Epic Adventures Fishing Guides

At Epic Adventures we're proud to have a team of some of the best and most passionate fishing guides in New Zealand.  Our quest has always been to provide the most personalised fishing experience possible and our guides live and breath fishing. 

You'll find guides who work hard to find and stay on fish right through the day and make sure you have the best possible sportfishing experience, who are interested in your own fishing stories and where you fish back home and are always looking for new ways to target sportfish. Your guides are all active contributors to the NZ fishing industry writing in magazine and online fishing sites.

Carl Muir

Carl has been fishing the Coromandel since he was a young fella, growing up fishing his Dad, Grandad and like minded mates lucky to have some awesome fishing opportunities on his backdoorstep.

Carl has been fishing many of the reefs you will be fishing on your Epic trip since he was a young fella, and initially gained his commercial seatime decking for well known game boats overseas.

Like many people he always dreamed of having his own fishing tourism business. In 2005 he thought what the hell.....and set up Epic Adventures, a fishing tourism business which he hoped would showcase the fantastic fishing opportunities on the Coromandel and in New Zealand.

He always knew the fishing on the Coromandel was something special that was worth sharing, but what transpired even surpassed his own expectations. The more time he spent time on the water with clients, the fishing on Tairua's back doorstep proved to be some of the best and most consistent kingi fishing in New Zealand. 

Carl and Epic Adventures quickly became known as the 'go-to' operator on the Coromandel, and with plenty of Australians crossing the Tasman, one of the more consistent producers of quality kingfishing in New Zealand. In 2008 he was named best charter skipper by the Fishing.net.nz online community (and again in 2010). Carl has been quick to pick up on new advances in fishing techniques and tackle as they've been introduced to New Zealand, with Epic Adventures growing alongside the boom in mechanical jigging and softbaiting.

Carl has been a feature writer for New Zealand Fishing Coast to Coast magazine for the last four years, sharing some of the things he learns on the water throughout the year. During his time at Epic Adventures he has been lucky to film with Matt Watson's ITM Fishing Show, Australia's Mark Bergs Fishing Addiction twice, as well as a trailer boat jigging DVD with Jigging Masters Pony Liu.

With Epic Adventures name well and truly established Carl brought in more guides to join the Epic family in 2010 and 2011 to cater for the growing demand to go and get railed on big kingfish, and has been rapt to see the Epic team grown and expand, and some of the best young guides in the business join the Epic crew.

While Carl's speciality is kingfish, the one fish that really rings his bells is marlin and seeing a beakie come cruising up a lure spread. Carl's passion for fishing isn't just in catching but also in the cooking and seafood in general (in a past life he started up the Whitianga Scallop Festival)....and if you're here for an extended stay expect to enjoy some freshly cooked seafood while the fishing stories from your trip are retold over a few quiets!

The highlight of Epic Adventures for Carl has been the many friendships that have grown on the water, "its not only great to see people catch a fish of a lifetime but when they keep coming back and turn into bloody good mates.... and you're making a career from it, then thats bloody awesome!"

Toby Kemp

Well known in Auckland fishing circles since way back and with a solid reputation for catching fish, Tobes joined the Epic crew in March 2010 and immediately hit the ground running with some awesome catches and feedback from clients.

Tobes is Coromandel born and bred, and grew up fishing the idyllic waters of Port Charles at the remote north of the Coromandel.  His career since then has provided him with an enviable background, commercial longlining for snapper out of Tairua and the Far North, working on pilchard boats out of Bream Bay, as well as time spent in the marine and chandlery industry.  Put all of that together and you have a gun fisho who knows the fishes movements through the year, someone who knows boats inside out and most importantly how to look after customers.

Ultimately Toby's passion has led him to fishing tourism. As he puts it himself "there is nothing better than taking a group out fishing, seeing them enjoy their time on the water, and the elation and satisfaction on their face after boating a prize kingfish that has dragged them all over the boat!" Tobes is well versed in all angling techniques, but admits his favourite is surface fishing "seeing a kingfish come in and smack a popper or surface bait just gets my blood pumping!"

Tobes is now full time on 'Sanity', which he has set up especially for looking after our clients out of Whitianga. Tobes has written articles for New Zealand Fishing News and has been a long time contributor on the Fishing>net.Net website. Tobes has been named best Charter skipper of the year on the same site in 2010 and 2011.  Tobes has hosted some interesting crews already including the Daiwa test engineers who filmed with us in 2010 putting the new Saltiga reels through their paces.

Any charter aboard Sanity you can expect to find Tobes pumped up and eager to see you get the fish of a lifetime. Tobes has a unique style and sense of humour which sees plenty of people coming back time and time again for another does of Epic action.

Tony Carpenter

After decking for us through 2010, Tony is now a full qualified skipper and a damn good one at that!

Like everyone else in the Epic team Tony lives and breathes fishing.  At only 20 years of age he already has a pile of experience on the ocean clocked up, and some of his exploits in 2010 got him voted 'Rookie of the Year' on the NZ Fishing net website.  He has also just joined the writing team at Fishing Coast to Coast magazine.

Tony comes to us with a good repuation in the fishing tackle industry, having run a fishing store in his home town of Pukekohe.  It would be hard to find anyone as mad keen on fishing as Tony! He has already proved to be at the top of his game when it comes to consistently putting people on to big kingfish.

As well as being mad keen on jigging for kingfish Tony has a thing for deep water fishing, bluenose, puka and bass all ring his bells, as does marlin fishing, and on a rare day off, you can guarantee he will be out chasing some of these beasts in his own little Stabi.

Tony has a long and successful career in the industry ahead of him, and hopes in the near future of be running his own Epic boat in the Far North.

Gus Anning

Gus has had a long affiliation with the ocean, a Northland boy through with whanau on the Kaipara Harbour and growing up in Kerikeri. Gus has guided expeditions to Antarctica and the North Sea and has an extensive sailing background as well.  He holds an Inshore Launchmaster skippers qualification.

Gus is now stoked be be living on the Coromandel in Tairua and spending time decking aboard Epic honing his sport fishing skills. 

He's a bit of a good luck charm too, his first outing in Mar 2011 we had a marlin on within a few minutes trolling, his second trip saw a blinder of a bite on the kingfish.  

Once again, another great person to have as part of the Epic team.

Karl Sawyer

Karl Sawyer has recently joined the Epic team as our trout and fly fishing guide. Many of our visiting customers from overseas are keen to stay on and experience some of the worlds best trout fishing after their kingfish fix and Karl is the man for the job! Karl is 30 years old and was born and bred on the Coromandel, growing up in Thames.  Fishing has always been in his blood, and while he's a very sharp salt water fisho, trout fishing is what really rings his bells. Karl has fished both the North and South islands of New Zealand extensively and in particular has gained an intimate knowledge of the fishing in the Central North Island. Karl has fished for the NZ fly fishing team and placed 5th individually in the 2000/2001 Oceania championships held in Turangi. During his overseas travels he has had the good fortune to fish for Atlantic Salmon in both Norway and Scotland and this challenging experience has helped hone his angling repertoire. Now based in Central North Island he loves nothing better than sharing the worlds best trout fishery with visiting anglers.