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We specialise in affordable fishing charters and guided fishing holidays for one person up, giving you a good opportunity to hook into a decent snapper or New Zealand yellowtail kingfish. Tairua and Whitianga on the Coromandel are renowned for great fishing, and we have a reputation for putting people on to big New Zealand kingfish.
We want to put you on to great fishing action, in an absolutely spectacular setting. We specialise in jigging, popping, livebaiting, game fishing and softbaiting. We recognise that a day on the water shouldn’t cost the earth and that each angler should get the full attention of the skipper.
Put yourself in one of these pictures, book your Epic New Zealand fishing adventure today!
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> Fishing Report 25 Aug 2010
Four keen as Aussies have just finished doing battle with plenty of New Zealand kingfish and are well shattered, big kingfish smashing livebaits the first two days, then two days of solid action on the jigs.
With kingfish following caught fish to the surface and milted up fish leaving their mark on anglers (!) is this he sign that spring fishing is well and truly here? I think we're in for a good season ahead.
The JM rockets were the star performers and our new JM Powerspell reels are proving awesome jigging reels.
It was great to have the guys with us in Tairua and we tucked into some nice seafood while they were here. Check the full report out here |
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> Fishing Report 22 Aug 2010
A great week of fishing with fat kingfish spread from the coast to the deep, eating both livies and jigs.We've had kingfish in the deep smashing jigs right under the boat, a sign that a change in season might be here. There have also been some fat, big snapper showing up in the deep, like this 8kg model caught with us on a day charter out of Tairua on Sunday by Graeme Cox, on one of our lovely new Daiwa Certate reels. Fore more pics click here
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> Fishing Report 12 Aug 2010
The inshore fishing is on fire with loads of bait in close and plenty of big kingfish and snapper stalking the bait schools. We've had fish around the 20kg mark taken on jigs, livies, poppers and even bait flies along the Tairua and Pauanui coastline.
The Greerton firefighters had a blast with Tobes on Thursday check the full report here and there is another page full of epic kingi action here as well |
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> Fishing Report 6 August 2010
We've got some serious winter fishing happening at the moment and nearly every day we are seeing big fat kingfish over 20kg's. Most of the fish have been caught out wide though we've had some solid fishing in close as well including a recaught tagged kingfish we tagged four months ago at the pins turning up inshore, check out more pics and the full run down here |
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> Fishing Report 24 July 2010
What a week of awesome jigging out of Tairua. Highlight of the fishing week was father and son Royce and Travis visiting us with Australian TV show Marg Bergs Fishing Addiction, and seeing them do real well on the kingfish. Every day saw people getting their first ever kingfish, for more check the report and photos out here |
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> Fishing Report 19 July 2010
The reefs out of Great Merc have been jigging well with plenty of nice sized kingfish.
Most of the reefs around the Mercs are holding some nice snapper as well, Tim and son Ben got stuck into some nice snapper on a recent trip when the conditions meant getting out to chase the kingfish was not an option. Fresh mackeral baits were the order of the day. Check the kingi and snapper photos from the last week on Sanity here |
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> Fishing Report 7 July 2010
Whitianga is holding some awesome kingfish in the shallows at the moment with big schools of mackeral out on the sand in the bay minutes from port. We've been able to target them on very light softbait gear because of the terrain - meaning some awesome fights have ensued. After some great shallow water action each day the reefs out the back of the Mercs have produced top fish as well on jigs and livies. Check the full report here |
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> Fishing Report 4 July 2010
We've just finished an awesome three day fishing trip with keen jiggers Mike, Hayley, Pete and Peter, their fourth trip back to fish New Zealand with us in a year.
On Friday we left Tairua to fish Mayor Island with an awesome afternoon bite on Mayor kingfish smashing up jigs, stickbaits and livebaits, Hayley nailing the fish of the day at 20kg.
Saturday we fished Whitianga and Cuvier with Hayley again nailing the kingfish of the day in the shallows on 4kg braid and Mike loaded up on an awesome haul of crayfish at Cuvier Island, plus a good feed of snapper off Opito Bay - we ate well that night!
Sunday we were back at the Aldermen Pins and Hayley knocked over the fish of the day again, a 20kg kingfish on her JM 250 Freejigger and JM Rocket jig.
It was an awesome three days fishing the wide range of mind blowing kingfish terrain we have in a close proximity to our Eastern Coromandel fishing base.
For the full report click here |
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> Fishing Report 25 June 2010
We had two days of superb conditions this week and both boats got into some awesome Coromandel fishing action mid week.
One of the highlights was a big kingfish smashing a livebaited squid in the shallows at the Aldies in Shark Alley. There were some hot bites on the kingfish out wide too.
Roger joined a regular bunch of lads we have out and not only caught his first kingfish he managed to snaffle this 8kg snapper fishing in 90m of water east of the Aldies, on a fresh cut mackeral bait.
Ian Miller from Extreme Boats looks pretty chuffed with this kingfish caught from a hot evening bite in glassy conditions at 'the Pins'
Check the full report here |
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> Fishing Report 21 June 2010
The last week we've seen some big Coromandel kingfish hitting the decks!
Cantabrians Ken and John joined us for a three day fishing charter out of Tairua and John came away with a new 25kg kingfish as a personal best. John is pictured opposite and a full report of three awesome days fishing and lots more photos of kings in the 18-25kg range caught on jigs and livies are up here.
