Yeehaa to the Ranfurlys

Fingers X the weather was looking MINT! and it stayed that way the whole time... everything except the weather looked against us, the oil spill was heading that way, the containers were floating around and that meant we couldn't travel in the dark etc but we found that all this played right to our advantage. 
Lance was running in his two brand spanking new white John Deer engines so we were only a hundy horses short of planing. Instead of 8knots were were flying along at 12-13knots most of the way. Great weather and good decisions on Lances part meant that we got to the fishing grounds a few hours sooner than we would normally and the fact that we had to be at our anchorage by dark didn't really shorten our days at all in fact we were stuffed by the time we had to pack in for the evening. Lance really had us working hard. 

The whole time non stop I kid you not... no sooner would they bring out lunch and lance would find another massive patch of fish so it was lunch on the run and his Decky Steve worked like a champion! Lance would throw the boat into reverse and yell at the top of his lungs "Go go go" 

Mike got into one first up on the Jig He was with us last year and decided he needed to get beaten up again.

Tony McKenzie also couldn't get enough of it after last years trip when he landed his 41kg monster and a number of other high 30s 

Buzz Kronfeld was new for this trip and nailed some personal bests.

Graham Lowe was with us on this trip two years ago and was invited again by a client and friend Jim pictured below

Jim understood that he needed good gear for the trip and got set up with a custom MC Works 538xx rod which stopped a number of sizable fish in their tracks. 

Brenton who is a chippy got amongst the action with this 24kg king on a Melon-Ya Studio stickbait and later his PB which weighed in at 33kg on the CB-One Zoro which he purchased off me on the boat after seeing the size of the fish I was catching on it. 

Lance called it for 29kg but Brenton wasn't happy and asked to have it weighed... sure enough it went 33kg and you should have seen the smile on him. That made his trip. 

This one went 26-27kg and was taken on a Carpenter rod with the Carpenter GT-Gamma 120g Mackeral with 5/0 owner ST-66 trebles de-barbed. Thats the only way to fish with these. Guys that still leave the barbs on need their heads read I recon... It's down right dangerous for everyone on the boat. Lance and Steve refuse to take fish off if there are barbs on and rightly so too.

The stickbaiting worked well in the afternoon as the water warmed making the bait and larger kings come to the surface. lance would spot a work up and steam over to it. while most of us jigged a couple of die hard stickbaiters worked the oily surface (excuse the pun :) to a froth while packs of angry kings chased the lures hard. 

Warren Bell who came last year turned up with his new Stella 20000SW and Vally Hill 200-500g jig rod after taking an absolute pasting last year out here on some inferior kit and knocked over this lovely fish over 30kgs on the 500g Broken arrow 

Graham did some fine jigging and landed this fish on his OJ and Jigging Master Titanium 400g rod.  

TootdaLoot! trumpeter which are a great eating fish were in abundance on this trip and happily eat metal so bring it on I say almost everyone got one except me but I still had trumpeter for dinner last night and that shows we had a great bunch of guys on board. 

Buzz was happy with this one at 27kgs on his new MC Works 536 Northern Blue and Jigging Master PE5 until he got attached to the one below on his Stella 10000SW and stickbait outfit. The look on his face says it all. 

Tony was as usual johnny on the spot and everytime you saw him he was hooked up to a good fish and when you couldn't see him all you could hear was his Stella 20000 or 8000 howling in the background! absolutely a pronominal angler. 

He likes his light tackle too as seen on this 50lb Daiwa Saltiga set up which last year scored him a 38kg kingi in 20m of water. I wouldn't recommend this kind of gear unless you really know your stuff. As Lance constantly reminds us it's like taking a knife to a gun fight. 

Tony with his 40kg Bass and Brenton with his 34kg bass 

Tony gives his new Jigging Master spools a hiding on a nice stickbaited king

If you look at the tail of this king just in front of my hand you will see the wounds that some of them sported. perhaps shark bites from previous releases? The CB-One Zoro does the trick for me again and again what a fantastic lure...Its durable and made of really hard wood and the good news is it swims particularly well on the Carpenter rods which we sell as well which were initially made to perform their best teamed with the Carpenter Lures. 

This was another cracker Watch the hooks on these stickbaits on this green fish I nearly copped an earful as it trashed around for its freedom. 

Some just don't give up even when they are out of the water.. Hold on to it!

Twice Buzz got two on at once first these rats and them later a couple of 18-20kg models which rendered the stickbait past its used by date. 

43kg Bass 

45+kgs on the 500g Broken arrow and MC Works 538xx 
I enjoyed the Stickbaiting, it was just sensational. 

This fish went nuts and was a good 10minute fight!

When it showed and the back hook was nicely inside his mouth I relaxed a little but it was intense moments at the boat before it was hoisted in. 

This one weighed in at 41kg and was caught on a Carpenter rod and Stella 8000SW loaded with 200m of Varivas SMP PE8 Casting braid. 

the CB-One Zoro strikes again...

Lance is the man who makes it all happen and his right arm Steve, legions!

Perfect!

Yeehaa to the Ranfurlys

Photo Competition

Enter here