A Northland fisherman has hauled a fish so big it wouldn't fit in his boat.
Twenty-five-year-old Josh Roberts was out fishing solo off Whangarei Heads on Monday when he hauled in a whopping 146kg striped marlin from a mere 4.3 metre boat.
The catch took Mr Roberts around an hour to fight and was the first he's reeled on his own.
"It'd be hard to beat my own record I think," Mr Roberts told Newshub.
Fishing solo meant he was simultaneously playing the roles of skipper, angler and deckhand.
"I was worried about a shark taking it and having some lunch."
The project manager at Refinery NZ has been game fishing for the last decade and says going solo is all about having respect for the ocean.
"You make sure you understand the weather forecast."
Based in the Whangarei Heads community of Reotahi Mr Roberts is a more than competent skipper and even commutes to his job at Marsden Point by boat.
The biggest striped marlin ever recorded weighed 224kg and was caught off the same coastline as Mr Roberts in 1986.
Newshub.
