SIXTEEN year old Kyle Longmore has landed a 263.5kg broadbill swordfish about 35km off Tasmania’s East Coast after an epic battle.
Leo Miller, who helped pioneer the swordfish fishery last year and takes his mates fishing aboard his 7m boat ChoonaChasa, said Kyle fought the fish for about six hours during Saturday’s Coles Bay Classic fishing competition.
Miller told the Mercury it was not quite as big as the 322kg monster caught in New Zealand waters the day before, but proof that Tasmania was home to some really big fish.
About two years ago he and some mates, who called themselves Team ChoonaChasa, set out from Eaglehawk Neck to prove the majestic fish were out there. He said last summer, after a lot of research and trial and error, they finally “cracked the code” for catching swordfish. In June, they landed a whopper about 3m long, weighing an estimated 170kg, which was released.
Kyle Longmore’s record fish was taken for the table, but Mr Miller said most of the time the ChoonaChasa tagged and released the fish and they planned to co-operate with an Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies satellite tracking study, beginning later this year.
Another swordfish caught by Choona Chaser the previous weekend, weighed in at 188kg.
