With another break in the weather today I took advantage and went for another jigging trip. We did quite well on the kings initially ending up with about 20 fish between 3 of us. 2 biggest were 16 and 17kg - with a few others around the 10kg mark. Not monsters but good fun size.
The kings went quiet for a while so we thought we would have a go for some puka. I had never really targeted Puka so I asked a couple of people for some advice. I didn't want specific spots but just a rough idea on what to look for. We sounded around for a while and found what I thought looked like a good patch. I put a 2 dropper rig down with a livey on 1 hook and a couta fillet on the other.
We drifted along for about 20 minutes when I started to get a bit of interest and then whammo!!!! Given I hooked this thing about 1 m from the bottom the first 20m was intense. I had to lock up the spool with my hand and just play tug of war. Eventually I started winning and got the fish clear of the bottom. I have heard a few people say that theses tings don't fight that hard... Not true. this fish scrapped hard for about 80m and only gave up once the barra trauma kicked in and it floated up the last 25m. When it surfaced there were shouts from all on deck.
Pretty happy with my first Puka. might take me a while to beat it though.
I will get a weight for it tomorrow. Any guesstimates?
A pretty good day on the water and still buzzing now!
EDIT:
I managed to weigh the fish this morning. It went just over 47kg. Don't know if they lose any weight overnight but pretty stoked to be honest. Blue Asparagus wins - although i called it for 45Kg at the time we caught it...
The picture below gives a better idea of the proportions. Interestingly when i was filleting it this morning i found a stainless steel j hook in its stomach. It has been there a fairly long time given that it had gristle and growth all over it. It had pretty light line on it though, so I'm not surprised that it managed to gain its freedom.
Having recently moved here from Oz i set myself 3 targets for my first year of fishing.
A 30Kg Kingy, a 10Kg red and a 40Kg Puka - but they have to be from my own boat. Well that is the Puka ticked off so now i can concentrate on the other 2. Just got to hope for enough decent weather windows over Winter and Spring so that i can get enough shots at them! Im confident that with enough Winter trips i will find a horse King somewhere with my name on it.