Two rare tuna caught just a few days apart are the highlight of game fishing couple Bill and Vicki Webb's summer so far.

Bill caught a yellow fin Tuna on Wednesday January 14, while his wife Vicki caught the big eye on Saturday.

Vicki Webb with her big eye tuna.

'It would be a fair few years since we've caught a tuna on the boat,” says Bill. 'It's maybe six years since we have caught one.”

Bill caught his yellow fin in 1100m of water somewhere between the Mercury Islands and The Aldermen.

'You have to go out pretty wide, not in close,” adds Bill.

The yellow fin was quite a surprise when they landed it on the boat, and haven't been seen in the Bay of Plenty for a number of years.

Because of this, the Whakatane Game Fishing Club's former tuna fishing contest was renamed, while Tauranga Game Fishing Club's tuna weights were changed to smaller albacore to take tuna prizes.

'We thought they had all gone,” says Bill. 'I never had any yellow fin flags on my boat. When I changed my boat over last year I put the marlin flags on the boat but not the yellow fin one because I thought ‘oh, there's none of these around'.

'I had to purchase one so I could fly a flag.

'Then to top it off we got that big eye on Saturday. Vicki got that one. We've never caught a big eye, so it's a once-in-a-lifetime fish that one.”

Bill's yellow fin was boated in 15-20 minutes, while Vicki's 70.2 kg big eye took more than an hour.

He adds: 'It was a good fish and they pull hard and fight deep, so you have to lift them up.

'It just about pulled her out of the chair a couple of times so we had to get the grandson to hold her down and strap her in so she could fight the fish. I leaded it and one of the grandsons gaffed it.

'It was good to have crew, otherwise it would have been a bit of a mission - especially with it fighting down deep because you have to plane them up all the time and be careful you don't get the line around the transom, the back of the boat and ping lines. You've got to be on the go.”

The tuna are to be smoked, and Bill's now hoping for a catch and release marlin. They've had a couple of ‘houdinis' hooked up, but they managed to escape.

There were 12 marlin tagged and released on the Saturday by boats fishing out of Whitianga.

Bill puts the good fishing down to the easterly and north easterly swell over the last month, pushing warm water into the Bay and the eastern side of New Zealand.

Bill Webb with his yellow fin tuna.

Tauranga Game Fishing Club manager Roly Bagshaw says there's been a few other yellow fin tuna caught this season.

'Catching any yellow fin tuna is an accomplishment considering they haven't been around for years,” says Roly.

'Everyone is thrilled to see them. It hasn't been an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence. This season they have caught quite a few at Mercury Bay and other clubs around.”

He thinks changes in ocean current may have brought yellow fin tuna back - a sub-tropic species that follow warmer water which is why they only appear in summer, explains Roly.

'They're a Pelagic fish,” he says. 'They cross a lot of international waters as well, where they are fair game for international fishing pressure.

'I think the currents have a lot to do with it as well. We've been in a climate where we just haven't been getting the right current. The fishing pressure hasn't really relented in the South Pacific, so it's as much a current thing.

He admits that Vicki's big eye is a real bucket list fish.

'They certainly don't bite that often,” he says, 'and they're a really good fish to catch. To catch them recreationally is certainly a treat.”