Up in Whitianga we've been getting in to some awesome kingi action in close in the Mercury Bay and around Great Mercury Island, plus some interesting kingi recaptures out wide - Scott Godden pictured opposite with a kingi we originally tagged on Epic back in 2008 check out Tobes weekly gallery for more here
For the snapper snooper there are some monster snapper moving in at the moment, a good option its too windy to get out wide on the big kings. |
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> Fishing Report 7 June 2010
We've had two awesome weeks of fishing out of Tairua and Whitianga, in between some average weather the weather windows have seen plenty of big NZ kingfish feasting up large. There have been plenty of good bites on jigs, with livebaits still performing well and the shallows of Mercury Bay have been firing with plenty of bait balls holding some good sized kingfish. The snapper are well and truly stacked up in the shallows and also feasting up large and this is the perfect time to stalk some monster snapper in the shallows. 10 year old Jacob Coldicutt is pictured here with a monster kingfish caught on a livebait at th Alderman Islands out from Tairua, an awesome effort for the young fella. Derek Chow is also pictured here fighting a kingfish just minutes from the Whitianga boat ramp. For more pics from the last few weeks check ou a more detailed report and gallery here |
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> Fishing Report 22 May 2010
The Tairua and Whitianga reefs are packed with bait at the moment and with the kingfish feasting up big time the livebaits are not lasting long at all. There have been some very nice kingfish hitting the decks of both boats over the last couple of weeks.
We've had the honour of hosting the head engineers from Japan who build Daiwa jigging reels.
On their first day fishing from Tairua they had a blinder with over 50 kingfish caught on jigs. Pictured opposite is on of the engineers loaded up on one of the new look Daiwa rods.
Also pictured here is Mark Reese with a 22kg kingfish caught on a day fishing charter on Sanity last week at the Aldies.
For more action from the last few weeks check out the following gallery and report here |
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> Fishing Report 6 May 2010
She's used to big fish holding a NZ Bluefin record but today she went toe to toe with a huge Aldies kingi!
Capt Tobes put Wilma Robinson from Te Aroha on to a 30.6kg kingfish today and she did an awesome job of getting this beast of a fish to the boat.
It was caught on a livebait wide of the Aldermen Islands.
Yep, Thursday 6 May saw an awesome patch of fish biting out wide, not just big kingfish but there was a nice line of snapper caught during an awesome day of fishing aboard our Whitianga vessel Sanity. She ended up getting 1st kingfish and 3rd snapper in her local Te Aroha fishing club competition!
For more photos and a full report from the day check out Tobes report here
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> Fishing Report 2 May 2010
We've just had nine anglers from Sydney over fishing from both of our boats.
We hit an awesome patch of BIG kingfish with a dozen of the fish going 20-28kg. With plenty of bait and good water around we also had a striped marlin feeding beside the boat.
Paul Justin who led the trip over is pictured here with his FAT 28kg fish, and we have more pics and detailed report from a 'smashing' trip here |
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> Fishing Report 25 May 2010
The BCF Team were back in Tairua this week for some more NZ kingfish action!
We caught kingfish on jigs, poppers, softbait and livebait in a wide range of spots - the Corner Dairy, G Spot, Par Five and Supermarket all firing up, each requiring a different approach.
Sarah stole the show with the best fish of the trip, pictured here with a 20kg fish taken from the G Spot on the last afternoon and also a nice fish she got on a popper and 8pd braid!
You can check out more action and the best fishing photos from their 3 day charter here |
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> Fishing Report 17 April 2010
We're rapt to announce we now have two boats in the water!
We've just added a new 8m pontoon boat, Sanity to our fleet.
Over the last four days we've had some awesome kingi jigging action, with a big group of clients split between our two boats.
Andrew Cox the Australian agent for Jigging Master brought over some good clients and they had a ball testing out their JM rods an reels to the max on some big New Zealand Kingfish!
It was the perfect opportunity to work the two boats side by side, with both boats getting stuck into some big fat fish.
Hot jigs varied over the days with green and gold being most consistent, blue and silver the next most productive jig, with Rockets and Alien jigs working real well.
When the jigs have gone off the bite, live mackeral have switched the bite back on, and the boys aboard Sanity had a blinder on livebaits on day three of the trip.
It was an awesome two days of action with a great bunch of guys we hope to see back on the Coromandel again soon.
To see a complete gallery, photos and report on the trip click here
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> Fishing Report 12 April 2010
What an awesome few weeks of fishing!! We've had a great run of kingfish inshore with plenty of big bait schools of mackeral and pilchards in the shallows. The big snapper have been turning up in the shallows around Slipper Island too like the one Bill Woods is about to release opposite. Caught on the old favourite Nuclear Chicken of course!!
The jigging has been off the planet at times and a highlight for the last week was Capt Tobes having his first day at the helm of Epic. Tobes had a great first day as our new guide with a great run of big kingfish to 19kg.
Mitch Bruorton here holds an example of some of the fat kingfish that are smashing jigs at the moment. Hot jigs are the JM Rocket in Blue or Pink, JM Alien in Green and Gold, River to Sea Green and Gold spike.
Having see day in day out what awesome pieces of equipment Jigging Master rods are, it was an honour to have Pony Liu, the mad behind the worlds top jigging rod and the brand Jigging Master on board Epic Adventures filming a new jigging DVD.
Pony is pictured opposite with one of the nice kingfish he caught on a new light jig rod in the 150-200gm range. The Jigging Master boys caught about 40 kingfish in the one day they had with us - the pressure was on and we were lucky that several pins from the Aldies to Slipper produced the goods, we even picked up a treble of fish on jigs in 10m on the way home.
Another highlight of the last few weeks include a few young fellas getting some awesome big kingfish, including 12 year old Tairua lad Shaun Cawley pictured opposite with a fat 16kg fish.
Check out more photos including some awesome action on the light JM rods here
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> Fishing Report 27 March 2010
The Alderman kingfish are on fire! So is the inshore kingfish fishing!
We've just finished three days with repeat Singapore fishermen Kim, John, Chuan and Stanley and the boys caught kingfish on poppers, salt water fly, softbaits and jigs. No livebaits for these purist lure fishermen!
The top water fishing inshore was superb with awesome visual strikes on the surface from kingfish on poppers and softbaits, and Kim nailed a nice first kingfish on salt water fly. The schools of mackeral inshore and holding some good numbers of kingfish around close to Tairua and Pauanui.
The boys showed their form on the jigging front with around 70 tagged kingfish on jigs.
Hot jigs were the Blue Spike from River to Sea, Seven Seas jigs, and trusty Boken Arrow and Katch 1 in green and gold. JM Rocket in Green and Gold also firing.
