for some world-shattering records is very high.

Due to the poor condition of the fish at this time of year (due to spawning), the fish are not targeted for money by the commercial sector. Hence, the area is given a fairly wide birth, resulting in some spectacular recreational fishing. The current pending all-tackle record for this fish changed hands several times this year, finally ending up at 280kg for angler Peter Jackson.

I'm sure next season will see the benchmark set higher again. After all, several other huge fish were lost this season after long, painstaking battles. The next world record for these massive blue torpedoes still remains in the deep.

For charter info call Richard Orchard on 03 573 5181 in New Zealand.