‘It was a bit of a fight’: teenager with broken clavicle hooks 360 kg black marlin

By RNZ

Wyatt Johnston, a teenager from Whakatāne, says it was exhausting but fun catching a record-breaking fish while nursing a broken collarbone.

Johnston, 15, is on his way to breaking the record for a New Zealand junior in a 37-line class after catching a black marlin weighing more than 360kg yesterday.

The feat is made more notable by the fact that he had fallen off a motorcycle and broken his collarbone two days earlier.

He said he couldn’t use his left arm, but relied on the strength of his legs to help land the fish. It was more than two hours from hitch to landing.

“It was a bit of a fight without my left hand, left arm and all, but I just put my hand on the reel, extended the line and then used my right hand to spin,” he said.

“He’s definitely a big fish, but it’s just knowing what he was doing, using my legs instead of trying to use just my arms to pull him. It was more my legs.”

Waytt said it was the third black marlin brought to the Whakatāne bar and the first in 15 years.

He said his junior registration was in the process of being verified and that it could take up to two weeks to confirm.

The fish will be divided among family and friends, Wyatt said.

– RNZ