Top water lure that was best was a Surecatch popper in grey and black with spots....mid water lure best in the shallows was a New Penny 7" Gulp.
We still had the odd shark encountered as you can tell from Stanley's munched shark. The odd fish around 21kg was landed, most were fat fish in the 12-14kg range..
The boys also had a good bycatch of other species including snapper and trevally, interestingly therese were mainly hitting the smaller jigs the guys were using.
Over the three days there was no set bite time with a wide open bite during the day.
Kim and the boys will be back in October for another crack at some big fat NZ kingfish!
Check out more photos from their trip on their photo gallery that we have loaded up here |
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> Fishing Report 20 March 2010
We've got plenty of options on the kingi front at the moment with both the inshore and offshore kingfish grounds firing on all cylinders with big, fat, solid kingfish.
Aussie's Gary, Les, Brett and Allan can be thanked for helping one of our better spots fire up, after they spent 7 hours fighting an estimated 400kg Mako Shark (on a Stella and Jigging Master rod) who had been spooking the grounds and eating most of the fish we hooked whole! After dragging him way away from the reef the fishing has improved no end!!!
The guys had four awesome days with us, that included a wild morning session livebaiting 20 kingfish from a bait ball in 10m of water, and then an endless string of snapper and kingfish from the deep on their last day. Check out the full report here including our epic encounter with the hugest beast we've ever seen, let alone fight on a jig rod!!
In the shallows fresh live jack mackeral are proving irresistable, while out wide, Jigging Master rocket jigs, Action Jigs and Borken Arrows have been hot for us. The new Berkley Deep water softbait rigs have been slaying the snapper too! |
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> Fishing Report 6 March 2010
MARLIN ON A JIG ROD!!!
Mike and Hayley Bonnici from Australia were back for their third trip with us, and 3 March will be a day we won't forget for a long time!
After tagging and releasing several big kingfish in the morning, we tried to catch a marlin on a jig rod, and had a striped marlin on within 10 minutes....Mike was on the Jigging Master rod and Jigging Master reel and did an awesome job and we got it to the boat in 20 minutes, after an amazing show and awesome fight, within metres of the boat for most of the time.
Then we successfully softbaited some very nice snapper on plastics in at the Aldermen Islands, and finished the day off with more kingfish on the jigs.
February and March are great times of the year to mix up softbaiting, gamefishing and jigging - normally it takes a few days to get this sort of action but Mike and Hayley are such fishy buggers we managed to squeeze it all into one epic day!
There are stacks of snapper coming back on to the reefs at the moment so the softbaiting is back on big time!
Picking and area where the snapper are holding into the current and working a softbait in front of the them is one of the most productive ways to catch them, and Mike and Hayley found New Penny baits working the best.
We've loaded up more photos of Mike and Hayley's day with us here
Day Two saw us tag and release 24 kingfish on one day, between three anglers. |
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> Fishing Report 28 Feb2010
The last week of February every year sees us competing in the New Zealand Nationals. For me it is a chance to have a week off - to go.....fishing!
Our team of Anthony Honeybone, Brad Burden, John Pellew, Gen Sato, Dion Wills and Glen Van Hellemond took out top Tairua boat on points, first Billfish in the 15kg line class, 3rd Billfish overall on points.
We had a great week chasing everything from kingis, to marlin, snapper, albacore, mahimahi and kahawai, all on light tackle.
The highlight for us was this Blue Marlin which was a team effort for Ants, Sato, and myself who were fishing that day. It stands as a new club record for Tairua on 15kg.
We've got a photo gallery from this years New Zealand Fishing Nationals and brief report up here
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> Fishing Report 19 Feb 2010
We've loaded up a whole page of photos from the last three weeks here.
It has been a pretty insane few weeks with a better run of summer kingis than usual, and plenty of fish in the 18-25kg range.
We've loaded a couple of highlights opposite, first up Grant Knuckey with a primo kingi caught first thing in the morning in the shallows from a double strike.
Jeremy from Australia caught the snapper opposite on a livebait and the snapper have well and truly moved into most of their regular haunts on the reefs, ledges and dropoffs.
The next month will see some huge snapper move into the reefs as they start to spread back out from their spawning grounds.
We've had some amazing bites on the jigs as well, and when the kingis have been balling up bait on the outer reefs some of the bites have been insane.
Thorsten Traut spent seven days with us and nailed plenty of kings, finishing with a 25kg model that had out JM 400 bent down the side the of the boat - his Expedition was at full drag the king was not getting away!
And some of the closer pins have produced some solid fish on jigs as well, a shallow reef right inside the Aldies group produced this 21kg kingfish last Saturday. An awesome effort for a first time jig fishermen!
Anyway, check out the photos from the last week few week there is plenty more where these came from!!
The water has warmed right up to 22 degrees out wide and we'll see fishing typical of mid February through early March this year as the season seems to be running a lot later this year. |
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> Fishing Report 8 Feb 2010
What an amazing couple of weeks - there has been no time to put our usual photos up for a while! Marlin going bananas, big kingis going crazy....!! Finally the kingis are nailing the jigs left right and centre and we've had some awesome bites of fish to 25kg. We've had plenty of marlin up for the few hours we've put in (too busy with the kingis!), including a monster of a blue last week that won its freedom.
We had a blinder today with four guests from Australia, we pulled up for a jigging session and gave the guys a run down on how it is done, then Jeremy spots a marlin smashing up bait fish (saurie) beside us, we pulled out two Tiagras, ran the lures in front of his nose, 30 seconds in to trolling with only two lures set on the corners and he smashes a Lumo Grand Slammer in on the short corner, 20 minues later Shane Udy the angler had a stripey boatside the gave one last aerial show jumping beside the boat, and he was then hauled in. The guys then settled in for some awesome jigging with kings to 18kg. A day none of us will forget for a while with bent rods and screaming reels the whole day and no waiting in between!
