This year my annual pilgrimage to the Three Kings Islands was aboard Steve and Julie Haddocks charter boat “Zambucca”. I have always thought of Zambucca as being about the ideal for heading into the wild blue yonder, it’s size and tons of fishing room really ring all my bells, so I was delighted to be finally loading up on her one blustery Wednesday afternoon in early May.
The weather looked a little dicey for the first day or so, but a huge high was heading our way, so we were all sure things could only but improve. Staying on the wharf for the night we had a mission set us by Steve... to catch as many live bait mackerels as we could. One very nice sideline to this was that we would be able to also have a crack at landing a few john dory... perhaps the best eating fish in NZ.
Mangonui would have to be J.D. central, as over the three or four hours we were messing about with them, we managed to pop 20 of these tasty fish into the ice-box, at the same time loading up the live-bait tank with mackerel. Normally catching J.D.s is a simple matter of some live baits and patience, but no, this was not the way our second skipper, Carl, did it.
Carl’s idea of the perfect JD lure is a 3m long gaff... as soon as Carl saw a fish, he would whip out the gaff, and Blammo! another hapless JD would be flapping in the box. Talk about hands-on fishing!
Calling it quits at around midnight, we awoke next morning to find
Mangonui glassy calm... excellent! Sadly though, as soon as we cleared the
sheltered harbour, a sloppy sea from the east started to kick up. We trolled all
day without joy, before finally ending up anchoring the night at Spirits Bay.
For
the next 24 hrs, the wind kept on humming through at about 25 knots, too rough
by far to make it to the Kings, so when it dawned calm and still on Saturday
morning, we were off like a shot for those distant isles.
Heading along the 100m line heading north-west for the Kings, it was
not long before we were into some action.The water temp nudged up from a rather
cool 18 degrees to a healthier 20, when the big Purple and Black Big T marlin
lure was smacked. Hauling in the lure to check it showed the scuff marks typical
of a Marlin strike... hmmm, strike one!
By now several other boats were in the same area as us, the radio crackling with skippers calling in strikes and sightings of marlin around their boats. We were in a Marlin “bubble”, but sadly weren’t able to spend to long working the area, we were on our way out of the hotspot when again a reel screamed into life.
This
time there was no doubt as to the fish... a Marlin leapt from the wake behind
us. This fish proceeded to bounce around the sea for a fair while, with Steve
Greaves of Christchurch getting strapped into a harness to work on it.
With
the combination of good skippering and hard pulling on the 24kg Penn stand-up
rod and reel we soon had this feisty little (85kg) fish to the boat. After the
regulation photos, Steve G. opted to have the fish tagged and released, well
done mate!
We
headed on, needing to get to the Three Kings in decent time, although the
billfish were still active behind us. Stopping only for a short but very
productive stint of bottom fishing at “the Fingers”, we finally reached
Southeast bay at the Kings at around 7 PM.
Steve
had us heading out for the Kings Bank before dawn the next morning, it being
quite a haul to get there, where we were looking forward to getting into some of
New Zealand’s hottest bottom fishing action. Once on the shallower banks, we
were soon into some heavy fish action... tarakihi, trevally, all good, if not
electrifying, fish.
There
were better fish there though, with several respectable kingfish in the 30-40lb
range coming in, all of which were being released. One skilful, strong, good
looking yet modest angler managed not only a hard fighting 100lb Bass, but also
a pretty decent 60lb Hapuka in successive drops. ... gosh I’m good!
After
only an hour or two, we had filled up the Zambuccas slurry tank, probably a good
50 or 60 big tarakihi, with a dozen or so trevally scattered among them, and
several hapuku and bass awaiting the filleters knife besides. This was enough
fish for anyone, so we cruised off, this time heading across from the Kings
Bank, aiming for the Middlesex Bank to the West.
We had
a shot over the Middlesex for some more bottom fish, again filling the slurry
box with even larger Tarakihi, fish of around 7-8 lbs or so, but now decisions
had to be made.
We had
a couple of options, one was to head back to an anchorage at the Kings, then hit kingies all next day, or head
out even wider, and spend the night drift fishing for broadbill. It was so calm,
really there was no doubt about the choice.... broadbill it was to
be!
Heading out, as the sun set on the calm sea, was a magic feeling.
Beyond sight of land, we could have been anywhere in the world, it was great. We
finally reached the marks Steve had for his deepwater spot after dark, and after
a relaxed meal, set about putting out our baits.
