When Warren Eade went out kayak fishing early Sunday morning he couldn’t have realised he was about to catch the best fish of his life.
He and Warwick Grey set out from Picnic Bay at around 7am on 7 July heading towards toward Kennedy Point. At about 11am, Warren heard a big splash from behind him, followed by a strong pull on his line.
“I thought it was a shark,” said Warren, who’d only fished from a kayak three times before. “I couldn’t see it, but it felt like a shark.”
And when the fish started to drag him towards Auckland, he and Warwick were forced to tie their kayaks together to tow their catch back to Picnic Bay.
“20 metres offshore I managed to bring the fish in close enough to see what it was. I spotted the yellow tail and said to Warwick, we are not losing this fish!”
Without a gaff or a net, Warren had to get creative to secure his catch. In waist-deep water, he put the trace in one hand, jumped into the water grabbing the huge kingfish with the other, and walked it to shore. The whole battle took more than an hour.
“I’ve caught a similar size kingfish from a boat before and that was 30 kilos – this was about the same size but a completely different experience from a kayak. It was the most epic fishing experience I’ll ever have,” says Warren. • Jessie Dean