All Black's mum reels in achievement of her own

The mother of All Blacks lock Keith Robinson hopes she has scored a world-class achievement of her own.

Grandmother-of-two Wilma Robinson, 51, hauled in a 283.6kg northern blue fin tuna off Westport on Wednesday, which she hopes is an international women's record.

Robinson, of Te Aroha, in Waikato, fought for nearly two hours 70km off the coast to land the 2.49m long giant.

The fish is about three times her weight and more than half a metre longer than she is.

From France, Keith Robinson, who is preparing for the Rugby World Cup, sent a text of congratulations on an awesome job.

Wilma Robinson said that, while on a West Coast fishing trip last year, she took over the rod of a man who had given up hauling a blue fin, and landed the fish.

She came back this year for the challenge of hooking and reeling one by herself.

"When I heard there was a record going I thought `I'll do that too'," Robinson said.

The day before the catch, the sea was so rough that Robinson suffered severe sea-sickness and had to forgo that day's fishing.

"The next morning I got up and I was so determined I wanted to do it that I started to feel better during the day. Just on dusk we did it.

"It was so lucky it came in when it did because I was right near the end of my tether."

Blue fin fought much harder than any marlin or yellow fin tuna she had landed in 20 years of fishing, and it left her exhausted.

Robinson, who works as an administrator for a plumbing firm, took the strain for an hour and 55 minutes, as the fish often towed the boat.

She was standing throughout, with only a friend holding her harness to prevent her falling.

Using a 60kg pressure nylon main line and a 225kg leader line, she took the lever to the top pressure setting of 32kg.

"That's a lot, considering you've still got the fish pulling away, the water against you and the fish pulling the boat as well."

She had too much encouragement from friends and crew to give up.

"The guys yelled out – all the time – `wind, woman, wind'," she said.

"Near the end – the last time it took off – I was down in the dumps and didn't think I'd bring it in. The guys told me they wouldn't take it off me and I was going to have to finish."

Yesterday, Robinson was struggling to walk and move her arms.

The tuna was weighed and measured at Westport harbour on Thursday evening, before being cut up and shared among Robinson and her friends.

She will lodge a claim with the New Zealand Big Game Fishing Council and will investigate whether she can lodge a claim with the International Game Fish Association in Florida, in a bid to be the first woman officially to hold a blue fin tuna record.

Until last year, the world men's record was 280kg, just 3kg lighter than Robinson's catch.

On August 27, Auckland angler Steve McCowan reeled in a 325kg Pacific blue fin tuna, believed to be a world record.

- © Fairfax NZ News