Now,
the chances of actually getting a broadbill are, well, pretty slim really. In
all my other trips, we have had
sharks, lotsa them, but no sign of a broadbill, so my hopes for success we not
exactly high.. still, I was keen to have another larrup.
After setting the baits, relaxing, prolonged nibbles etc it was about 10.30 before I headed to bed, leaving the first 3 guys to share the first shift on the rods. Until then we had been hit once by something, only the faintest of touches, but enough to remove one of the baits, so after this was re-rigged, I collapsed in my bunk until my shift in the wee small hours.
I had
my head down for about ten minutes, when feet thudded over my head, as several
guys ran to the bow. Sensing the chance of some excitement, I got up and started
for the deck. I was only just reaching the door, when Carl yelled “BROADBILL!!!!
Steve! Steve! Broadbill!!” Mate, you never seen a bunch of fishos reach the deck
so fast.
What
had happened, at about 10.35, was the deep baits’ reel, a Penn 80STW, ticked
gently off about half a metre of line. Curious, Carl wandered over to see what
was going on. Finding the line slack, Carl wound in line, suspecting the rig had
been “sharked”. To his surprise, the line was moving slowly forward, so he wound
up the slack line, walking forward as he went.
Once
at the bow, he wound the swivel up to the rod tip, and leaned over to see what
was going on below. There, sitting on the surface of the water 3 metres below
his feet, was a massive Broadbill! I was on deck in time to see this huge beast
slowly cruise along the side of Zambucca...with the exception of a whale shark
in the Solomons last year, I have never seen such a massive
fish.
Glyn
Acraman was being bundled into a harness as the Swordfish slowly cruised off
into the dark. Line melted slowly from the big gold 80wide reel, not making the
slightest impact on the fish, slowly peeling off a couple of hundred metres of
line before Steve started the big 1100hp
deisel of Zambucca, and turned the boat to follow the
fish.
Now it
was fairly easy to gain line, this fish was not worried in the least, it just
didn’t know it was hooked up, that’s all. It is a little hard on the ego to know
that with our heaviest gear, so far we had not even got this fishes attention!
.
By now
we knew we would be in for a long battle, mammoth fish just do not come in
quickly. We would have liked a few hours to tire the fish a little, but this
fella had different plans. To our considerable consternation, the fish turned
and came straight back at us! Yikes! So, here we were with a very large fish,
coming right at us, only ten minutes or so from “hook-up”! Uh-oh, this one was
gonna come in hot!
The
next few minutes seemed to last for hours, as the huge Swordfish ran once at the
boat, then, as Steve surged Zambucca ahead to avoid having the fish tangle in
the prop etc, it managed to get itself tail-wrapped... NOW it knew something was
going on!
In
several scything circles, the big Broadbill raced around on the surface,
throwing out plumes of white water as it beat up the trace to free itself.
Finally getting enough slack, it again ran at the boat. Again Steve was forced to gun Zambucca ahead, as he
did so he yelled “Everybody get a gaff! We’re only gonna get on shot at this
&*^%$#$& fish, ...and when we hit it with those gaffs, guys, it’s gonna
go Ballistic!”
After one more surge out wide, on the circle of the light, the fish turned about, and again came in hot alongside the boat. This time we were ready for it.. we thought.
First
up, Carl slammed the flying gaff into the broad shoulder of the fish, next Steve
Greaves slammed in the big 30cm fixed gaff, followed by a couple more large
gaffs, all into the shoulder around the dorsal fin. Our skipper was right... the
fish did go ape.
In a
flurry of white water, Carl, Steve G, and Malcolm were hauled along the side of
Zambucca. Skipper Steve leaned over, grabbing the rope on the flying gaff,
allowing Carl to get slack line to repostion himself, all the time yelling out
“Gaffs! Where are the rest of the gaffs!!” It seems, in the daze of the moment,
several of the guys were just standing watching, with a couple of the biggest
gaffs sitting in their holders.
Well,
without the extra hooks into this fish, the inevitable happened.... first
Malcolm had to let go his gaff as he was slammed to the side of the boat, on his
way over the rail, next SteveG was pulled almost over, and as he had to let his
gaff go, the flying gaff ripped from the shoulder of the powerfully thrashing
beast. Somewhere in the melee, even worse, the line had become wrapped about one
of the gaffs, and with a snap like a rifle shot, our last connection to this
leviathon was gone. Gone. The Broadbill was gone.
