Having moved down to Nelson in April, my short priorities list has for the last few months looked looked like this;
1. Get to D'Urville
2. Everything Else
However between work and the weather, every attempt had been thwarted at various stages. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen when I got the call from Mario from Big Blue, there was a weather window, a spare spot on a boat and it was all on.
I must admit I may have become a little over excited when packing the gear, and we ended up with so much gear on board that we could barely move. After the 1.5hr drive over the hills to Okiwi Bay, we finally got on the water and started the steam to the western side of D'Urville.
While we were unfortunately limited due to time and the size of the boat and were unable to make it up to Stephen's passage, it was great to be back on the water and after an hour and a bit of dodging logs, we pulled up to our first area to have a crack at a king.
Second drop and my brand new CD Jig rod loaded up and we were in. As it was doubling as a gear testing trip, I cranked up the drag and gave it death. A couple of minutes later, the first king popped up, a few quick snaps were taken, and he was sent on his way. Unfortunately that was the start and finish of our kingfish action, as a swarm of boats descended on the area while I was hooked up, but was great to finally pop my SI kingfish cherry
Loaded up
Cherry = popped
Next on the menu was snaps, and they went much the same way as the kings, first drop produced a solid fish then nothing from then on.
Pete with the only snap of the day
From then on we searched high and low for both kings and snaps to no avail, but knocked over almost every other species in between. Blue cod, red cod, scarpies, couta, trevally and john dory all graced the deck at various stages to keep things interesting, all falling to slow jigs.
Solid Blue Cod on a slow jig - they were climbing over the jigs and some solid specimens amongst them
We discovered a new species of mysterious flying cod too
A tasty Dory that provided a bit of novelty for the other guys who had never seen one in the flesh before
Pete loaded up on a big trev
65cm+ of angry, string pulling muscle
And to finish things off, the mother of all Red Cod
So a thoroughly enjoyable day despite mixed results, and I can't wait to get back up there and have a second crack at it - bring on some more good weather!!