Gamefishing Charters for New Zealand's

 Striped Marlin, Blue Marlin and Yellowfin Tuna

Tairua and Whitianga on the Coromandel are two of the best game fishing bases during New Zealand's peak game fishing season which runs from mid January through until late March ie New Zealand's summer. Last season was a classic example with close to 100 marlin bites in one day in one of the Mercury Bay competitions at 'The Hook.'

Over autumn, winter and spring our fishing charters concentrate primarily on yellowtail kingfish (a game fish in their own right) but when the East Auckland current sweeps down the coast in mid January and the water gets to 20 degrees, we rightly get a dose of BILLFISH FEVER!  

There is nothing quite like seeing a Striped or Blue Marlin with its pectoral fins and stripes all lit up in neon purple darting through a lure spread and finally nailing a lure amidst a carnage of white water!  For many, the marlin is the ultimate fish they hope one day to catch.

New Zealand Marlin Season Jan - Mar

From January to March Striped marlin and Blue Marlin move down the continental shelf, canyons and drop offs and on to the offshore structures that we fish for kingfish over the rest of the year. 

They come in to gorge down on baitfish like skipjack tuna, saurie, flyfing fish and mackeral. 

For those who have never caught a marlin before and want to tick it off their bucket list, or the avid game fisherman visiting New Zealand this is the best time to fish for marlin with us.

Make sure you book early as this is a very popular time to fish with us and often booked a long way in advance.

How We Fish for Marlin

We predominantly fish lures for marlin.  In our opinion nothing beats seeing a fish come up a smash a marlin lure on the surface!  Getting a fish to bite an artificial lure is one of the best thrills you get in sport fishing.

When we know there is a concentrated patch of marlin and bait and lures are not working we will use baits, either drifted or slow trolled and in the event marlin are just nudging lures and not biting agressively we sometimes pitch live or dead baits back to marlin in a lure spread.

But with the right lure pattern, sharp hooks and being the right place at the right time (often there will be one or two very hot bites during the day) generally fishing lures is very effective.

We generally run a 5 lure pattern. Our lure pattern changes with conditions and the predominant batfish and colours the fish have been hitting but a favourite pattern looks something like this:

-Short corner - run flat of our port corner on the second wave, favourite here is Bonze Vampire or Pakula Beer Barrell

-Long corner - run flat off our starboard corner on the third wave, favourite here is Black Magic Green Meanie, or Bonze DS in Lumo

-Short rigger - run off our Reel Rods outriggers port side, fifth wave is usually a Bonze Apache in Evil or Bonze Havoc in Evil or Black Magic Grand Slammer Lumo

-Long rigger - run off our Reel Rods outriggers starboard side is Bonze Apache in Taniwha colours, or Black Magic Grand Slammer Evil

-Shotgun - A Zuker 3.5 in Green/Yellow or Bonze Undertaker in Lumo

Multi Day Trips for Kingfish and Marlin

Our kingfish fishery is world class so mixing up your marlin fishing adventure with some kingi action is highly recommended.  During our last season we had a dream run of catching marlin on the way out to or home from the kingfish grounds.

Over summer time it is feasible to mix things up chasing both kingfish and marlin in the same trip, but keep in mind the more time on the water gives you the best shot at catching a marlin.

If you want to do both forms of fishing then booking in 2 to 5 days is a great idea. 

Our typical day in game season if we are giving marlin a shot is 7am - 4pm.  Typically the bite time for marlin is either 1 hour or so either side of a slack tide, with the morning bite usually being the best.

We return to shore every night, organising comfortable accommodation and you can enjoy a great meal in one of our restaurants and recuperate for the next days action.

Most our fish are tagged and released, however you can keep a feed of kingfish or get it smoked. We can also arrange for marlin to be smoked in Tairua or fish smoking in Whitianga if required.

Jigging and popping Gear for marlin!

Over the last three seasons out of Tairua and Whitianga we have experimented using new lightweight jigging and popping gear for targeting marlin and tuna on our game fishing charters.  There is nothing quite being loaded up to a rampaging marlin without a harness and feeling every headshake and jump through the braid!!  It is a completely different experience to playing a fish like this in a stand up harness with several hundred metres of mono out.  We've landed several good striped marlin on Jigging Master PE reels, Stellas, and Jigging Master rods.  We also done the same with yellowfin on popping rods and reels. It is amazing how quickly these fish can be knocked over on this gear.

    45kg Yellowfin on Stella and T Curve popping rod       Releasing a nice striped marlin on JM PE5          100kg stripey on Stella and JM400 on livie 

Light Tackle Marlin

The last few seasons we have run a lot of 15kg mono for both Blue and Striped Marlin.  It is a great line class which is both sporting but still provides a good chance of landing a monster.

The 137kg Blue marlin opposite was knocked off on 15kg and took out the NZ Nationals 15kg line class for heaviest Billfish on 15kg mono, caught on a Tiagra 30.  It is also a Tairua - Pauanui record for the 15kg line class for Blue Marlin.

These lighter sets are also well balanced and provide a nice fight, provided you can wind like hell!! (Pays to get into training a little before a marlin trip!)  They are an ideal line class to play a striped marlin on, and provides for an epic fight if you manage to hook a Blue, every one omn board needs to have their wits about them!

Game fishing from a trailer boat means you can keep in close contact with the fish being extremely manoeuvrable.

We're happy to fish lighter line classes for marlin should you wish to charter the boat for yourself to accomplish a marlin on lighter line.

37kg, 24kg or 15kg is better for shared trips where people just want to see a fish come boatside.

We have all the gear for the job

You are welcome to bring any gear of your own, however we have all the gear on board Epic to tackle marlin and other gamefishing:

-37kg Tiagra Rod and Reels

-24kg Tiagra Rod and Reels

-15kg Tiagra Rod and Reels

-2x Black Magic Equaliser Gimbal and Harness

-2x Flying Gaffs from Ocean Blue Bases

-2x Fixed handle Gaffs

-Wide selection of marlin and tuna lures, from Bonze to Black Magic, Pakula, Black Bart, Zuker, Azure, Moldcraft, Broadbill and more

-Lures are usually rigged with fluorocarbon and single sharp hooks.

-Outriggers from Ocean Blue Bases

-Livebait traces for livebaiting marlin

-Tuna tubes and 3 livebait tanks

Sanity is also fully game rigged.

Electronics we use to find marlin

There is no point trolling around the ocean blindly more game fish! A lot of things will help pinpoint where marlin are, talking and listening to where they are being caught the easiest.  However, we can fine tune the game by using sea surface temperature charts, and we subscribe to one of the best ones www.seasurface.co.nz Using this we can tell the most likely places that marlin will be.  Usually where there is good warm water close to nutrient rich colder water and structure.

Our Furuno Navnet on board is also a fish finding weapon with great bait reads and on board sea surface temperature abilities with our trackline recording seasurface temperature changes as we go through the day.

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PHONE +64 21 227 4354

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