Student journalist Lennox Crowe caught up with Sam Boothroyd to learn more about his unexpected catch:
What was a routine fishing trip for Sam Boothroyd quickly became extraordinary in the late afternoon on Saturday 6 March.
“There comes a point where dreams become reality and reality becomes a dream,” said Sam Boothroyd after hauling in a marlin from Poorman’s Stream near Nelson.
Poorman’s Stream was electric fished previously, and the biggest finds were eels up to two feet in length. This marlin find comes completely out of the (slightly murky) blue.
“I saw a few whitebait and an eel earlier on in the trip, but there was no precursor to the ‘big one’,” Sam recounted.
While Sam is covering his prized fishing spot in secrecy, we suspect the marlin was caught towards the mouth of the stream, near the airport.
Local hero and Poorman’s Stream expert Graeme Bloomfield weighed in on Sam’s epic catch.
Prior to Sam’s catch, Mr Bloomfield didn’t expect any marine creatures larger than two feet (60cm) to be found in the stream. The largest he had personally seen in the stream were “little inangas”.
When told about the marlin, Mr Bloomfield said he was “quite impressed”.
“I’d want to know what lures they were using, because I’d quite like to have a crack at that.”
NEST (Nayland Environmental Sustainability Team) representative Emma Barnes-Wetere was unsurprised by the catch.
“Due to the intensive sea level rise that NEST has observed as a result of the climate crisis, it comes as no surprise that there has been a surge of marine biodiversity in the stream,” she said.
Following the catch, Sam has hung the bill on his wall and is planning a “mean feed”.
