Plan was to track down some marlin if they weren't being c****, hopefully on some light stuff, bag a line class or two in the kingis, and amass a range of good scoring fish in each species for the top boat in the club.

We headed east of the Aldies day one so we could have a bash at the kingis on the way home, had we just focused on marlin that day the SST sites were showing the hook was the place to be.  Yep, turned out all the action was hot up north (including Nigglys big blue, well done that fella) and we didn't see a thing so we headed into the pins to smash a few kingis.  Some toastings on 3kg, but Ants nailed a nice one on 10kg at 19.8kg

And that fishy bugger George nailed a nice one on 8kg which went 17.8kg and this fish stayed at the top of the leader boat on 8kg for the week earning him 1st in that line class in the Nationals - stuff bro.  

After the hot bite we'd heard up at the Hook and some kings on the board it was a no brainer where we were going to head the next day....I headed for a patch south of the Hook where I'd had some action before we set the lures and just as George cranked up some Leftfeild we had a fish up.......Marlin!   It tailed the lure, I changed the revs and it it whacked the Grand Slammer Lumo and we were on on 15kg.  Marcus was on, we cleared the gear and it dropped off, looking at the leader it was bill wrapped.

We set the lures again.  This patch of water was showing some sharp SST changes on the trackline of the Navnet, 

so it looked the likely spot, sure enough we had enough marlin crash through the lures, then another....

We headed up north of the Hook to another mark, then dovetailed back to the earlier mark and just outside it we had a fish smash the Broadbill Traslucent Squid and Marcus was on again on one of his new custom game rods designed by Kojak.    

It did its thing with some mean jumps out the back, there was a bit of huffing and puffing and we had the fish to the boat in about 20 minutes the double went on the rod and it dropped off.  Bugger.  We set the lures again and just as the Bonze Apache in Evil got clipped on the shotgun it went BOOOM, not seeing the hit this time it just got scoffed.  

Mick was on strike and he got clipped in, his legs were shaking but he went to work with Ants coaching him through it WIND WIND WIND.  

This was on 15kg as well and Mick did an awesome job getting the fish short and it put up a great show right through greyhounding and when short poking its shoulders out and jumping at every chance  

Ants got the leader after about half an hour  

Marcus got a tag shot in

Epic on the board!!

A very stoked Mick about to release his 1st marlin - on ya bro!!!

Pretty stoked to have five fish up on the new boat, and the Evil Bonze Apache had struck again. A bit of 'Jesus I was Evil' was cranked to toast Micks fish that avo.

We saw a few more hookups in the afternoon, the best being Greenies Waka's blue going ape out the back amidst a flotilla of other boats.  Was just a very cool day to be gamefishing.  The boys had a couple to toast the new boats first marlin and Micks first as well (he did well considering two years ago he broke his back in six places...!)

The next few days saw some very crap weather thrown at us, we still gave it a bash but usually saw us doing some light tackle stuff near the end of the day, getting plenty of spankings but a few nice fish on 3kg coming to the boat.

Mick trying to get a kingi past a Mako on 10kg - we got half for dinner....

We did some miles chasing the marlin but when the bite came on usually we weren't where the fish were.  The new boat peformed so well through all the crap seas though and was just so comfortable for the game fishing.

The boys were well fired up on the last day.  We'd lost Ants who gapped it home to his family as soon as word of the earthquake came out, and Marcus wasn't feeling the best on the last day, so myself George and Mick went out on the final day amped to put a marlin or two on the board.  Bit of a play on the 2kg first..

The lures looked sweet, the music was good (a bit of Bob of course), and we were fired up.  Decided to work in close today, inside the Aldie pins as had seen some good bait and we hadn't had much luck working the 200-400m contours.  Less than an hour in Mick yelled out "MaaaaMaaaaMaaaa...." he couldn't quite get it out and the Bonze Apache Evil (run on short rigger today) got hammered, a stripey hit the afterburners and headed back towards Whitianga.  YeeHaaa, that man Mick was on again.  As George cleared the gear another fish came in and whacked the Zuker 3.5 on the shotgun - DOUBLE!!! It was shortlived so I gunned back on Micks fish  Mick could hear Ants in his head "WIND WIND WIND" I gave Ants a text to let him know we were hooked up and sure enough he came back WIND WIND WIND......   Holy ****......I had to chuck the boat out of gear as ANOTHER lit up stripey came in and had a look at the prop!!!!  Talk about a good patch of fish.

