Christmas 09 and New Years 2010 Fishing Diary
Photos and reports from our charters and fishing around Tairua, Pauanui and the Aldermen Islands 19 Dec to 4 January
It has been a couple of weeks now since I popped a report up on the website, something to do with the Christmas rush! It has been a great couple of weeks on the water though, and the ocean has changed a lot over that time. Inshore temps are now around 18 degrees and we're getting 20 degrees out on the shelf now. What all that means is some great kingi action inshore, and the game fishing action is starting to hot up out wide with plenty of bait around and all the signs of a great season. Here's a few pics from recent trips and I even managed to sneak out myself on the odd occassion to get some kaimoana for the family table over Christmas and New Years. We all know Christmas is all about eating lots as well, so there are a few seafood pics in here for good measure! Enjoy!
Aran Brown brought out a few work mates from DHL. Paul has just finished explaining to us that he is a bit of a Jonah when it comes to catching fish on fishing charters when his jig got smashed!! His JM400 was bent over, the Stella was howling and somehow the kingi managed to evade the serious drag and reef him. Didn't seem like he had any problems hooking them! Next drop and Paul was on again! This time there was no escape for the kingi, despite some explosive runs and a very tired Paul hauled this beauty on board! Well done mate! He was absolutely stoked, a few kisses for the fish and it went back for good luck.
Next drop and Paul was hooked up again! By the end of this fight Paul decided he'd had a great day, was too shattered and would watch everyone else catch come fish! This one was destined for the Christmas dinner table though!
Next it was Steve's turn, hooking into a cracker of a fish on the JM350 and Talica
And yet another very nice fish to Steve.
The next fish required a bit of help to ensure he wasn't dragged in!!
And defintely fish of the day! Most of the fish were released to fight another day, with the few that were kept all having squid in their bellies.
Richard Sheriff brought the lads out for their next trip and Maui was the first to hook up - he thought he'd hooked the North Island but it was a beaut of a kingi!
Late December there were still some solid kingis out wide, this is a top fish, which looked as if it had spawned recently, caught on a 400gm PowerJig
Maui with another nice fish.
Steve Sheriff with a beaut kingi
Pair of kingis about to be released
That man again!!
For some reason the JM350 and Talica12 from YeeHaa produced a great run of fish this week. We were using a 400gm Broken Arrow or PowerJig on it all week and it produced the line share of big kingis like this one
Andrea and Rene Spiegler from Germany were out with us just prior to Christmas and Rene was having a ball on the JM350, here he is dealing to a nice fish after a dusting minutes earlier!!
And pretty stoked with this fish which he was adamant he was releasing
After more kingis to Rene, Andrea had a ball with the krilling kahawai schools
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Our swiss guest Ueli had a ball on some nice kingis the next day
Ex Thames lad Ngaquota White got stuck into some big fish as well on our Stella 20000FA and Smiths rod
Dan nailed a nice fish near the end of the day on a JM rocket.
Then it was Christmas time and some time off with the family. A leave pass was issued which saw me get out to a spot called Christmas rock for a quick dive 2 minutes from home, half a dozen crays later, with some hitting the BBQ on Christmas Eve..
Santa was kind on Christmas Day and I got what has to be the best New Zealand seafood cookbook ever....Al Brown's Go Fish
Al's Whitebait Fritters topped with fried Whitebait and Tartare Sauce were Christmas brekkie!!
Yumbo's
A selection of Al's recipes were chosen for New Years Eve and together with my mate Mark we took off in search of the ingredients...half a dozen nice big legal paua...these were the shells...
To create Al's Sauteed Slithers of Paua with Fried New Potatoes and Lemon Butter, has to be the nicest meal I've had for a long time - get the book, get some paua and try it!!!
Plenty of terakhi around, they're suckers for a bit of squid and a nice small MacFlasher terakhi rig
Terakihi getting tunnel boned on New Years even
Then stuffed - another creation from Al Brown's book Go Fish - albiet with what I could get my hands on!!
And in the pan.....
And the last part of the hunt as some good raw fish....kingi will do, getting pulled to the rail instead of watching for a change....
A couple of New Years Eve kingis knocked off in half an hour and back home for the cook up...
Mark with a nice one
And it was the bees knees in Al's Tequila Ceviche with freshly made torilla chips.....mmmmmmm.....rest of the tequila to wash it down!!
My other Christmas pressie, a new Bradley Smoker, was put to the test as well with a big batch of kingfish...eight hours into a long slow smoke and some of the moistest kingfish ever...
Rikky and Livvie joined us last Christmas holidays and Livvie came away with the biggest kingi, Rikki was out for some revenge, and hooked to beaut kingfish with us
Their mate Julia had a epic fight with this monster!
And Livvie came away with another nice fish as well - great fishing for the Christmas break!
Plenty of albies around from this size up
And another nice kingi to wrap up a great day again with Rikki and Livvie, this one from a double hook up where Rikki got dusted big time!
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Matt Kirke brought some more mates out to experience some of Tairua's hard fighting kingis and they weren't dissapointed with some big beauts hitting the livies and jigs
A windy day just prior to Chrismtas kept us hugging the coast but we had pack attacks of nice kingis in the 10-12kg range, great fun in the shallows
A spot of livebaiting the coast captured the first fish of the day for a trip for Jono Lynch and his mates, Mike's holiday back home from Sydney saw him hook into this fish on his birthday
A nice JD for Brook on a flasher rig
Jono blooded his new Stella and 3 Kings Special JM rod with this nice kingi
Johnny cracked into another nice fish on our Tica Magnum livebait rod
And then on our jig rod!!!
Jono had his new rod well and truly blooded by the end of the day
Brook with the last fish of the day, taken livebaiting
The next day we were back to yesterdays hotspot not far from home and more livebaiting produced a great line of fish, watch the bend.....!!!
Tom Westcott with a nice fish taken livebaiting
For those putting the hours in out wide there have been some nice gamefish caught, big eye tuna in the 60-70kg range, a 280kg Blue Marlin, a few striped marlin as well, we've got our first full day gamefishing for the season tomorrow so stay tuned.....
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