Malas Island Fishing Club (MILF......) Epic Adventure to New Zealand ....Insane Kingi Action
Since 1994 Tony Cope and his mates, all orginally from Perth, now scattered across the globe have had an annual tradition of getting together for a fishing trip. Twelve months ago on their sixteenth trip the boys decided, after seeing some of the reports on our website, to come and fish with us in New Zealand in 2010. We timed it hopefully to coincide with some of the best fishing of the year......
On Sunday 26 September 2010 the boys arrived in Tairua from all corners of the globe, Perth, Sydney, London even as far as Qatar. We had the whole package taken care of for the week, three boats fishing four to five days, all the accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner each day, not not mention some of the Coromandel's best extra curricular activites.
What transpired was some of the most insane kingi fishing we've seen with hundreds of kingfish caught and released over the week. The verdict from the fellas - the best fishing and hospitality in 17 years they have been doing their trip.
At the start of the week days 1,2,3 the Mercs was going off, with Sanity having 50-60 kingfish days!!!, by the end of the trip on the last couple of days days 4 and 5 the guys on Epic were sticking it to 20-30kg kings at the Aldies, just awesome fishing all round on both boats!
As you will see in the photos the guys wear their MILF caps proudly sporting their membership number (consisting of the date they first joined the annual trip and their membership number), a good bunch of guys and awesome to have on the water - good mates, hard pulling fish, good seafood and a few drinks, its what fishing's all about!
Straight to the Alides for a jigging session, we had to thumb down on Johns HUGE fish on the other side on a pink rocket, PE5 at sunset and getting smoked est 30kg and pulled the hook, here Nig with a bit more than he expected on the first drop........Jigstar 350 imploded.....
Kenny with one from the same multi hook up that is a great fish for first drop!
Nige's fish - solid 20kgs on half a rod!!!
The kingieslayer Kenny with another nice sized Aldies king
Three fish at once, the Aldies going off on morning one!
Ohhhh nooooo.....a HUGE fish once again on the 3 Kings 300 JM rod ....this time just too much pressure....
Time to bust out one of Nige's trusty rods...not really specialist jigging kit but does the job!!
Johnno with a new PB kingi
And another cracker on the Blue broken arrow
Kenny slaying them most drops
JP and Cam get into the swing of things...little did they know what was in store....50 fish later the boys were shattered!! Merc Pins were going off big time!!
Haysey with a nice one..whats under the hat mate
JP with his first of the trip
Things started getting fast and furious and before long the guys had topped the 30 fish mark shooting for 50...
Steve with another of a huge line of fish at the Mercs
GO JP!!
By the end of the day the fellas had topped 50 fish at the Mercs, awesome fishing!
50 fish and a few Coronas, it was all too much for some....
Gattsy had a monumental smoking of epic proportions on his first ever kingfish hook up, Stella 20000 locked up in 110m of water and we couldn't hold it, ran off 100m of line! We called it as possibly the biggest kingfish we've hooked on epic but it ended in tears......some warm up ones came next to get in the swing of things
Dom the Pom with his first king
Copesy with a warm up
Getting better for Gattsy
Shrek with one of a long line of afternoon fish from quad hook ups
DAY TWO - SANITY
Nige scores an awesome fish on the softbait gear, 12kg fish on 4kg braid n the Stradic
Kenny persisted with the surface livebaiting and it paid off with a 15kg fish
'Pug' with one of many he skull dragged in style, As if yesterday's session at the Merc Pins couldn't get any better, these guys kicked into a faster run rate.....
Rich aka Panda had his work cut out, with a huge run on the last drop, and old beaten up Rocket now white, scoring a 26kg kingfish, what a way to wrap up Day two, making 61 fish for the day on Sanity
Haysey and Steve with a nice double of jig caught fish to kick off morning three
A quick trip to pick up some dinner and Cam had a nice puka on a green and gold rocket, missiomn acheived it was back to some more kingi mayhem
Doubles, triples and quads most drops
Orange jigs went wild in the avo
The boys finishing on a triple...Haysey lucked out on last drop, the boys giving him some stick
Copesy nabs a 22kg king on the first drop with the livie
A bit of a slow start to the morning with only 15 fish by lunchtim...... then the dinner bell went and it was all on...stuff the piccies we want fish!...and fish they got, 52 by lines in and all were happy campers, streched arms, sore backs, bent rods and Corona..what else makes a man happy at sea..Pug got a fair few of them
Tairua's cafe's looked after the boys well over the week, the boys sharing war stories over some fresh puka
Time to go looking for some monsters, Haysey hooked up
Nice warm up size on the pink rocket
Steve with a nice king on the livie
'KEGGERS' were the order today, three of the lads needed one over 20kg to join the club and Dom was into the first one on the Pink JM Rocket
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Haysey with a 24kg on the Blue Broken Arrow
Steve with a similar sized mid 20 fish on a livebait
From there on it was all solid fishing, Haysey sticking it to one on the Jigstar350
Nice fish on the brand spanking new replacement JM200 Three Kings ! Aussie green and gold rocket
Awesome conditions, Rich sticking it to another solid fish on an evening bite of big fish
DAY FOUR - SANITY
Kenny went out and brought a new 3kg set up while he was here, he was keen to get a nice fish on 3kg mono and Tobes had him on a nice one in no time in the Bay on Day Four, peeled heaps of line, and some deft driving from Tobes and good skills from Kenny had him beat
11kg on 3kg line - awesome bro!
DAY FIVE - EPIC
Four more anglers gunning for the kegger club and Gattsy was first on the board with one that had the Stella screaming on a livie
One of our tagged fish recaptured to Cam
JP hooked into a horse on the JM350 and PE7 he went to sunset and it was still going, this was a horse, Epic charging backwards to keep on top of the fish and waves crashing over the boat - awesome times! - huge weight on the rod and deft angling once again, the boys had a 30KG fish for the trip - on ya mate!!
Cam nabs his!
JP on fire today!! JM400 getting BENT
Gattsy with another one bang on 20kg
JP's arms are getting tired by now!!
DAY FIVE - SANITY
Dom the Pom with one on a blue rocket
Nige with a nice fish
Double for the boys
Rich with a solid fish
Shrek with a new PB
Kenny with new PB for him
Shrek with another one on a livie
Rich with the last fish of what was an awesome week on the water.
Thanks to the MILF boys for an outstanding week on the water.
The verdict from the fellas, they reckon it was the best trip in 17 years, and it was a pretty awesome week for us to seeing these guys get dealt to all week, not to mention one of the best groups so far, these guys have got an awesome tradition going and it sorta reminded me about what fishing is all about, having and excuse to get together with mates, plenty of antics, bulls**, good food and a few ales and vinos. Top fellas, will remember last week for a long time.
Was a ball having you!!!! See ya back in NZ soon.....
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