18 Jan - 19 Feb 2010 Fishing Diary and Photo Gallery
What a month of fishing it has been. Loads of big kings spread out from inshore to out wide, plenty of bait around, and good water temps to boot. We mixed up everything from livebaiting to gamefishing to jigging to softbaiting and the pics below tell the story - lots of good fish right through and some real solid kings to the 26kg mark. Tony from YeeHaa brought out Dave and Monique, who had always wanted to catch a kingfish but had never had much luck. The conditions we pretty average but with a sloppy South Easterly but we mosied out for a look. We stopped to get some livebaits first, then headed out to some reefs south of the Aldies which fish pretty well in January and February and first drift Monique was getting pulled to the side of the boat on a monster of a fish!!
Next drift it was Dave's turn, and as soon as the livie got down to the depth we were targeting the rod loaded up and we were on again. Dave, pretty rapt with this fish, both caught on our Talica 12ii and JM 300 rod with Suffix braid. More drifts more kings and a great day!
Thorsten Traut (like the fish!) from Germany spent six days with us on shared charter trips over the last month. He came armed with new Fishermen jig rod and Satliga Expedition and popping rods as well. First minute with a livie in the water and he had some tasty New Zealand seafood for the pan - doesn't get much better on the plate than a JD, and they are suckers for livebaits.
Livies were the order of the day on Thorsten's first day and we got him into action on the kingis, this was his first decent sized fish ever...
Thorsten, pretty stoked with his first beast, and this went home to the camp ground at Hot Water Beach for everyone to enjoy that night.
The next day Simon Skelton was out joining Thorsten and Matt Prince. Simon was into the first fish on a livie in awesome conditions, once again the JM300 and Talica slaying the kings.
A nice way to start the day. I'm pretty sure Simon's best mate Michael Carter who passed away over Christmas time was looking over us, Michael was a keen as fishermen who loved chasing kingis out of Tairua and we got stuck into some good fish in his honour.
We headed a bit wider and the jig gear was brought out, the first time the jigs had really fired in a while, good jigging for late January. Simon loaded up on the JM400, JM rocket as the jig.
Matt sticking it to one on the OJ and JM300
Simon with the fish of the day, a real fattie for January
And Matt with a real nice fish that pulled plenty of string
Thorsten with one about to be released
And loaded up on one that earnt it's freedom....
The boys got into a good session with plenty more pulled from the depths, photos taken and released to be caught again
Thorsten brought home a few abies caught on jigs which we cooked up in soy, sesame and brown sugar on the BBQ
Damien Kelly brought some mates up from Wellington. The plan was to spend the first day jigging on Epic, and the next day we had a spearfishing trip lined up with local guru Rick Turner, who is Tairua's top spearo. The boys got into some solid kings on day one
And Rick true to his reputation got the boys into their first ever kings on the spear the next day.
Thorsten was back for some more action, Fishermen rod loaded up with one heading for Chile!!
Brad Burden with a nice fish taken on a Zero Dropper jig being Slipper
Alan Brown has been out with us before, and with friends in New Zealand from Australia for his daughters wedding, he decided to bring them out and show them what New Zealand kingfishing is all about!!
It proved to be an amazing day on the water, with jigs getting absolutely devoured! Once again, awesome jigging for January!
A monster of a fish taken on the JM400
Next drift, the same result, same hot rod!!
And this one was the fish of the day, that had out angler pinned to the side of the boat!!! Just an awesome fish which lived to tell his mates, released to fight another day!!
Why stop there? The bite was well and truly on with kingi's balling bait up high in the water column and every drift we were getting hammered on yellow YeeHaa pencil jigs
Another one back for some more Epic fishing action, Dean Ruscoe snuck out with his son Reuben for a crack at the kingis one Saturday afternoon. While Reuben was slaying them on the livies, Dean tried this jigging caper and got hammered by a nice kingi...
Dean pretty rapt with a kingi that was destined for dinner and the smoker
And...more guys back for some Epic kingi action. Regular Tim Brown brought out a bunch of mates for two days action. The plan was to nail the kingis and if all that went to plan we would go looking for a yellowfin or a marlin.
