Smash ‘em bro

I’d organised a day out with Carl Muir of Epic Adventures, chasing kingis around from Tairua. Specifically, I wanted to put a decent bend in the Shimano Jigwrex that I’d picked up after the last jigging mission with Andy and Eddie nearly killed me (because of the long rod I was using). On Tuesday afternoon conditions over on the Coromandel were just getting worse and worse, so Carl sms'd to say that Weds was off; in the meantime though, Andy was dropping large hints about how good the weather was going to be on the West Coast. Boom, into action, a plan was hatched. Unfortunately Tim had to drop out as his impending departure to the West Coast of the South Island is dominating his and his family’s time. All the gear was ready so I chucked it into the truck and as an afterthought threw in the 12 weight. (Andy told me the fish would be deep down, but I thought that I’d be able to reach them if they were at 20m if the 900gr head had enough time to sink). Alarm went off at 04.30 and I hit the road at 5. Arrived at Andy’s at 7, surveyed the carnage that is his house renovation (it’ll be sweet when finished) and then had a cuppa while Andy walked the dog. We then juggled around the rubbish trailer to get at his boat and finally hitched it on and got going. Manu Bay was flatter than a flat thing – a very rare occurrence in itself so before long we were on the water and away. When the water changed colour to a deep blue we slowed and deployed a marlin lure on the Tiagra, hoping to raise a stripey or god forbid a black but the marlin were having none of that despite the lure popping and bubbling enticingly. We arrived at Gannet Island and set about finding the fish. The first couple of drifts were fruitless and the words of what some fishermen we’d met in town before leaving echoed “there are no fish at Gannet, we were there on Monday…” . After a few drift resets we hit the first fish and that set the scene for an excellent session.

Highlights included numerous double hook ups, and at one stage we landed a brace of solid 15kg kingfish that looked like twins. Another boat joined us as well as the charter vessel “Clansman” who set his anchor on another pinnacle and got his punters lines down. The fish seemed to be moving around so the drifts were a bit of a lottery – having said that we did very well and hit the fish regularly as Andy set the drifts for the slight variable breeze.

After a number of bruising fights I decided it was time for the #12, so rigged up the fly rod. First cast I let the fly sink and sink, before starting a roly-poly retrieve. BOOM, the hit ripped line through my fingers and the whole thing was over in seconds as the fish dragged the leader over a rock. I re-rigged. Second cast and the identical result, except this time the fish dragged the fly line into the structure… the third destroyed fly line since January. Damn. I switched back to the jigging gear and hit my fish of the day, a stroppy 18kg est model that dragged me around the boat twice.

We began to notice work ups appearing off the island, so with our home time approaching we decided to drag a marlin lure around. The scene was insane, deep blue water, gannets and dolphins smashing into schools of anchovies and saury. Any caught some awesome footage of the dolphins and birds working, nature at its best. Retrieving the boat was easy and soon we were back at Andy’s, cleaning the boat down and having a cold beer.

Happy Wednesday....