There are loads of other photos from the last few weeks to load up keep an eye out in the next few days for a new gallery for the last three weeks, including a 1st and 2nd Kingfish in the Tairua Pauanui Shimano Standup comp to Carl Sanders Edwards, in the meantime there are a few more marlin to be caught..... |
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> Fishing Report 15 Jan 2010
The last week we've predominantly been livebaiting, and we've had some awesome captures with kingis to 28kg.
Pictured here is Australian Bryan Hackett who had an awesome day on the water catching this 28kg kingfish, and Sally Gamble, a wee lady who tustled with a 25kg kingi and won the battle!
Both of these fish were caught on our Jigging Master 350 and Shimano Talica 12ii which is proving to be a very versatile reel for both jigging and livebaiting. Sally sure appreciated the lower gear near the end of the fight!
We're still jigging each day and you'll see in our weekly report and gallery that there have been days when the kings have been smashing the jigs up as well. Being prepared with a range of techniques has produced kingis every day. |
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> Fishing Report 4 Jan 2010
Happy New Year to all around the world! We've had a great summer so far with plenty of epic captures, great weather and plenty of seafood on the Christmas plate! Livvie Wallace rebooked with us straight after her last Christmas/New Years trip and once again knocked over some great kingis on our Stella 2000SW and Jigging Master 400! For more photos of our great holiday period check out the Xmas gallery |
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> Fishing Report 20 Dec 2009
We've just come off three awesome days fishing, with salt water fly fisherman Mark Joseph joining us to chase kingfish, snapper, trevally and kawahai on the fly.
It was an awesome time to come with the ocean alive with bait, workups and heaps of fish taking the fly!
Mark also did some jigging and his best kingfish for the trip weighed at 25kg, measuring 1.4m before being released.
Pictured here is Mark's best jig caught kingfish and a nice snapper on the fly, check out more photos of kings caught on the fly as well as load of other photos from the trip here |
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> Fishing Report 14 Dec 2009
The last week has seen some awesome kingfish action, again the kingis spread out amongst most reefs feasting on squid in the deep, or mackeral in close. The ladies dominated the big fish action last week, Angela Williams pictured here with a horse of a fish taken on our Stella 20000SW and JM400 rod - great effort Ange! Despite the photo she is pretty stoked!!
More photos from that trip and the other seven days of kingi action click here |
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> Fishing Report 4 Dec 2009
Summer is here, and fishing has very much hit summer mode, with the kingis now inshore and we saw an amazing sight yesterday with an ink covered ocean and kingis smashing up squid on the surface at Slipper Island - awesome! After a week where the average fish size has been down, out of the blue comes this WHALE of a kingfish of 32kg, caught by Brad Burden on Monday - awesome mate!!
For more photos and reports from the last two weeks click here |
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> Fishing Report Sat 21 Nov
The fourth month in a row we've had kingis over 30kg - the great run continued today with a monster kingfish today from a double hook up. Ryan Hutchings and mates were out with us for their first ever jigging trip and James hooked into this monster tipping the scales over 30kg, caught on a 300gm jig. Awesome stuff guys! For more photos from the last week and some great snapper fishing too check out our gallery from the last week |
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> Fishing Report Mon 16 Nov
The weekend saw some awesome kingfish jigging, with a wide open bite through the day, especially early afternoon. Pictured here is Graham 'Boulder' McKenzie with a 20kg+ kingfish (released) caught on a custom painted Broken Arrow jig. Action slider jigs were also very productive over the weekend. For more photos from two days of hot action check the weekends gallery |
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> Fishing Report Thurs 12 Nov
Local 11 year old Tairua lad Karl Atwell was out with us today and caught a snapper and kingfish most adults with give their front teeth for!!
His kingi was a monster caught on a 200gm jig and 100 weight rod and the snapper was caught on a Vader Gulp softbait.
The spring snapper at the moment are in awesome condition and hard fighting, Carl's snapper put up an great fight of around 15 minutes.
The snapper we are targetting are spring snapper mainly feeding on baitfish and can be caught in the deep or right up in the shallows where they are stalking mackeral and other baitfish.
For more photos from recent one day charters over the last week check out last weeks gallery
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> Fishing Report 8 Nov 2009
We've just finished a four day New Zealand fishing charter for Australian's Bill, Hank and Andrew. They had a ball with kingis high up in the water column smashing up bait, taking jigs and livies and plenty of spring snapper on softbaits too.
Check out Hanks and crew's photos gallery here |
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> Fishing Report 1 Nov 2009
What a week! We've just finished a long run of 1 day fishing charters and great weather over Labour Weekend and the week that followed.
If you want to know what Tairua is like when the fishing really goes off, the check out this photo gallery from the last week!
We had quadruple hook ups right through the day on jigs, livies getting hammered by big kingfish and snapper and finished the week of with a tasty hapuku on some dead bait.
Photos opposite are Michael Loyim and Brendon Deacon, both from the same trip, both with 20kg kings caught on jigs. Check out last weeks gallery of our best shots of the week for some more action. |
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> Fishing Report 23 Oct 2009
Light tackle enthusiasts Marcus Dean and Devlin Hill spent the day with us chasing a few records on 3kg.
The kingfish had the better of us on 3 kilo but Devlin nailed a HUGE kingfish on 15kg mono.
The kingi went 35.65 kilo's - a good old fashioned 80 pounds, and took around 45 minutes to land - an awesome effort to keep a huge fish like this out of the reef on light gear.
The kingi hit a whole pillie as it was wound back into the boat!
We'd been drifting livebaits around for most of the day catching 10-15kg fish and were nearly going to call it quits when the big one hit!
Devlin also nailed some nice snapper during the fishing charter including this beautiful 22 pound snapper, taken on a livebait.
A nice line of snapper, including some to Marcus on 3kg came to the boat.