Tim showed the fellas how it was done first up on the OJ and Broken Arrow jig
More awesome kingis followed
Holding on as one heads for the reef....
This one was the fish of the first day, 21kg
Dean with one on the spin gear
And a reel solid fish to wrap up Day One
We started the second day with some jigging around the Aldies, and again some fine fish came to the boat
Tim loaded up with one of the best of the trip
We then headed up to the Hook for the rest of the day, and as we came to the predicted hot area just south of the Hook at bite time, a big Blue Marlin came in and devoured our Evil Grand Slammer on the shotgun rigger, it went mental headed straight out, then the next minute it was dancing by the boat. We played the fish for ten minutes before the line went a little slack and we dropped the hook. First hit on marlin for the year, a big blue and the guys were rapt to see a marlin take the lure and put on such and awesome display.
John from YeeHaa was out the next day. Mark Edwards, deckiing for the day looks on us John is loaded up on his MC Works rod
Nice fish...
Mitch from YeeHaa loaded up on the JM400, his first kingi on the jig
And loving every moment of it
Once again we headed for the Hook and worked the same area, a little bit earlier, there was bait balled up high in the water column and it didn't take long before the Bonze Apache on the long rigger got knocked down, the Tiagra rod loaded up and the Tiagra 50W started to howl, we had another marlin on. This time a stripey that was bill wrapped and it dropped off. Two days in a row of jigging in the morning and marlin hits in the afternoon, sooner or later one would stick....
The boys from Independent Liquor were out the next day and getting into some more kingi action, this time livebaiting around Slipper Island, trying to keep these hoodlums out of the shallow reefs......good fun!
Plenty of kings for everyone today, some big smiles and sore arms
The annual Tairua Shimano Standup comp was on next, regular crew of Carl Sanders Edwards and Mark Edwards fishing with us. Once again Carl took out the clean sweep in the kingi section - on ya bro!!! Here they are with the loot....
Out to the pins next trip with Shane Udy and his mates from OZ, I got the guys into the swing of jigging and we had done a couple of drifts, when his mate Jeremy spots some birds on the leading edge of the reef and then "is that a marlin" two Tiagras were quickly brought down from the rocket launcher, Jo Yee Super Plunger and Lumo Grand Slammer loaded and we arced back over the reef and the lure got hammered and we had a stripey heading north....!!!!! It put up an awesome show dancing being the boat.
Shane played the fish in expert fashion Jeremy steered the boat while I leadered and gaffed the fish, first for the season it came back to go on the BBQ for the guys for a few nights and the rest was smoked up, check out the colours, what an awesome fish!!
The lucky angler
And all the team get a pic with the stripey
After all that excitement it was back to what we set out to do - knock some kingis over for the boys!! Next drift it all fired up
Jeremy loaded up one
A PB and a nice solid kingi on the jig
See ya when we come back in June fella....
Shane with a kingi he reckoned fought harder than the marlin, the arms were a bit sore by now
We headed home with the marlin flag flying to get the fish weighed and organise a smoke
Wit sa few hours left in the day the boys snuck back out with us for a few more kingis in close
Thorsten was back for some more action, this time a solid kingi on the jig
This time getting railer by a huge fish!!
Another one
This one the fish of his trip, a huge one we weighed at 25kg before release
And another fr m the same trip - another solid fish
Lance Meiklejohn and mates came out and slayed a few on jigs right the the Aldermen Islands themselves
This once had Lance's mate squeeling
A solid fish of 21kg
Alec Bigham with a nice fish caught jigging the Aldermen Pins
Alec's son in law Grant who teed up two trips with us, with a solid 15kg fish caught first thing in close on a livie, this peeled off heaps of line on a double strike which we landed both fish from
Grant's brother Steve with a nice fish taken on a softbait
The kingis were hitting two at a time of the livies in pack attacks
Justine and Steve with another double
And finally the snapper have moved him, here is Jeremy with a solid fish taken in the middle of the day on a live bait
To book a fishing charter or fishing trip on Epic Adventures in Tairua, the Coromandel, New Zealand with us click here
To go back to the Epic Adventures fishing reports on our home page click here |
