Bruised and battered from his seven-hour ordeal, Rowan Smith still cannot believe he pulled in a marlin that could go down as the biggest caught off WA.

What is just as remarkable is how he and three mates managed to pull a 4.2m fish, with a girth of 1.7m, into their 7m custom trailer boat.

[img width=300]http://l.yimg.com/ea/img/-/121104/a_311012genmarlin1_189c2ff-189c2fi.jpg?x=292&sig=23HAQquiZqrGaTmnES4tRQ--[/img]

Mr Smith, 38, fought with the massive blue marlin for more than seven hours before he reeled it in.

The monster fish, caught with a 37kg line about 30km off Exmouth, weighed in at 330.1kg — 11.1kg heavier than the current record holder caught at the Rottnest Trench in 1983.

Mr Smith says he is waiting to hear whether the record has been officially recognised.

The Exmouth father of two, who moved to the coastal town six years ago from Perth for a lifestyle change, hooked the marlin about 10.20am on Tuesday.

Mr Smith said the fish towed their boat, Fully Sic, more than 10km before they pulled it aboard about 5.50pm.

He said he and three friends had decided to take the day off work to go fishing because it was a nice day and conditions were good.

His 10-year-old son was devastated he had not been on the boat at the time because they often went out fishing together on weekends.

“It’s huge. It’s twice the size of me. I’ve always loved fishing and this is a dream come true,” Mr Smith said.

“With all the adrenaline, I couldn’t sleep that night.

“We’re all still pumped.”

Mr Smith said he hoped the catch would help put Exmouth on the map as a place where catching large billfish was seen to be achievable.

He hoped it would lure game fishermen from the Eastern States to the tourist town.

“We’ve only just come back from a trip to Hawaii and that was to try and catch a fish this size, and we come home and they’re right on our doorstep,” he said.
WA Game Fishing Association president John Webber said the catch was “quite an achievement”, particularly given the small size of the boat the four men were fishing from.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/ ... ttle-reels-in-giant-fish/