First time the charm as diplomat lands blue marlin

By Nefertiti Matatia 25 June 2018, 12:00AM

Diplomat David Nicholson can now add another title to his name.

Apart from being New Zealand’s High Commissioner, he joined a rare group of anglers to have caught a marlin in the waters of Samoa during the weekend. What’s more, it was his first time fishing.

Mr. Nicholson was fishing on Pure Indulgence when he hooked a blue marlin weighing 74.4kg.

 “It is one of the best tourist experiences that you could have in Samoa,” he told the Samoa Observer.

 “When you go out on a boat as a tourist you want to have a beautiful day and you want to have a great experience and you want to catch a fish.

“And in this case, we call it a master fish, which is amazing. The marlin got hooked and I have been hooked.”

Mr. Nicholson couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful Samoa is as a fishing destination.

“I think I have been in Samoa long enough to connect with the environment and I think it delivered for me today,” he said. 

“It was a beautiful day out there, the bluest water you would ever see. They told me it’s really blue due to the temperature and it was a beautiful day to be out on the water and bang, along came this fish.”

With the fish hooked came a fight to land it.

 “It took me an hour and 31 minutes to bring it in. It is quite a tussle, and our captain, the man knows where to get the fish.”

Mr. Nicholson encourages people to take the time out to see Samoa from the water.

“Being in the ocean gives you a better perspective of Upolu, when coming into Apia, it is a beautiful sea. If the water is beautiful you just get a different outlook on life and a different focus on community here. 

“How beautiful it is and how much of nature dominates it, a lot of ocean in front of you, little bit of city in front of you and a lot of greenery in behind.”

It took a boat ride out to the deep ocean for him to realize the feeling is never the same of being present during events for the Samoa International Game Fishing Association and joining the group of other fishermen.

“I have come a lot to the functions but I never gotten a chance to be in the water and it was my first day in the water, what better result could you get.

“And we need to be providing that all the time. I welcome anybody onto the water of the experiences that I had of today. I think when you are successful even if you get sea sick it does not matter.

“This is a very physical job and my job doesn’t give me any training for this sort of thing, a physical challenge for me.

“But lots of encouragement from the others, a real sense of physical satisfaction and achievement and a lot of what I do is a representation and attending functions but to get a result on the day is really good.”

When he was asked to describe his journey being in the ocean he says “it was an outstanding day with nature.” 

By Nefertiti Matatia 25 June 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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