Solo Angler Breaks Cook dinner Islands Marlin Report

In a surprising bluewater angling achievement, a industrial fisherman from the Cook dinner Islands caught an enormous blue marlin that set a brand new island file for the species. Fishing from his 22-foot boat, the Haurau, Pauro Arnold hooked, fought, and landed the marlin fully on his personal, in keeping with Cook dinner Island Information. Arnold’s fish weighed 1,128 kilos, which additionally makes it one of many heaviest marlin caught worldwide this 12 months.  

“I used to be overwhelmed to be trustworthy,” he informed the native information outlet. “I’ve waited 14 years to do that.”

The Cook dinner Islands are a scattered string of 15 islands positioned northeast of New Zealand, close to French Polynesia. Arnold was trolling three miles off the island of Rarotonga, the biggest of the 15 and residential to the capital metropolis of Avarura, when he hooked the marlin. In the course of the 90-minute battle that ensued, Arnold saved the marlin near his boat utilizing a brief line of about 50 yards. He mentioned the large fish jumped a number of dozen occasions in the course of the battle and made quite a few scorching runs that Arnold estimated at over 35 miles per hour.

“I don’t like letting my marlin go, [so] I saved [the line] brief,” mentioned the veteran angler, who additionally caught a 600-pounder earlier this 12 months.

After the epic battle, Arnold introduced the fish again to Avana Harbour, the place it was formally weighed and offered to native residents. This was a undeniable fact that one other native industrial fisherman was proud to share as he defended Arnold’s resolution to kill the fish.

“Earlier than individuals complain, Pauro is a industrial fisherman. He trolls two strains, catching one fish at a time,” Cameron Thorp wrote in an Instagram put up. “The extra fish we are able to catch, the much less we’ve got to import from international industrial companies.

“Each single a part of that fish will get utilized,” Thorp continued. “All of the meat will get offered domestically, and bones/head get boiled up by native households. Sustainability at its most interesting.”

Arnold, in the meantime, informed reporters that he was simply glad to supply for his fellow islanders.

“An enormous thanks to the ocean and Polynesian spirit,” Arnold mentioned. “These fish demand a lot respect. I’m proud to be a Cook dinner Islander, and to herald these fish in, in my own residence.”

Learn Subsequent: South African Crew Catches Second Greatest Atlantic Blue Marlin Ever

Only some “granders” (a nickname for marlin weighing greater than 1,000 kilos) have been caught and recorded within the Cook dinner Islands over the previous few years. The earlier island file was a 1,045-pound blue marlin caught by Paku Poila in November 2020.