A shift of yellowfin tuna into the waters of Hawke Bay has put a kick into the steps of anglers gearing up for the four-day Napier Hunting and Fishing and Clark Engineering Megafish tournament in less than two weeks.

Hawke’s Bay Sports Fishing Club manager Neil Price said on Friday that 21 yellowfin had been weighed at the club this summer, but by the end of the day three more, each over 30kg, had been boated east of Cape Kidnappers.

The season’s first, and heaviest to date, weighed 70.45kg and was landed by landed junior member Kalan Wedd in late November, Price said, noting there would have been others that weren’t weighed or were caught by non-members.

“It is looking like a record number for a season,” Price said, looking back through the details. “Some years we don’t get any at all. It’s a bit weird.”

In the same period just one marlin catch by a club member has been weighed, a 131.2kg striped marlin caught by club stalwart David Smith three days before Christmas Day and still listed by the New Zealand Sports Fishing Council as the heaviest striped marlin nationwide this season.

But fingers are crossed after similar pre-tournament catches were reported last year, and with turns of the weather and seas ruining some competition days in recent years.

Yellowfin are mainly found in deep, offshore waters in tropical zones around mid-ocean islands such as the Hawaiian archipelago, other island groups in the western Pacific and Caribbean, and in the Maldives islands in the Indian Ocean, but may move closer to shore feeding on baitfish.

In the Megafish tournament, which runs from February 5 to February 8, yellowfin and marlin are among the catches that could be eligible for the top prize, which could be $20,000 if the best catch is also by an early-bird entrant.

Over $80,000 worth of prizes are up for grabs, with albacore, snapper, skipjack, tuna, spearfish, marlin, and kingfish all eligible for the major prize, based on a weight-to-species scale.

A bigeye tuna weighing 104.8kg claimed the $20,000 last year, a striped marlin of 122.2kg was the winner in 2023 and a 235kg marlin won in 2022.

But the major prize had gone to comparative tiddlers in 2021 (a 20kg kingfish)and 2020, when a 15.09kg albacore landed on the second day kept organisers in suspense right until the end, including the landing of a marlin that could have won had it met the species’ minimum weight requirement of 90kg.

Albacore also claimed the top money in 2019 (16.6kg), 2018 (13.44kg) and 2017 (18.2kg)

Competition co-ordinator and club committee member Beck Christie said as of Friday 410 people had entered, with entries remaining open and hopes of passing the 500-mark as anglers become more confident about the forecast conditions.

With entries from “all over” New Zealand, at least 115 boats will be on the water, many having competed in the tournament for several decades. The event will mark its 50-year milestone in 2027 and was for many years known as the Coruba Shark Hunt.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 41 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.