We've loaded a few more photos from their day out with us up here
Turning out to be a pretty awesome year of fishing for us in 2009! |
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> Fishing Report 22 Oct 2009
We've got classic spring fishing at the moment, with quality snapper fishing both in the deep and shallows and some awesome kingfish action. Pictured here is Wayne Henson with a nice 6kg snapper which hammered a live slimey mackeral in the deep, Wayne's work colleagues dealt to plenty of hard fighting Tairua kingfish during the day as well. Check out more photos from the last week here |
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> Fishing Report 18 Oct 2009
We've just finished a two day Tairua kingfish trip, won by Sam Tee who competed on the TV show Jack of All Trades and took out the top prize. Sam proved showed he is a dab hand at fishing as well, landing countless kingis to 20kg on livebaits and jigs, some nice snapper on softbaits, as did his mates and family who joined him on the trip. Check out more photos from the two days of awesome fishing charter action here |
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> Fishing Report 12 Oct 2009
The last two weeks have seen a consistent run of kingfish in the 10kg - 20kg range. All our kingfish over that time have been caught on jigs, and the odd soft plastic.
We've had some hot sessions with quadruple hook ups on hard fighting New Zealand kingfish, screaming reels and plenty of yahooing!
Hit jigs out of Tairua at the moment are Broken Arrow and YeeHaa's centre weighted jig in chartreuse.
We've loaded a few of the better photos from the last week up here
There are some big snapper around at the moment, especially around the Aldermen Islands.
Pictured here is Joel Fraser with an impressive snapper caught on a 7" Nuclear Chicken, a nice end to a Tairua fishing trip for him and his father Adrian, where they caught their first every kingfish as well, up to 20kg.
The odd hapuka is showing up too. Also pictured here is Alicia from Australia, who caught a very nice hapuka on a Zest curved slider jig, prior to catching a very nice kingfish too!
Spring fishing at its best! |
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> Fishing Report 30 Sept 2009
The run of big 20kg - 30kg fish continued last week, and an awesome week's fishing with our Australian guests.
Mario, Marinco (pictured here), Rob and Allan landed over 70 kingis, mostly big solid fish, with several over 20kg, and once pushing 30kg, all on their spin jig gear, all the big fish released back into the fishery.
They also landed a nice line of snapper each day. Check out their fishing photos of four awesome days on the water here.
The three day trips afterwards have produced kings to about the 18kg mark, Katie Kilgour from Auckland pictured here with a 17kg kingfish caught on Saturday. Katie did really well landing this fish on a Saragosa 8000 and Kilwell 300 rod. More pics from the last few days here |
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> Fishing Report 19 Sept 2009
Another amazing day, quite possibly the best ever! Craig Heath and his mates got a 30kg kingfish, plenty over 20kg, a 19kg kingfish on an 8kg softbait rod and plenty of snapper on softbaits as well.
A dream day with dream conditions, check out the photos here |
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> Fishing Report 18 Sept 2009
We've just finished four Epic days fishing with Colin Lai and his fishing buddies from Singapore.
They struck four of the best days straight fishing for a long time!! Awesome kingi action withbig kingfish smashing jigs and breaking them in half!!
Pictured here are Blake (top) and Danny (bottom) with two huge kingfish which were both released as they looked to be full of roe, and breeders that will stock our future fishery. Both of these fish were in awesome condition and were around 1.35m and somewhere between 28kg and 30kg.
The guys released about sixty kingis and took home some nice snapper each night for dinner. Check out the full photo gallery of their New Zealand fishing charter here |
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> Fishing Report 14 Sept 2009
When that big kingfish comes along you want to take your chances! John hooked this HUGE Tairua kingfish today with us on another Epic Adventures charter and the Stella 20000 was howling! He did a great job playing the fish, which peeled out plenty of line but 40 minutes later a huge kingfish hit the deck. Weighed at the Tairua Pauanui club it went a whopping 35.4 kilos, well done John! |
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> Fishing Report 10 Sept 2009
We've had a great week, with awesome snapper softbait fishing and straylining at the Mercury Islands, big kingfish hitting the jigs at the Aldermen Islands, as well as huge kahawai schools, Orca and dolphin swimming round the boat, spring is in full swing!!
Pictured here is Anthony Honeybone with some prime Mercury Islands snapper, Ants came up from Christchurch for our Tairua Pauanui club prizegiving where he cleaned up the fishing trophies and stayed on for a few days fishing.
Also pictured is Ray, who came on a YeeHaa fishing tackle trip and cleaned up on the kingfish. For all our charter photos from the last week check out the weekly fishing charter gallery and report here
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> Fishing Report 4 Sept 2009
SPRING IS HERE! The fishing has been up and down but when it has been on the kingfish have been feasting up large. Plenty of Tairua kingfish round the 20kg mark this week. Pictured here is Mick Johnson who got his new PB of 20kg (on the scales) with us. Also Lance his mate with a very nice snapper caught softbaiting the Aldermen Islands.
We've got plenty more photos and more details on what was working from the week up here.
US client Lonnie McAlister was also back and into some Tairua kingis getting a new 20kg PB. En route to NZ we organised a three day trip through Vanuatu where they hooked into marlin, sailfish, wahoo and yellowfin. He also took in the local Scallop Festival with us and some of the first fresh scallies of the season! |
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> Fishing Report 24 Aug 2009
We're into the tail end of winter now and the days are getting longer.
Last week's Epic Adventures fishing charters saw some good fish being caught on a variety of gear and fishing methods.
Nice trevally in close to shore, big kingfish on jigs out wide and plenty of nice sized snapper too on softbaits and good old fashioned bait too a the Aldies! Check out all the photos from the last week here
Sam Stringfield and his mates caught some nice fish with us yesterday, Sam his pictured here with a nice snapper taken straylining on Epic Adventures at the Alderman Islands, and his mate Yutaro with an 18kg kingi the same day on a Zest Curved Slider jig.
I can't think of a better way to spend the week really!! |
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> Fishing Report 5 Aug 2009
We've spent the last two days chasing kingi's and snapper around the Aldermen Islands, 30 minutes from our Tairua fishing base.
The crew of Darryl, Tom, Sarah and Nando from Aussie got into some hot fishing action with many personal best catches.
