Broadbill comes to dinner

An amazing and intriguing story of 'the' one that didn't get away

Janine Manderson with the broadbill swordfish she ???captured??? when out walking her baby and dog on Omaha Beach in mid-August.

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Many anglers dream of catching a broadbill, sometimes referred to as the gladiator of the sea, but few get to do so.

Omaha’s Janine Manderson achieved that angling milestone recently, using nothing more than quick thinking and a dog leash.

Walking towards Omaha beach pushing her six-month-old daughter Olivia in a pram and exercising the dog, she saw something thrashing and splashing at the water’s edge. At closer inspection she saw it was what she thought was a ‘marlin’ that had become stranded. Janine’s initial thoughts were to rescue the fish and let it swim away, but soon realised it was weak and unlikely to survive. Forming a loop using the dog’s lead, she placed it over the tail and dragged the fish up the beach. Janine called a neighbour, Glen Stapleton, who arrived with his stationwagon and they loaded the fish into it, taking it home. In describing her efforts, Janine brushed it off as ‘just another day in the life of a housewife ah!’

“It must have made an unusual sight, a woman pushing a pram ahead with one hand and dragging a big fish on a dog lead behind with the other,” Janine says.

Local charter skipper Aaron Covacich rang NZ Fishing News to tell us of the unusual ‘catch’. On arrival at the Mandersons, Aaron was able to identify the fish not as a marlin, but a broadbill which weighed around 50kg.

What it was doing so close inshore was anyone’s guess and there has been a great deal of conjecture as to how it arrived there. The fish was in excellent condition and unmarked.

It was filleted out and enjoyed among family and friends with Janine’s ‘capture’ making the national news media.