So after being stuck on my family holiday surrounded by gamefishing boats and all my gear sitting in the garage at home I was feeling rather tortured. Got back to work last Monday and managed to do a good 6hrs or so, Tuesday maybe 1 hour, by Wednesday I was on my way to coromandel. Weather turned to poos Thursday so went and got scallops and shot some bunnies with the 4 yr old boy.
Friday came and we finally got to get a lure in for the season. Was pretty lumpy to start with and was a quiet morning. At 2:15pm I looked back in time to see a stripey chasing short rigger and jumped in the cabin to yank the wheel left to drop the lure back and we were in. 20mins later we had a stripey boatside and were going to get some good photos and release him, he wanted to have another run so we let him go again and the hook fell out before he got to smile for the camera. Bit of a shame for Rob not to get a photo with his first marlin but still caught one.
Day two was pretty different with a couple of comps and anniversary weekend and the traffic was nuts. Got my SST chart downloaded around 9am and headed south to a likely looking temp break. Arrived there to see another boat hooked up and they dropped it not long after. We didn't have the patience to stay there as the horizon was to attractive so out we went to 700m. Saw a piece of carpeted ply from up on the roof and got the guys to turn the boat to check for mahi mahi. As we approached I saw a whole school make a beeline for the lures. I was down from the roof and waiting at the rod for the bite. Grabbed the first rod, then another went off, and then Ray, whose turn it was on the rod arrived to find that both rods had been taken and he was left without one. Until the 3rd rod went off. So all three of us hooked up with mahi mahi screeming all through the other lines and no one to help with anything, first fish was lost at the boat. I pulled in an 7kg model then rob hauled in rays fish, he got rewarded for being last and had a donkey thrashing around the front of the boat. Adrenalin was running and I got the tangles undone and boat running again while rob dealt to the thrashing fish with a scrubbing brush handle, a site that had to be seen! lures went back in as we circled back round for another go. Hooked one and dragged it along the surface trying to get another but no takers. So now we had 3 in the boat and kept trolling for another 15 mins. There were dozens of them but they just wouldn't bite. So out came the tackle bags and every lure, jig and hooky object we owned. They would chase but wouldn't bite. Was so frustrating.
Then I remembered I had chucked my mask and fins in for a water shot of a marlin if we caught one, and hadn't unpacked the speargun from my last dive. So in I went with nothing but a mask, fins and gun. Straight away the school swam past and I shot the biggest one but it ripped off the spear as I didn't have a float line to let the gun go, man are those things fast after theyve been shot! Reloaded very calmly with no panic at all and found the school and shot another, got a good gill shot this time and after finding out how sharp their gills are by getting my bare hands in the I threw him in the boat and felt pretty chuffed to spear one!
Jumped back in by the board and shot one more which wasn't the best shot, took 10mins to catch him and got him in the boat too. While I was fighting that one I saw 3 kingies under the resident bass holding under the board. Throught I might go get one of those but they were gone by the time I got back.
Now the boat looked like a chainsaw massacre had occurred and we had 5 nice fish. Sorted ourselves out and started marlin fishing again. no more action for the day but feeling pretty contented by then.
Back at whangapoua the king tide was right out and the bar was a bit hairy, had 3 boats follow us in and had to plane through the estuary to avoid getting beached. Hit the sand twice but kept momentum and made it.
Weighed our fish and ended up with the speared ones going 8 and 9kg and the line caught ones going 6,7 and just shy of 17kg!
Awesome first trip for the season and pretty excited to get back to work now