Tom got the biggest kingi at 23kg, caught on an orange jig again! Check out the belly on it!
We got a nice line of snapper on Guzzler softbaits and Gulp softbaits in the shallows.
Electric chicken Guzzlers and Curried chicken and Nucler chicken Gulp's were the hot baits. |
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> Tairua Fishing Report 2 Aug
Jarred Christie with a HUGE kingi that pulled the scales at the Tairua Pauanui sportfishing club down to the mythical 30.00kg mark!!!
This massive kingi took a KV jig in orange and yellow - a jig that often turns up big fish in the early 30kg range. Jarreds fish is destined to be mounted - why wouldn't you after cracking the 30kg mark! |
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> Vanuatu Trip Report 1 Aug
We've just spent a week away in the tropics jigging for a few species we don't normally get to fish for on our annual Epic Adventure to Vanuatu. A group of regular anglers joined us for this offshore adventure where we jigged for dogtooth tuna and popped for GT's with Wild Blue Fishing. Tony Huang from YeeHaa fishing tackle, one of our anglers, with a 25kg GT caught on a Yo Zuri sashimi popper. For more photos and a full report click here |
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> Tairua Fishing Report 24 July
Another double whammy of big kingfish and hard fighting snapper in the shallows today!
The kingi sign has been a bit patchy this week, more solo fish than big schools, but we had our anglers hooked up on a line of solid fish in the 14-17kg range today at a variety of spots around the Aldermen Islands.
Pink spear jig and Broken arrow were the best jigs on the Tairua kingfish.
Then it was time for some screaming runs on light braid, with some softbaiting in the shallows off Tairua. Gulp Lime Tiger again the hot bait.
Pictured here are two of the boys from Dixon Roofing on their Friday outing!, Shane Webster with the snapper of the day and Trinity Woolston with the kingi of the day. The fellas did well in some challenging conditions.
Our next report will be a week away as we have a group on a plane in the morning to fish Vanuatu for a week (it is our mid year break - but no rest for the wicked we will still be guiding people on to some big fish while enjoying a week of slightly warmer weather in the tropics!).
Stay tuned for the full report on 1 August!! |
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> Tairua Fishing Report 22 July
There are some real nice snapper right up in the shallows along the Tairua coastline at the moment.
For the softbait enthusiast it is a good time to work the coast with softbaits.
Pictured here is Mike Cooney with a nice snapper caught yesterday on the first few casts of our second drift on the way back in from jigging for kingis at the Alderman Islands.
Mike's fish was caught on a 5" Lime Tiger, a great softbait for fishing at this time of year.
His mate Willie caught this very nice kingfish earlier in the day, on a Red Pencil jig, a great tustle on our JigWrex 100 weight rod. |
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> Tairua Fishing Report 17 July
The fishing action this week has built and built and finally today we had a real blinder of a day.
We've had good snapper and kingfish action out of Tairua all week but today took the cake.
Big kingfish over 20kg on jigs, and plenty of snapper hitting softbaits in the shallows.
Adam Oldfeild came away with the best kingfish and best snapper of the week today. The kingfish caught on Zest Curved Slider 400gm jig, and the snapper on a Gulp Nuclear Chicken 5" Jerk Shad softbait.
Check out more photos from the last weeks action by clicking here
With great snapper and kingfish action like this, it just goes to show that the New Zealand winter is a good time of year to be out fishing, and you can expect the snapper to stay in the shallows for a while now, providing some exhilirating shallow water soft plastic fishing for a few months.
The kingfish have been off and on for the last few weeks but every day all anglers have got stuck into some good action, if you want to make sure you experience a real hot bite on the kingis, just come and fish the Coromandel for a few days and you'll end up seeing some of the best jigging action you can get. |
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> Fishing Report 10 July 2009
We've done a bit of everything the last few days. An awesome straylining session at Pauanui for Whangamata holidaymakers Tash and Andy, had some great kingfish action on jigs for our guests from the USA and topped it all of with another trophy kingfish fish today as well as a mixed bag of all sorts included a very rare catch in our waters of a slender tuna on a softbait!!!!
Another big kingfish was caught at the Alderman Islands today and this one was released to live another today after a photo for the angler, Timothy Brown of Auckland. Tim has been out jigging with us most months this year and has worked his way up to this solid 20kg kingfish - well done Tim! Check out more photos from the last three days here |
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> Fishing Report 7 July 2009
Todays crew the guys worked hard at the jigging and it turned up a trophy fish, tipping the scales at 23kg.
Skirmatas Saltis caught this fat as kingfish on a Zest Deep Slim jig on his JigWrex 400 and Stella 20000.
The rest of the guys caught their personal best kingfish as well. Catch more photos from the trip on this fishing charter photo page |
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> Fishing Report 4 July 2009
We've predominantly spent the last three days targeting Tairua kingfish with three different groups of anglers, all doing day fishing trips. Most were anglers new to jigging and they got a good feel of what it is like to have a big New Zealand kingfish loaded up on the end of a jigging rod! Pictured here is Tony with a personal best kingfish, caught on his own Jigging Master 400 spin rod and Stella reel. For more photos from the last week check out our the weeks gallery here |
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> Fishing Report 28 June 2009
Mike, Hayley and Pete flew to fish New Zealand for three days with us. We managed to get a huge day of fishing in yesterday. Big Tairua kingfish to 20kg all caught jigging on their extensive range of jigging gear and some nice snapper caught softbaiting with GULP. Mike is pictured here with a typical Tairua kelpie snapper caught at the Aldermen Islands. For more photos from their trip click here |
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> Fishing Report 26 June 2009
Father and son Jonathan Hare and Riley Hare had a fantastic day with us yesterday! Regular Tairua holiday makers at their waterfront bach they had a day out on Epic Adventures to learn more about jigging for kingfish.
10 year old Riley accounted for a big kingfish first up, then is was more big kingis, terakihi and snapper, coupled with perfect glassy conditions.
