Hi Everyone!
Spring is well and truly here with an awesome run of settled weather at the moment, it certainly feels like summer is nearly upon us. We're right in the middle of some awesome kingi fishing at the moment with a couple of fish over the magic 30kg mark in the last week, some huge days of 100+ kingfish released in a day, some awesome surface action on kings and we've just had our biggest group of 12 people fishing with us for a whole week. All in all it has been a huge couple of months.
There is lots to update you on in the newsletter including the build of a new custom boat for us, which we will be updating you on over the next few months as it is being built, and we aim to have it in the water in January 2011 and look forward to seeing you out on it next year!
Enjoy the read
All the best
Carl, Tobez and Belinda |
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The first few weeks of spring heralded the arrival of plenty of fat spring kingfish. There have been numerous going over the magic 20kg mark, and a few horse fish have hit or topped that mythical 30kg mark that everyone wants to crack one day!
Late August, September and October are the best times for this kind of action as proven, with many fish over 30kg, this time last year, so it was no wonder the diary was full for both boats over these months in 2010!
After fishing with us for 1 day earlier in the year, Ken Baker motivated his Aussie mates Geoff and Rob back to fish with us for five days, the weather was kind and they got all five days in. The fish got bigger and bigger every day, with Ken nabbing one at 28kg on day three and Rob nailing the biggest of the trip, easily over 30kg on day five. Check the guys report out here
Another returning angler Mick Johnson dragged his mate Anthony over and having never caught anything big in his life let alone a hard pulling kingi he got the shock of his life when his first three kingfish went 20,22 and 30kg!! For more on their trip check out the following page here
We've just finished a week with 12 anglers from around the globe, our biggest group to date. They stayed with us for a week rotating between the two boats. Tobes and Sanity had some huge days of 50-60 kings at the Merc Pins. Down at the Aldies on Epic JP got the biggest fish of the trip at 30kg+ a huge fish that smashed a Blue Broken Arrow in half. There were plenty more fish in the early to mid twenties as well, check the full report here
Last week we had David Watts and three of his mates fishing with us. Their previous PB's on kingfish were 65cm Sydney jobs, so they were a bit shellshocked when the average size was about 18kg on day one, by the end of day two they'd all cracked 20kg and John had a 30kg monster measuring in at a whopping 1.38m to the fork of the tail!!!! It just got better as you will see in the "100+ kings in a day" story below....
And the weekend just gone Brett and the boys from Rayglass cracked into some awesome fish on poppers, livies, softbaits and jigs. There were some magic moments, including a kingfish we hooked slow trolling a livebait past a sunfish!, an awesome surface strike on a popper in 110m of water, and Brett pulling another big fat fish estimated at 28-30kg. Check the full report here
This special kingi fishing will continue for the next few months before the kingfish start making their way inshore. We have a few Nov and Dec dates left, if you are keen on a mid week date in Nov or Dec let us know, likewise if some of the above action sounds like you then start booking some weeks for next spring now! Check out our calendar here
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Rob with a fat fish est at over 30kg on JMPE7 and JM350 - livie
Anthony with his 3rd ever est 28-30g on Stella 20000 and JM400 - livie
JP with his 30kg ++on JMPE7 and JM350 - on a Broken Arrow Blue jig
Another one in the 28-30kg mark for Brett, livebait JM400 and Stella 20000SW
John with a whopping 1.38m kingi on JMPE7 and JM350 - on a JM Pink rocket
ALL THESE BIG FISH ABOVE WERE RELEASED!!!! |
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It has been a long time coming, Epic has done some hard yards and put so many people on to some awesome fishing, but the time has nearly come to replace it with a few more creature comforts!
This week work starts on our new boat, at the Senator factory in Napier. It is exciting times for us, and we're going to build a boat specifically for the style of fishing we specialise in. Plenty of livebait capacity, special features for jigging, and a bow which will have a unique platform so we can pop and stickbait or softbait from both ends of the vessel (and still have the comfort of a full width hard top). You can keep an eye on the boat build here There are plenty of custom features included in the new boat, and we will be putting up photos as the build progresses. We'll let you know what we end up choosing in the way of electronics and most importantly the donk as well!
Email us an tell us what you would like to see incorporated into the new boat! |
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 It would have to rate as one of the best week long trips on Epic to date.
David Watts and crew spent a week in Tairua last week, and after knocking over an awesome quality of kingfish at the Aldies in the 20-30kg range, not to mention snapper to 9kg, we decided to shoot for something special on day four and try for 100 kingfish on jigs in one day. The odds were against us, we had bananas on board, it was a Friday and we had four hungover Aussies on board but we'd give it a nudge....
We blasted up from Tairua and the first drop was 8.30am, the boys were well and truly in the rhythm by this stage of the week and with triple and quad hooks ups the norm every drift up at Crackerjack reef at the Mercs it didn't take long before we had 55 quality fish on the scorecard by midday.
Eden, who hadn't been fishing for five years before this trip did the honours with the 100th fish, his 30th for the day, fishing the JigStar 350 and Daiwa Z40 with a Blue Broken Arrow jig all day.
103 fish was the tally by 3.30pm and we left them still biting hard. All bar a couple of fish were released in good nick to be caught again another day - now that's sustainable fishing Sanfords.....
Check the full report from the guys EPIC ADVENTURE here |
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There's been no shortage of sweet spring snappers, both in the shallows at the Mercs and Aldies, as well as some very big snappers lurking amongst the carnage out wide, check out some of the recent nice big snaps....
 
Richard with a straylined 8kg snap from the Mercs on Sanity Geoff with a nice straylined snap from Stingray south of the Aldies
 
Coxy with a sweet deep snap on half a yakka on a deep rig Waz with another snap from the deep at the Merc Pins
There have been some awesome runs of snapper amongst the kingi action as you can see from Tobez latest report on Sanity here |
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Kingfish would be one of the most under-rated eating fish around.  While we like putting most of the fish we catch back, the whole reason we go fishing at the end of the day is to gather a bit of food to enjoy with family and friends. We always get asked what the best way to cook kingfish is and so we have started up a page full of good kingfish recipes to check out.
A favourite recipe we first cooked up for visiting anglers Fred Romeo and his mates, is Soy and Sesame Seed Seared Kingfish steaks topped with caramelised celery, carrot and crispy slithers of kingfish.....doesn't get much better. Also on the page is our 'top secret' sashimi kingfish recipe.....
You can find the page here. |
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Spots are filling fast for summer and Christmas so get in quick if you want some dates.
Think shallow water kingi action, heaps of inshore spots firing on the kingi front, Marlin, Tuna, big Albacore and all the variety that comes with summertime.
Check out calendar for available spots on Epic and Sanity and let us know if you want some dates saved.
A HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO'S COME OUT AND MADE THE LAST FEW MONTHS SIMPLY EPIC!!
All the best
Carl, Tobez and Belinda
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