Testing out the New Senator

It has been a long time coming, and those of you who have followed the boat build process on our website will be stoked to see her in the water catching fish, and she looks like she is going to be a lucky boat. 

The myriad of gear dissapeared inside the Senator and there was oodles of space, a completely different boat to the old girl.

The Furuno Navnet 3D and 1kw transducer did its thing and we found the fish straight away.  First few drops and Tony was into something with a bit of weight on the Broken Arrow 500gm

We cranked up the subwoofer on the Fusion stereo and the kings came on the bite, Craig had a bust off early on and then got railed by a serious fish that fought right to the bitter end on the Stella, his first legal kingi and what a way to start with the first Aldermen caught kingfish on the boat - chur mate!  This would be close to the longest kingi we've caught, in summer condition just shy of 30kg, in spring she might have gone late 30's

Setting up between drifts was a dream with the new three tank system and the working space just kept blowing me away.....

Next thing Russel hooked something and the line started angling up MARLIIIIINNNNN! I shouted......a marlin pushed its shoulders and bill out of the water right next to the boat for everyone to see and threw it around with the leader wrapped around its bill, pulled a bit of string and we tried to set the hook to no avail, a nice bit of excitement for the morning.  Next drift he was into 12kg model for the smoker, a new PB for him

Craig into it again with a 23kg model

Tony hooked up again on something seriouso on the Blue Rose

Whoaaaaa, what a horse!!!

And Tony wraps up an awesome first day on the new boat with a 20kg model which was released to fight another day - awesome first day!!

The next day and had a bunch of lads out from Paeroa.  Zayne was a bit shell shocked when he hooked up to his first ever kingi on the Stella, it was a big fish and we were backing down on it hard out.....WIND, LIFT, DROP., STOP  HIM!!....plenty of orders barked Zayne put the acid on the fish but the odd time the rod got pointed a bit high with heaps of drag and

Fortunately the rod went with the fish away from the bottomg and Zayne went to work pulling up a very big kingfish from 90m

Forty minutes later! and we had the fish at the boat, a huge mid 30's king

The boys kept getting nailed by monsters, this one on the MC Works and PE8 and solid one as well, mid to late 20's

Another mid 20k fish we let go

Everyone on the board!! YeeHaa

And another....See ya next year bro.....

Another horse to wrap up an awesome day!

Scott an the boys hopped on the next day and with all three livie tanks loaded up and we hit the Aldies once again for some more kingi carnage, Mike nails the first hoodlum!

The other Mike slams a freight train of a fish est 28kg, we backed up hard on this one, gotta love the new high curved transom on the Senator, not a drop of water made its way over at full revs in reverse!

Another sweet fish, about to be released

This one tested out the MC Works rod to the Max, another late 20k monster

Loaded on the Smiths, hang on bro!

The new rig is so sweet between drifts, so much working room for having everything rigged and ready to go

Ohhhh, go on then!! Another horse of a fish that peeled of plenty of line and had this angler hurting HARD OUT ! before we hit the hammer down for home

Next day and we had a few of the Epic home team out for a blast.  Lennie is staying with us helping out round base and keeping the new rig spik and span, a late pull out meant he got to jump on for the day and FEEL THE BURN

HOLD ON!

SWEET BRO!!!

After a wee bit of a lie down he got to round two....

Mrs Epic aka Belinda aka CFO come booking lady, aka Bindy gets a taste of the action on board

Well done girl!  Released to catch again in the ladies comp..!!

Lennie goes back for round two....

Thorsten got RAILED on the first drop the next morning, a nice 20 something was the result, released

Brendon bags a sweet snapper

Brendon feels the power of the MC Works

Quick kiss before release

Nice one on the jig from the Supermarket

Nice line of afternoon fish, with both livies and jigs getting smashed

Brendon getting railed hard on the MC Works and PE 8

Thats what ya came for Brendon!!

Next up was a good chance to put the Senator to the test!  2m of northerly swell, wind blowing offshore from the coast SW and SE 15 further out and a current crossing the lot.  Put simply.....messy.  Shannon and Gary Wood braved the conditions and the boat sliced through it like a dream.  Shannon went hard and in the first hour had released a dozen fish, one kept for their meals the next few nights.    Shannon in action on the JM350 and PE7

Sweet NZ Kingfish for Shannon

Fishy lady, every drop got hammered

Nice fat fish and a dream come true catching their yellowtail kingfish to tick off the bucket list!

Released to fight another day

Gary was in on the action as well

Another one released and a great first week in the new rig!!

So, so stoked with how the boat has peformed.....a big thanks to all those who have helped ensure the new rig ending up being the dream boat!

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