Cook Islands angler lands 51.5-kilogram yellowfin to win tournament prize

A 51.5-kilogram yellowfin tuna turned a fast morning run out of Avatiu Harbour into the defining fish of the Cook Islands Game Fishing Club’s BSP Easter Fishing Competition, with Troy Henderson of Extreme Fishing Charters Rarotonga taking the heaviest fish prize after a double strike that had him back alongside the harbour by 10am. Henderson’s winning fish earned $1,000 cash and a bar card, and his second yellowfin, a 51-kilo fish, added another $500 to a haul that showed just how quickly the bite can turn into cash in Rarotonga waters.

The result was built on teamwork as much as timing. Henderson was fishing with Mark Simmonds, Nigel Campbell and Corrina Tucker, and the crew’s early return summed up the pace of the day offshore. The competition drew 37 boats and produced 25 weighed fish totaling 678.4 kilograms, a solid holiday turnout that mixed sport, prize money and the kind of sea conditions that can make or break a short charter window.

The yellowfin led the story, but the weigh-in told a broader pelagic tale. The event recorded 12 yellowfin tuna, six skipjack, four mahimahi, two marlin and one sailfish, a spread that points to a moving offshore pattern rather than a single-species bite. Cameron Thorp aboard Tamahine won the heaviest aggregate catch with 103 kilograms, while Gordon Heather landed a 194-kilogram blue marlin to take the marlin section. In practical terms, the Easter run suggested that tuna are still very much in play, but they are arriving alongside other blue-water targets that reward crews willing to read the signs and keep moving.

Compared with the 2024 BSP Easter Fishing Competition, this year’s event carried more weight even though the tuna count was different. Katoa Piniata’s 55.85-kilogram yellowfin was the headline fish two years earlier, and that competition drew 34 registered participants with 29 weighed fish totaling 305.45 kilograms. In 2026, the entry jumped to 37 boats and the total weigh-in more than doubled, even with fewer fish on the boards. That shift suggests the Cook Islands Easter window is offering bigger individual opportunities, but with a wider offshore spread that includes mahimahi, marlin and sailfish alongside the tuna.

That mix fits the wider Cook Islands fishery. Tourism information describes Rarotonga and Aitutaki as places where anglers regularly chase yellowfin tuna, mahimahi and wahoo on deep-sea charters, and notes the 36-kilometer reef circumference around Rarotonga, which helps keep offshore fishing accessible in many conditions. With the Rarotonga Open Game Fishing Competition scheduled for 27 April to 1 May and set to field 10 teams of four anglers, the Easter result reads less like a one-off and more like proof that yellowfin remains the anchor species, even when the rest of the pelagic spread is crowding the table.