We
were gutted. What more can I say, I am sure you can all relate to how we felt.
The silence was deafening as we all realised we had stuffed up a once in a
lifetime chance. Oh, Bugger.
With
immediate 20/20 hindsight, we all were able to point out what we did wrong, and
how we could do it better... but all too late. Gone. Even as I write this, I
shake my head and relive thirty seconds of the most intense action on a boat I
have ever had, and the bitterest disappointment. Gone.
BUGGER!!
We
were all standing around the shattered remains of our egos, too stunned to do
much else, when Mike Barlow yelled out “Here! Here it is, right here!!” Sure
enough, not 3 metres from the side of Zambucca, the huge fish slowly cruised
past the boat. In the vain hope that the fish would come close enough for
another shot at a gaff, we surged to our few remaining gaffs, lining the rail as
the big fish slowly circled us in the lights.
It was
eerie, the way this monster from the deeps cruised unconcernedly around,
and under the hull of Zambucca,
fractionally too far away for us to gaff... ooooh, mate! You have no idea of the
mixture of emotions! From frustration to awe,we watched as this massive
warrior of the deeps circled us once
more, then slowly, casually, swam off into the night.
Xiphias Gladius, the broadbill swordfish is an incredible animal...and
this time he beat up this sorry collection of fishos good and
proper.
For
the rest of the night, we drifted more baits, but the anticlimax of loosing this
fish robbed us of much enthusiasm. Guys just sat around, staring into space, we
all had a major case of the “If only’s”!
When
Dawn came, we really were rather relieved. Now we were keen to head into the
Islands, chasing something we were fairly sure we could handle! kingies! It was
a long troll in to the Middlesex again, then on towards the Princes Rocks, our
kingfish spot.
On the
way, we related our tale to the other boats out there, the story of huge
Broadbill enough to get Striker and Oversea’er to head out to try their own luck
the next night. We would have loved to be able to do so as well, but our trip
was almost over, we were due back in Mangonui the next day, we had run out of
time.
We
reached the Princes Rocks at around noon, and using a selection of dead squid,
cut baits, and a few feeble small mackerel, managed to catch nothing at all for
half an hour or so. Realising that we would need good bait to get into some
fussy feeding kingfish, we headed
off to North-west Bay to anchor up for an hour or two to catch
baits.
Finally anchored in the glassy calm bay, Carl burleyed up a mass of
koheru behind the boat. These koheru are easily distinguishable from ordinary
jack mackerel, by their blue backs. yellow tails and the bright yellow stripe
along each flank... very colourful.
Using
small silver grim reaper jigs, 7 and 13 gm ones working best, we soon had a good
flow of these top live-baits coming aboard. Among the koheru were masses of pink
and blue maomao, and it was not long before a couple of good kingies swam into
view among these baitfish.
The
temptation of seeing these marvellous fish cruising about was enough to have
several of the boys grabbing live-bait rigs, and scoring a couple of our
precious koheru, soon had baits swimming on their way to kingie
lunchhood.
Glyn
managed to land his, a nice 35lb fish, which once released, signalled the end to
our stay at anchor. The day wearing
away, we headed back to our prime kingfish spot.
The
difference of having good livies was immediately obvious. As soon as we got a
bait down 50-80ft, they were being clobbered. Kingies, and big ones too. For the
next two hours, until dusk, we all landed several great kingies, the pick of the
bunch a prime 40 kilo beauty that Glyn managed to wrestle away from the rocks
and cray pots. What a fish! Mike also picked up some very fat 70lb fish, the
rest of us scoring well with 40-60 lb fish, even a snapper was picked up on a
big kingies live-bait. Awesome
fishing.
As far
as the fishing went, that was about it for us. Although we were keen to get into
another marlin on the way home, none of us were really hell-bent on getting more
fish... we had all had our fill of catching fish in 4 very frantic days at the
Kings. Just to amuse ourselves that last night, we fed the seals at the main
island the last of our live baits, which was also kinda
fun.
Back
at Mangonui, all our memories of the trip were coloured by our getting thrashed
by that huge Xiphias Gladius, but none-the-less, we all had a truly great time,
doing the Three Kings on Zambucca. Same again next year!
PS, as
an aside, the next night, in the same spot as we had been, Striker landed one
Broadbill, while Oversea’er got two! We listened to all this on the radio at
anchor at the Kings.... frustrating? mate, what do you
think!
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