3 Day New Zealand Fishing Charter - Fishing with Epic Adventures along the Eastern Coromandel and Bay of Plenty - Mayor Island, Whitianga, Mercury Bay, Gt Mercury, Cuvier and Aldermen Pins
This was Mike and Hayley Bonnici's fourth trip back in a year. Last time they were here we hatched a plan on the first morning which saw us catch a striped marlin on a JM Three Kings jigging rod and JM reel. This time around we decided to fish a good variety of coastline within a days fishing radius of Tairua over the three days they were in New Zealand fishing with us. Day One we loaded the bait tank just outside of Tairua before the hammer went down to Mayor Island just over 20 miles to the south east of Tairua. A pod of big dolphins came in to wish us good luck as we loaded up on livebaits- it had that vibe of a good day ahead.
We prospected a bit of foul just outside the Mayor Island marine reserve and Hayley's livebait down on her Stella 20000 was devoured as soon as it hit the bottom, a nice kingfish to start the trip off with.
On the other side of Mayor Island the Raymarine C80 was showing us some big kingfish marks on the side of one of Mayor Island's amazing dropoffs - it took a while for them to come on, we made sure we were back there at the bite time and soon enough Pete was loaded up on a Mayor Island kingfish on one of his own custom built rods.
A nice kingi to open Pete's account for the NZ fishing trip
We set another drift over the drop off and Hayley got smashed by a fish that tore line back towards the mainland at an alarming rate!! We backed down hard and were on top off it soon enough and Hayley had an awesome fight on her hands on her Stella 20000
Turned out to be a beast of a 20kg kingfish and a new PB for Hayley
While we were driving down hard on Hayley's kingfish, Pete threw a jig out and it got smashed in the white water of the prop wash and he was on too
Another awesome tustle saw Pete land a nice long 1.2m kingfish
Hayley's Dad Peter joined us for the trip, he was going to watch the guys fish and enjoy a few cold ones, he got a bit of a shock when we loaded him up on a freight train of a kingi!!!
Mike nailed an awesome fish on his Stella 8000
Hayly on another nice fish on her Twin Power and custom JM 250 Free Jigger
The next day we left Whitianga destined for Cuvier Island. The bait tank was full in no time just outside town, and well, it would be rude not to throw a livie out, within a few minutes of leaving the ramp we had a kingfish hooked up on 4kg softbait gear......
Actually, make that two.....and both peeling of line in opposite directions, Hayley's heading for the horizon.....
20 minutes later we had Mike's to the boat, a quick piccie and time to chase Hayley's down
Hayley's was a horse of a kingfish for the shallows, hooked and landed on her Daiwa Certate
We had a big agenda for the day, so we gapped it out of the bay destined for Cuvier, Peter got a nice line of pannie 2kg snapper from under the birds and we had a few nights dinner taken care off
We stopped at Crackerjack Reef just outside of Great Mercury for a jig and tagged a few nice kingfish
Then it was time to hit the water and Mike bagged a limit bag of big crayfish freediving the shallows at Cuvier Island. It was a pretty wild half an hour as we drifted beside him as he handed up on crayfish after the other - skills Mike! And in between we flicked plastics at huge kingfish underneath the kahawai schools - a pretty mind bending little episode at Cuvier - time to head back for another look soon
We ate well that night!!
Day Three and if Hayley had dominated things in the big fish stakes so far.....well, she did it again this morning, loaded up here on a beast of a 20kg kingfish which towed us from on side of the reef to the other!! Just awesome, JM FreeJigger 250 and Twin Power reel getting a workout
Another beast of a kingfish caught by Hayley - the magic jig being a JM Rocket in pink
Once again Pete used his old trick of jigging in the prop wash as we backed down hard on the fish to keep from being reefed and he loaded up too....
And nailed another nice Coromandel kingfish on his custom stick, we played around with a few more kingfish on the jig before the guys flight back to Sydney beckoned - it was time to say see ya and hopefully we'll see the team back next summer - cheers guys!!
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