“I’m fortunate to live just a 10-minute walk from Christchurch Harbour, which I’ve been fishing for many years. It’s a beautiful spot and contains many species of fish, but my favourite is the thick-lipped mullet.
“On a recent session I started fishing early, before high tide, and things were slow for a few hours before I had a good bite on feeder-fished breadflake. The fish set off on a fast and powerful run as soon as it was hooked, and was 40 or 50 metres out into the main boat channel before I got it under any sort of control. I was using a 3lb hooklength, so I had to take my time and give the fish line when it made its runs, but I wasn’t confident that I would land it.
“Because of the tide, I had to follow the fish downstream, taking my landing net with me, because pulling a big fish upstream will normally end in a hook-pull.
“Eventually I got the fish in close and netted it at the first attempt, about 80m below my swim! I thought initially it could be 9lb or even 10lb, but I can’t complain because it still beat my previous biggest mullet by over 2lb at 8lb 9oz.”