It made for a great couple of days fishing here in Tairua, the Alderman Islands, Castle Rock and the Mercury Islands, we covered some miles and ended up with a non stop run of fish, good kingis and table fish too. Check out more photos from the last two days here |
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> Fishing Report 23 June 2009
Superb fishing for Tairua kingfish this week. Best jigs were Jigging Master Alien jigs in Pink, Blue Katch1 spear and Kilwell Broken Arrow - three of the hundred or so different jigs we have available on our fishing charters. Keep changing the jigs and keep catching the fish! Pictured here is John Pellew, jigging expert, with a nice fish caught on 23 June, for some more photos of the 100 or so fish we have caught so far this week and a full report click here |
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> Fishing Report 20 June 2009
It has been a great week for fishing. There haven't been huge numbers of kingis around but the great thing about fishing our area is its consistency, even when the fishing is a little tough we still turn up some quality fish each day.
The week started with Team YeeHaa fishing with us, and Alan Le got this 20kg+ kingfish on a Broken Arrow jig, and it was released to catch again some day. The guys got around twenty kingis, most released.
Check out this awesome video the guys put together for more action or our photo gallery from more trips over the last week.
Once again, some awesome fishing here in Tairua over winter, so get in touch to book a trip with us soon. |
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> Fishing Report 8 June 2009
It was always going to happen! It has been a little while since a really hot week long bite and the last seven days just went mental with kingfish smashing any jig we put in the water!
Non stop kingfish jigging action and no doubt Tairua is New Zealand's kingfish hot spot! You can't beat winter fishing here in New Zealand.
Hit jigs were anything pink, or the big King jig in blue, you know they are hungry when they are hitting big jigs like this, one kingi had six big jack mackeral in him.
Pictured here are two of the bigger fish from the week both round the 20kg mark and we have another 50 or so photos in last weeks gallery here |
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> Fishing Report 1 June 2009
It has been a great Queens Birthday long weekend, with plenty of good fish being caught by our clients. Pictured here is Jamie Dormer with one of stacks of kingfish caught over the weekend.This fish was caught on a jig, but we mixed the weekend up with livebaits, sabikis and softbaits and the result was some very good fishing, with big trevs and john dory for dinner as well. Check out the weekends photos in here |
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> Fishing Report 22 May 2009
We've had three days of awesome livebait action in the shallows! We've been fishing a big ball of bait that the kingfish have rounded up and for two days the action has been unbelievable. All fish have been caught on live makkas and in 8m of water these kingis have put up an awesome fight on our light JigWrex 100 rod and Tyrnos 10 reel. Often the strike is within metres of the boat!
Pictured here is Anesh with an 18kg kingi caught on Tuesday ,1 of 3 kingfish for the day and also Craig with a 16kg fish, one of 4 caught on Wednesday. Thursday a quick afternoon session netted us two 18kg Tairua kingis from a double strike in the shallows. It was mayhem as two kingis peeled off 40m of line in opposite directions! Then Friday it was back to the Alderman Islands and 65 kingis in a day, the biggest 20kg! What a week!!!!! |
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> Fishing Report Monday 18 May 2009
What a fantastic day! Steve McKenzie and his mates from Auckland had a ball with us today in 5 knot variable winds, glassy seas and with kingis hitting jigs left right and centre!
YeeHaa pencil jigs were the hot jigs of the day on the kingfish.
We also fished Inchikoo jigs from Action Imports which resulted in this big hapuka weighing in at 20kg! This is the first time this jig has hit the water and within seconds of it hitting the bottom it was all on!!!
There are plenty of snapper around and some great fishing for them on soft plastics. This 20 pounder was caught on a Zman plastic and Cyclops 4oz head. |
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> Fishing Report 7 May 2009
We've got 9 keen guys over from Sydney at the moment and they're having a ball on the kingfish and snapper.
Today the fellas cracked into well over 100 kingfish. This 20kg fish was caught by the founder of Sydney Angler - Iain. A great day at the office!
A few more photos from the trip can be found here |
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> Fishing Report 4 May 2009
The water is starting to cool down - great for the fishing! With the days getting shorter the bite times are full on and when you get them the fish go ballistic. We had one of these today, nailing heaps of kingis in the 14-20k range, all on jigs.
The day was a test day with NZ fishing identity Boulder who runs an online tackle store, and testing out some new jigs from Action Import we were very impressed with the results - especially this tasty hapuku caught by Boulder himeself! This fish was caught on a prototype bent butt jig rods from Reel Rods, (Keiron from Reel Rods also writes for the same magazine as Carl).
Other jigs working on the day were the JM rockets and the pencil piper jigs from YeeHaa fishing tackle store in Panmure. |
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> Fishing Report 1 May 2009
We've been out the last two days and the fishing has been pretty good. We've had to wade through a lot of smaller kingis, probably 200 through the two days (!) but there are plenty of big fish there too and when they finally hit you know all about it! After catching plenty of smaller kings through the day, Evan O'Connor finished the day off with us by landing this 20kg beauty. There were plenty of sore arms when we got back to shore in Tairua today! |
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> Fishing Report 20 April 2009
We've had some epic fishing over the last week, especially over the Easter weekend. Consistently big kingfish and plenty of them every charter, all caught on jigs and no need to take livies out.
We're putting back a lot of these fish after a photo so there are still plenty for the next person to catch. Hot jigs over Easter were the YeeHaa pencil jigs and also Zest orange jigs in most shapes.
We're also having a great run of snapper here in Tairua, with fish in the 6-8kg range caught most days. These Coromandel snapper are fat and in really good condition, great eating!
Pictured above is Brett Edmonds who caught a primo kingfish of 20kg (the biggest that day went close to 30kg and was released) and also Cameron Beatson opposite with a similar sized fish caught on another fishing charter on Easter Monday. |
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> Fishing Report 2 April 2009
This week we've had Kim Lock Pang and three of his mates from Singapore with us.
They had three of some of the best three days fishing we've had ever!
Non-stop snapper on softbaits like this one pictured here. All on 7" Gulp softbaits. We even caught a MAHIMAHI on softbait as wel!
