So after years of mainly jigging kingys with abit of spearfishing and all other types of fishing thrown in Jonty and I had the itch to try out gamefishing, We had both caught 1 marlin before on a charter but all we did was wind it in, We soon found out thats the easy part!

A whole bunch of online shopping, a few trips trips to the fishing shops in auckland(a big thanks to John at WS Lauries) along with some good advice from you good buggars on the forum, and a short 7 hour trip from Wellington to Tairua we where ready to go!

Day 1: Went pretty much as we expected, No fish seen but a few hook ups heard on the radio, We where happy to just be out there and doing it, Great chance to get everything setup and test new riggers, taglines and all other manner of gear, although we did stop and jig up a few kingies about lunch time to curb our itch of getting a rod bent.

Day 2: with hopes high we set off at the usual time about 6am, we loaded up the boat and headed out, plan was to head out past the pins to the 300m mark and work that. It was about 9.30 and we had a fish on the long corner, I had originally thought it was just a big albie as surely marlin fishing cant be this easy, But nope we where hooked up!!!

We set in and started clearing the gear, Jonty was to clear one rod then grab the rod going off with me clearing the other two and driving for him, however this didn’t quite go to plan as before I could clear the second rigger another marlin grabbed the lumo sprocket as I was winding it in. at this point in my little boat (profile 465) and first time really game fishing we knew we where in abit of trouble so with the rod in one hand and vhf in the other I tried to radio another boat in the area but the  VHF decided it didn’t like that and committed hurry karri…

so there we where Jonty with his fish in his nice BM Gimble and me with mine shoved up into my groin with line peeling out a great rate while trying to drive the boat at the same time.

We both decided to just put the drag up to sunset and if it pulled the hook so be it then we would only have one to deal with, but nope both where well stuck. After about 35 minutes we had jontys fish at the boat so into the holder my rod went and we dealt to jontys fish

we where keen to get one smoked and Jonty wanted the bill of his first fish so in the boot it went and after abit of hooting and hollering I grabbed his gimble and another 15 minutes later we had mine at the boat, now as we already had one there was no doubt this one was to be tagged and released but after about 15-20 minutes of driving him around and trying our best to revive him unfortunately he just wasn't going anywhere(what can we do to stop this happening? I thought it was only common with blues?)

We then packed up and went straight back in to get the fish weighed

Jontys went 75.5 kg and mine at 101.6,

both off to the local smoker

Day 3: Ben (blindspot on here) decided to join us for a day out. This day went very similair to day 1, headed out the pins, Set the gear and got to trolling. this time though we headed towards castle rock as heard there had been abit of action out there, it was dead quiet for us so headed back to the pins to make sure ben left with a nice feed,

we deployed the jigs and a few drops later and ben was in solid onto a nice coro kingy, some BIG runs and the kingy managed to earn his freedom busting him off on the reef, but all went to plan after this though and a few respectable fish came aboard along with one that kept ben company on his way home to auckland. (sorry forgot to get pics)

we reset the gear and trolled our way back in, nothing to report there.

Day 4: Out to the aldies and along the 90m line just north of sugarloaf we came across a whole bunch of sign so decided to work the area for a few hours. With nothing happening the call was made to head back out wide.

We trolled out to the 70 and decided to head further east. we made it about a mile out when the Beer barrel was hit. FISH ON!! Unfortunately this one only lasted about 20 seconds before pulling the hook, although he did come back and hit our Skippy lure in which he somehow snapped the double hook but that was the last we saw of him.

We kept working this area for the next few hours but with no more luck it was time to head in, over the usual haunts then back towards the sign we went over this morning

By about 3.15 and I had just about given up hope with jonty asleep on the deck the long corner went off and woke Jonty from his slumber(sorry bro ill leave the ratchet off next time),

we got to clearing the gear and it was jontys turn on the rod again, this fish was stubborn and had already pulled about 400m of line of the reel

an hour and a half later and a few hairy moments after a failed tag attempt (good tagshot just crappy pole end poked right in when it hit the fish) and we had him at the boat, a few photos and a manual hand tag and we sent him off on his merry way, We estimated him at between 120-130 he was defiantly longer and fatter than the previous 101.6

All in all we couldn’t have asked for a better intro into gamefishing, who says you need a big boat!!

A few more pics and a quick vid