The story of Nikki Watt's black marlin—154.9 kilograms (334.5 pounds), Tathra, NSW Australia, April 2, 2017

By Nikki Watt

The conditions were cloudy, windy, and undesirable to say the least. Apart from that, we weren’t off to a good start; our alarm clocks were out by an hour thanks to an automatic time change on the iPhone, and the end of daylight savings in New South Wales. By the time we made it to the boat ramp, first light was well and truly up as we launched ‘the Predator’, captained by Ryan Pauline.

The rolling seas didn’t make the search easy, but by midday we found the bait ball, approximately 18 miles out to sea in 100m of water. It was so rough that we couldn’t trust the bird life to point us in the right direction, only the keen eyes of our skipper. The bubbling surface and the shadow of a seal a few metres below got our hearts racing… and there she was. A large black marlin had begun to take interest in the ball full of slimey mackerel. Time to grab the gear.

I had a combination float line setup. A 30m bungee rig line (with stretch of 3:1), and a 30m solid rig line. The benefit of this setup was that it allowed the fish to run and fight the bungee with a softer resistance, as well as allowed me to hold onto the float without too much opposing force. At full stretch my bungee component could go as long as 90m, so at max length (90m + 30m) the rig line set up could be as long as 120m. It could also take some of the hard work out of fighting such a fish; it could constantly fight against a bungee, instead of me! Obviously such a large fish would still run and pull me around on the surface however...

As I waited patiently to jump in with gear at the ready, Ryan positioned me up wind of the swell. Bryson Sheehy, my dive buddy, was seated at the stern with camera in hand, whilst deck hand Rod Skinner kept my float line set. It was go time. Bryson jumped in seconds before I did, and begun to film the ball. I jumped in, checked my slip tip was secure, and had about five seconds to take a breath, duck dive, and level out in time to take a shot. I was only a few metres deep when I took my last kick towards the fish, just in time for it to turn broad side and give me a good opportunity to pull the trigger. I was able to manoeuvre my inverted roller spear gun around so quick, thankfully, due to its short length and light weight.

The spear entered the fish right behind the pectoral fin; at this stage I wasn’t sure how far through the slip tip had engaged. The fish took off past the ball and seal, completely out of sight within moments. After I shot the marlin, I clipped off the gun to my Tommy Botha float. Because of the stretch in the rubber, I knew that as soon as I fired the shot I had to grab the float (and hold on), and could do, without tearing the fish.

The fish ran hard in a downwards direction at first, and then subsided slightly. Each time the pressure lessened, I shortened the rig line through the one-way cleat system on the board. The fish constantly ran and subsided less and less for most of the 50 minutes, until it just swam in slow circles at 15m deep. This is when I knew it was time for a kill shot.

From my experience with blue water spearfishing, I knew that if I could spend extra time waiting for the fish to die, given there were no other hazards around (like sharks), I could have less of a battle to deal with on the surface.

I had been fighting the marlin for a while, so by this stage it had all but died. After the gun was passed to me from the boat, I loaded it in the water. I still wanted to take the second shot so I could be sure not to get tangled or impaled on the surface. I was pretty confident my first shot was secure, so I took a gamble on that it wouldn't run whilst loading the second gun or taking the shot, and it didn't.

I made the decent to 15m, and put a clean shot in the fish’s brain. It was then I noticed the first securing shot had toggled neatly all the way through the fish! It had also swam in so many circles that it had pig-tailed the cable on my slip tip! As I returned to the surface, I took a big breath and started to pull it up on the reel gun line. For every pull, I’d sink just as far! I had to adapt my style quickly if I was going to get this fish up.

I had to forcibly kick hard in an upwards direction each time I wanted to make ground on that dead weight, as I would sink with it on each upwards pull otherwise. By clipping the butt end of my second gun to the float, and by shortening & locking off of the reel line after each pull, my float helped keep my ground as well. By using the float for the second gun, I also avoided getting tangled in the reel line had the fish run again. I found it much easier to use the reel line to pull the fish up, as compared to the stretchy line on my original rig. At no stage did the Tommy Botha float dive under the surface, due to the stretch in the bungee and possibly the shot placement.

After I got it to the surface, my anxiety faded and excitement grew; I’d landed THE fish of a lifetime. I gazed upon it’s luminescent skin, the number of parasites over it’s body, and felt the roughness of it’s bill, even through my gloves. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was so big I needed to use my entire body to pull it around, and swim it to the boat.

It had a very fatty flesh in the stomach so I couldn't actually get it the right way up in the water (as you can see from the underwater photo), but I think it may have helped keep it on the surface.

In no time Ryan and Bryson had alerted me to my surrounds – we had company. A firm notation to get in the boat meant I had to be hasty. We quickly got in as Ryan told us the size of the great white shark he spotted from aboard, and we unanimously thanked our lucky stars we didn’t lock eyes with it in the water.

It took all four of us to get it over the side of the boat, as there was no way it was going to fit through the door! I guess it can be hard to imagine how it got in, but it is also surprising at the same time what adrenaline and the excitement of witnessing such a catch can do for a one's strength!

Shortly after every ounce of effort was exerted to get it in the boat, we celebrated the catch with a round of beers. Safe to say I was, and still am, over the moon. A day I will never forget!

Nikki Watt is the first Australian woman to land a billfish by spear in Australian waters, and the first woman in the world to land a Black Marlin, according to the record books. It is also the current national women’s Black Marlin record in Australia and has superseded legendary spearfisherman Ian Puckeridge’s long standing Open State New South Wales record by 4.9kg. It is also the largest ever fish speared by an Australian woman to date.