Non stop quadruple hook ups on kingis on jigs. The biggest kingi went 27kg, pictured here.
We've loaded a photo gallery of some of the better photos from the trip here:
Kim's photo gallery! |
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> Fishing Report 29 March 2009
We've just had a team of four guys from Melbourne fishing with us. The guys wanted to mix up a bit of fishing with some good seafood and some scenic stuff and we put together a very epic adventure for them! They all got big kingis, snapper (like this one pictured here caught on a jig) and we also found some scallops for dinner as well! Check out some of Max's awesome photos from their holiday in New Zealand here |
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> Fishing Report 22 March 2009
Sam and Liam and their mates had a great day with us today. The conditions were a bit wild and wooly but they got stuck into some great kingis jigging on the specialised jigging rods and reels we provide for free as part of our trips.
This one caught by Liam went 20kg, all the guys caught kingis in the jigs, we kept some for some great eating and plenty went back to be caught again.
Good stuff guys. |
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> Fishing Report 20 March 2009
Another great day on the Tairua kingfish and puka today. This time the puka fell to the jigs well, a Zest Hardy in green and gold.
Plenty more great kingis hitting the jigs to about 18kg.
Pictured here is Dave Andersen from Hamilton with plenty of nice chomping - a 15kg hapuka, caught between the Alderman and Castle islands. |
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> Fishing Report 19 March 2009
Rex was out with us today, armed with his Trinidad and Jig Wrex, a great combo for jigging and his and his team knocked off a heap of kingis on jigs out of Tairua, a few kept for the bin and more released to fight another day. A great fish to end the day was this tasty hapuku.
This puka was caught on a whole squid bait fished on the bottom. |
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> Fishing Report 18 March 2009
Regulars Max and Edward brought out their mate Jimmy for a spot of jigging with us out of Tairua today. Jimmy got his first kingi on a jig and was stoked with getting pulled to the rails on a big fish, and the guys caught and released some big kingis up to 20kg. These guys know how to jig!
We then went for a spot of puka fishing and one horse of a snapper devoured one of our Jigging Master Rocket jigs! A nice surprise in 90m of water!
Jigging for snapper used to be very popular in New Zealand and now with the introduction of japanese style mechanical jigging we are picking up lots of good snapper on the jigs.
A favourite colour for them is orange, like this JM rocket or the Orange Zest curved slider. |
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> Fishing Report 11 March 2009
We've got a bunch of guys from Sydney fishing with us at the moment. Day one saw some great fishing with some solid Tairua kingis between 10 and 18kg. Day two saw bigger kingis with plenty around 18-21kg. The guys have also nailed some lunker snapper fishing the washes at the Aldermen Islands with Gulp softbait. Turning out to be a great fishing charter so far! Andrew Ebbet is the guys token kiwi on board and he nailed this 21kg king. Choice! |
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> Fishing Report 3 March 2009
Tim Brown took a few days out fishing before he got married this weekend. He managed to knock over twenty or so nice kingis on jone of our jigging trips and had a ball jigging with our new Stellla 20000FA reel and Smiths Offshore AMJ rod. Hot jigs were the Broken Arrow 400gm and Jigging Master rocket jigs. |
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> Fishing Report 28 Febraury 2009
Well all up the team tagged and released 184 kingfish in the New Zealand fishing Nationals. We took out line weight honours in 15kg, 10kg and 8kg IGFA line classes, most tagged, most points overall and most tagged by an individual angler. Well done to Brett, Ants, Sean, Scott, James, JP and Max who fished their hearts out for seven days/ Here is Brett again with another great fish on 15kg line which took out the 15kg line division. A full report on the Nationals is posted here |
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> Fishing Report 25 Febraury 2009
More great fish in the New Zealand fishing Nationals today, this time Brett Collins took out a nice snapper! Our tag and release tally is looking pretty healthy now and we landed some nice kingis on IGFA 8kg line too.
We had snapper nailing big live trevally mid water! What a day! |
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> Fishing Report 24 Febraury 2009
We're in the middle of fishing the New Zealand fishing Nationals competition which runs for seven days straight.
Our first day we tagged and released 49 kingfish between 10kg and 23kg!
Today Anthony Honebone landed a nice fish on 10kg IGFA line which went 17kg. A great effort on light line. The fish was caught on a live koheru. |
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> Fishing Report 16 Febraury
Max's Dad has been over from China for the last month and they've done a few days with us chasing the kingis.
This fish was caught south of the Aldermen Islands on a Zest Deep Slim jig and would have gone around 21kg. It was released to fight another day! Good fun on Max's Smiths 150 rod! |
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> Fishing Report 22 January
We've been having a ball fishing the close reefs around Tairua. Kim Mitchell from The Cyrpus Tree restaurant took some time out from her busy summer and we put her on to three big kingis before the sun even made it up over Slipper Island!
We've had Matt Watson and the ITM fishing show with us the last two days as well and they got some great shallow water footage with us! |
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> Fishing Report 14 January
Simon Gooder brought his father fishing with us hoping to put him on to a nice kingfish and introduce him to jigging.
On the way out Si managed to jig this 25kg hapuku - a nice tasty suprise and it fought real hard in 60m of water.
The puka was caugtht on a green and gold spear jig - puka would have to be one of the most sought after fish on jigs and these spear jigs are lethal on these prime eating fish.
We got into some good kingfish on the jigs too and had a marlin freejumping by the boat!
All in all a great day in idyllic conditions - 21 degree water, flat seas and another still January day. |
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> Fishing Report 06 Jan 2009
It’s Yellowfin time!
We caught Tairua’s first yellowfin tuna of the season today.
Sean Cummings caught this 44kg yellowfin tuna with us in 200m off the Aldermen Islands.
It rounded off a perfect day with no wind, glassy seas and plenty of other fish caught during the day including plenty of kingfish on jigs. |
Tairua is the hotspot of gamefishing in New Zealand at the moment with more marlin being hooked than anywhere else in New Zealand.
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