New Zealand’s legendary status as the striped marlin capital of the world received a serious boost this past month when Kiwi angler Guy Jacobsen, a flooring magnate, put a 105kg fish from the famed Middlesex Bank onto the scales for a potential 1kg line-class world record. As only the third 100:1 fish ever officially recorded, the striped marlin was just one of a string of amazing captures over five days fishing that included two new national NZ records and another world record stripey for his wife, Eryn, who used 4kg line to land a fish of 94kg three days earlier after a 3 hour battle.  Just a day before that Eryn landed an 85.2 kg stripey on the same line class for the NZ record.

To cap off the striped marlin catches, a 174kg blue marlin also hit the scales at the famous Bay of Islands Swordfish Club. It was caught off the North Cape as the boat steamed home and gave Guy a new potential 8kg national record after a two hour fight.

Guy and Eryn’s G&S sportfisherman is called Hookin’ Bull, and is a relatively new arrival on the NZ big-game scene. Captained by the experienced John Batterton (ex-Harlequin), the boat is proving itself an ideal platform for the Jacobsens’ assault on the record books. On deck is the formidable team of Brad Fergus and Rowan White and between them this team put an incredible amount of preparation into their fishing, using mainly pitch-baits on Shimano gear for the light line classes, and trolling several of the new Krakatoa from Legend Lures as their teasers.

We suspect we’ll hear a lot more from this crew as they get to know their new boat even better !