Monster catch raises big prospects

MARTIN DE RUYTER/Nelson Mail

TUNA TROPHY: Taxidermist Ross Brownson with a 6kg fibreglass model of a 303kg pacific blue fin tuna caught off the West Coast last year.

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A massive tuna caught off the West Coast could be a sign even bigger fish will be hauled out of the water this year.

Havelock taxidermist Ross Brownson received a call from New Plymouth fisherman Murray Winks last July, saying he had managed to wrangle the massive 303kg pacific blue fin tuna on to his boat and needed a fibreglass model of it cast.

Mr Winks said the "bloody monster" tuna had taken three hours to land near Greymouth. He had found it trying to feed off hoki being hauled aboard a fishing boat.

"I would love to go back and I am sure there are bigger ones," he said.

Mr Brownson said Mr Winks held what he believed to be the New Zealand tuna record for just a few days, before one weighing 355kg was landed near the same fishing area.

"They reckon they go over 400kg out there but no one can catch them. Next season I think we will be seeing a big one," said Mr Brownson, who recently finished making a 6kg fibreglass cast of Mr Winks' massive catch. Although the fish was caught about eight months ago and huge amounts of it had to be discarded because of the chemicals used in taxidermy, Mr Brownson said his freezer was still full of tuna.

It was fortunate that he liked the meat, especially as this type of tuna was not attractive to the lucrative Japanese fish market.

The tuna was not Mr Brownson's biggest fish assignment. Just before he received it he was sent a 4m great white shark from the Chatham Islands.