Fisherman nabs NZ's biggest snapper

  • 27/01/2016
Neil Gorringe with his record-breaking catch (NZ Fishing World)
Neil Gorringe with his record-breaking catch (NZ Fishing World)

Kiwi Neil Gorringe has broken a national record -- and likely a set of scales -- after catching a 14.75kg snapper off the coast of Little Barrier Island.

The monster fish was a metre long and helped the angler claim the Hauraki Gulf Sport Fishing Club's annual competition -- but the accolade could soon become even greater.

The snapper is thought to be the heaviest caught on an 8kg line in history, which would secure Gorringe a world record for his troubles.

He says he thought he had hooked a shark because the water they were fishing in had been infested with them earlier on.

"I was fishing with double shank hooks, but a shark had taken one of them earlier in the day and I couldn't be bothered rigging a new one," he told NZ Fishing World.

"I just dropped the single hook down with a tiny bit of squid and left it.

"We'd been swamped by sharks all day so when the line tightened I assumed it was another one."

However as the fish neared the surface after 30 minutes of reeling it in, Gorringe discovered that it wasn't a shark -- and was instead a snapper of colossal proportions.

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