At first I'd called it for a small stripe maybe about 80kg and we were going to tag it but then there was a fair bit of weight there, the gaffs were readied, ended up coming up tail wrapped so we had a smoker.  Mick was just over the moon having bagged a couple for the week.

The boys were pumped.  "Righto George we're going to get you a blue now" 

 F*** me dead if we didn't have the lures set and a small dorsal fin swirls behind the same short rigger with the Bonze Apache Eeeeevil.  Blue!  It came in again engulfed the lure and went SPASTIC the spool was howling there was white water everywhere as the fish sommersualted - awesome!  Once enough lures were cleared it was flat tack in reverse, as hard as I backed down the new Senator there was very little water in the cockpit.  We charged ahead a few times to get the belly out of the line, the fish was all over the place.  At one point it charged that fast, were were up on the plane and pretty sure we had lost him, the weight coming off, it was a good twenty seconds or so before relief came and we were still on.  Half an hour later we had the fish beside the boat, it had done all the hallmark things blue's do but wasn't a big fish and so when it came to the boat we wanted to get a good look, I called to tag it first, got the leader pulled it closer, Mick got a tag shot it, pulled it closer and got the bill with it going a little ape it went on to its side BLUE!  Stick the gaff in Mick!  The gaff....put the gaff in!!  Couple of gaffs in and a pretty green fish we hauled it over the side some hollers went up and the fish came over the sidethe boys couldn't hold the weight and the fishslid down my leg with the gaff poking out, right into my calf.....OUCh.  It was a bit quiet for a while as I got taped up then we all shook hands let out some hollers and got some piccies!  The boys were stoked, what a way to finish up.  We all had faith we were going to nail it today and we'd done it.    A very stoked George FM.

Time to get the fish weighed and have some bourbons!!  The Blue went 110kg on 24kg.   

Big thanks to the boys who helped me get the boat ship shape for the next day as with one leg operational I wasn't good for much that afternoon.  George ended up with 1st kingi in 8kg line class and we got top Tairua boat with about 1500 points from the best fish in each species.  Choice.

I put the call in for a deckie and Gus who has been calling and texting every day keen to help out got the call up for the next morning.  It was supposed to be back to chasing kingis but I suggested to the guys we put some marlin lures out for an hour near the pins and my leg was sort of testament to the fact there had been some carnage out there, the guys I think we amped to get one on the way out.  I hobbled round the deck setting the lures on one leg and had only just pegged the Bonze Apache in Black over Orange on the long rigger at the same time telling the guys to work out who was on strike when they all yelled out "MaaaaaaaaMaaaaa....." BOOM it engulfed the lure.....don't seem to get any soft hits on this lure it just gets smoked.  The 15kg set howled as a stripey took off and greyhounded all over the ocean.  Mike was first on the alphabet list so he was up and Gus did a great job getting the deck cleared and everything ready.  The guys were keen to put this one in the smoker so the gaffs were readied "Ever gaffed a marlin Gus?"  Hahaha what an intitiation......  A good hour plus on 15kg and we had a stripey still pretty green boatside, I grabbed the leader the gaff went in and I grabbed the bill with the fish going spasso.  YeeHaa, we took out time pulling the fish over......  

Good to have German Thorsten on board who has done 10 or so casual days with us over the last two months so he got to be part of getting a marlin aboard on top of the stacks of kings he dealt to.

Fourth marlin for the boat in a week.  Primo!  Learnt a lot over the course of the week about where the boat pulls fish and at what speed.  Also came across a very nifty SST site seasurface.co.nz which came in real useful and certainly made the call about where to go a few days very easy and once on the water the SST tracklines and good bait reads on the Navnet certainly helped too.

The upshot of the leg incident is I got to steal Tobes deckie for a day and see him work hard  good chance to see Leeanne in her element and shes a top operator, although you want to start eating some Weetbix in the morning aye (seen here railed on the MC Works after everyone elses arms packed in)

Some time out the last few days and a good chance to reflect on what a wicked fishery we have here.  With the water still toasty and the kings starting to smash jigs ahead of the livies, March and April going to be something special I reckon.  

Sweet

Carl