Stuart hauls in a record

KIAMA"S Stuart Willick set a new local record with a monster black marlin caught during the Blowhole Bigfish Classic on Saturday.

Willick, of Kiama, landed a 205.5kg black marlin, a record for any species of marlin at Kiama Game Fishing Club.

He was fishing aboard Bensan, owned by Kiama fishing identity Sondal Bensan, at The Banks, off Shoalhaven Heads, when he hooked the giant fish.

Despite snaring such a record-breaker, Mr Willick was reluctant to bring it in for weighing.

"I usually like to tag and release them, then the big fella jumped on the line," Mr Willick said.

"I don"t like to bring fish in, but this was a fish worthy of catching."

He said the hardest part of catching the fish came when he and Mr Bensan tried to pull it on board.

"It was on the line for half an hour then it took that long again for us to pull it in," he said.

"Sondal did just as much work as me , it was his boat we were fishing on and I was using his rod."

The catch certainly didn"t go to waste , Mr Willick spent Monday night sharing the bounty with his colleagues at Wollongong Fire Station.

He also plans to have fibreglass moulds made of the head of the fish for himself and Mr Bensan.

Mr Willick has caught Blue marlins of similar size to his Saturday catch, but never a black marlin.

"Up around Cairns they bring in black marlins close to 500kg , down here the average size is about 100kg," he said.

Thirty-nine boats and 116 anglers competed for more than $25,000 in prizes during the two-day event.

Kiama Game Fishing Club president Nicole Smithers said she was delighted with the quality of fish that was caught and tagged for the event.

"We had anglers that travelled from as far north as Port Stephens, Lake Macquarie and Sydney and south from Batemans Bay to compete," she said.

"The majority of the fish recorded were tagged and released."

There were 34 fish that were tagged, which included 10 marlin, seven yellowfin, one kingfish, eight mahi mahi and eight sharks.

Only four fish were weighed, including Mr Willick"s black marlin, two tiger sharks and a 200kg mako shark caught on Lake Macquarie boat Makaira.

Mrs Smithers thanked Kiama"s business community for their support of the fishing tradition.

"Our sponsors are mainly local businesses that support our event, which enables us to provide such a good variety of prizes and facilities, from our fishing shed supplied by Rentquip, right through to venues such as the leagues club and Harbourside Brighton," she said.

"The committee and members of the Kiama Game Fishing Club sincerely thank all our supporters and sponsors and especially Coastguard Port Kembla, which looked after the radio communications over the weekend."

Visit www.kiamagfc.com.au for details about Kiama Game Fishing Club.