A prime season for Prime Time

Nathan Ghosn has fished aboard New Zealand charterboat Prime Time every year since he went on BlueWater's first NZ adventure. Ghosn shares the stats on another awesome season for Capt Gregory and his Salthouse...

For the third year in a row, the New Zealand-based charterboat Prime Time, captained by John Gregory, has captured over 100 marlin for the season.

This year Prime Time managed to find an amazing 168 fish for their clients, and in doing so set a new record in New Zealand waters for the most marlin in a season - a record that was set in 1997 with 157 fish by Bruce Smith onboard Striker.

The majority of the fish were taken at the Middlesex bank situated wide of the Three King Islands, where Prime Time spends a large part of its season. Double, triple and even quadruple hook-ups were the norm, and on more than one occasion Prime Time's daily tally went into double digits.

Prime Time's best trip this season saw 40 marlin tagged in a four-day period, with an amazing 13 fish being tagged in one day. Most of the marlin were stripes with an estimated weight up to a respectable 180kg. A few line-burning blues were also thrown in just to keep everyone on their toes - the largest estimated at 250kg.

Of the 168 marlin caught this season, 29 were fitted with satellite tags - so keep watching this space for some interesting stats.

All the fish were caught between the months of January and June, and the hour meters on the big Salthouse clocked up over 2300 hours - talk about a working boat!

As with most fishing destinations, the North Island weather cost the crew a number of days throughout the year, so one can only imagine what the tally could have been had Prime Time been able fish all days.

This brings Prime Time's total marlin tally to 420 fish since it was launched in May 2001, and 110 anglers have now caught their first marlin onboard the successful charterboat.

But it was not only an exceptional season for marlin, as once again Prime Time spent a number of nights targeting the holy grail of gamefish - the broadbill swordfish. Over the past few seasons Prime Time has re-written the how-to book on broadbill, and it has the results to prove it.

This year was the boat's best ever, resetting the record for most broadbill caught in a season - a record that Prime Time has now held since it first went in the water four years ago. The crew are always improving and refining their methods, and with 20 swordfish on the board this year, the results are really starting to show.

These fish included a pending junior world record with a 177kg specimen caught in July, and a couple of real heavyweights - one pulling the scales down to 320kg and another at just under 300kg. These fish bought Prime Time's total of swordfish to 50 in four years, with an average weight of better than 220kg.

All of this does not happen through luck. Sure, being in the right place at the right time goes a long way, but in Prime Time's case it's a matter of hard work, long hours and a dedication to there clients that brings in the results.