Every year in late winter or early spring Team Tagit assembles at Obald Acres for a soiree. Wog tucker is consumed in bulk quantities, grog is consumed in moderation and it is decided we will spend ten days in Waihau Bay in early February and a week at the Kings in late March/ early April. We usually end up doing neither.
So it was that the A Team assembled at Z Pier with a game plan of 'turn right at the Tank Farm'. The usual mix of youth and experience as they say in other team sports parlance. Read some old buggers (Boulder, Your Scribe), some young bucks (Biggear and R. Bull) with the Skipper nicely placed au milieu. It had been obvious for days that the weather was going to be unpleasant for the first three or four days and this unpleasantness got worse the further North you went. The Mercs seems an obvious first point at which to base ourselves for the first part of the trip; options both north and south once the weather cleared, the Hook was fishing well and a good shelter from easterlies.
Not so fast. Once we got past Gannet Rock it was obvious to at least the old farts that leaving Channel Island to port was not what we wanted to do in the prevailing conditions. Tuck into the coast inside the Coromandel having picked up a few scollies and get stuck into the first roast pork of the week. Big Julie? A half hearted attempt, as I recall, with no cigar.
We've got to suck up the trip around the top of the Coromandel sooner or later and it might as well be now. Surprisingly OK until we got to Square Top and then it got really quite unpleasant - enough so for me to abandon the flybridge for reasons of heading off the mal de mer at the pass. Into Home Bay for more scollies and bit of fun with the resident cartilaginous fish. By the light of the waxing moon (more of this later) Bull got wasted on his brand new 50W full of bright shiny fluoro Momoi. It is now less full of bright shiny….. and this pretty much consigned this outfit to night time play fishing for the rest of the trip as the reel was not top shotted. I suspect it will be now. Roast beef tonight with the usual vile weed. The quality of the roast spuds starting to be a worry
Dawn breaks and it is still blowing dogs off chains. Someone foolishly broaches the idea of game fishing. Never mind, he'll learn. I didn't respool the bait runner for nothing and after the morning scollie and crayfish gathering it was bought into play. First problem. The rod to which it was matched hadn't been out in the sunlight for, ooh, twelve years and the first two guide cages had corroded through thus depositing the guides on the deck. Boulder to the rescue with another rod (now there's a surprise) and this set is now a proper oursies. Obald uses this to easily take out the first trophy of the trip - Biggest Snapper. Also realised that a bait runner is not an ideal match to a 150kg bronzie. All discovered this. 10kg? No. 15kg? No. Stop messing around; out with the harnesses and the 24kg stand up stuff (vide supra). Hours of harmless fun bringing nearly a tonne of shark to the boat and donating lots of big circle hooks to Davy Jones' locker. Sea food smorgasbord - trevally sashimi, scollies, and lemon honey snapper with crayfish tails.
More damned wind. Best we could come up with today was a trip to the Whitianga New World as the ginger nut supplies had been severely under estimated. Thanks to Tobes for so willingly supplying the transport. A lot of reading and sleeping starting to to come to the fore as daytime activities. At least it looks like we will be able start fishing in the morning. The Hook is obvious. The intel from prior to the blow was that this is where there were fish, it was close and the Weasel was also whispering 'The Hook' into my ear. The Weasel was giving concerns at a level that the roast spuds were causing but that deserves a wee paragraph to itself a little later. Roast chook.
At long bloody last we are into it. We've had three days to pick the run on team and we have for your delight and delectation at sort corner a 16 series black Naga in black and purple. But there is a difference as Naga will play slightly out of position (think Ma'a Nonu playing 13) at second long corner. Short corner hasn't been touched on Tagit for the last few trips so we'll try this. At long corner we have the Skipper's All American; that was never not going to happen. At short rigger we have last season's MVP the green/gold Merlin. Long Rigger? Bonze Trojan in Evil. It was Biggear's choice and he is much bigger than me and a lot more mobile than Boulder. Shotgun - I suppose so - a 12 series white Naga (damn you chromers) in Dorado sporting a secret squirrel new hook rig Fedexed from Florida just for the trip. Right Mrs Marloon get your laughing gear stuck into that lot.
20.2 water with temp breaks sort of where the Weasel said they would be and we are the only show in town on the Hook. Lots of bait (this was to be so all week), reasonable colour water. What is missing in this picture? Well nothing after a solid but not spectacular strike on long rigger. Biggie saw the fish (but no one else did) and declared it a marlin of reasonable dimensions. A lot (ish) of line streaking along the surface but absolutely no jumping and then the line goes down. Straightaway; down and stayed down. Boulder was persuaded into the chair (well, not really - he was really quite keen). A bit of backing down in still sloppy seas to ensure all got wet and looked like real salty sea dogs and twenty minutes later a bronzed up blue marloon was wallowing just off the port quarter. Stu does a fine job on the leader, Bull almost runs it through with the tag pole and its snooter time. If you haven't got one of these, make one as they really are a must have item.
Swam the fish beside boat for fifteen minutes or so but she was obviously getting worse and not better. God, I hated this but had to admit this fish wasn't even looking like reviving. Right pectoral pointing at the sun and the whole outfit looking like an advert for a tanning studio not a good look. Out with the transom door, head in the bog so she'll fit in the cockpit and who is going to donate two towels to the cause? This is really quite a big fish and we obviously can't keep it on the boat all week. I mean how are we going to complete our morning activities? 'I can't go for a dump as there's a marlin in the dunny'. Make arrangements for weighing, smoking etc at Whiti and troll until mid afternoon with no result. Boulder does a lot of TXTing. Of note though is that there is still loads bait around.
The Whitianga Game Club's gantry winch is shot. No problem if you can call up an eight wheeler with a Hiab on the back. 207.3kg. If it has to be dead that is not a bad sort of dead. Boulder is even more pleased than the rest of us. So pleased that he had a shave and put on a clean shirt.
The Weasel was having a series of transient ischaemic attacks at the end of last season and therefore spent the winter in a residential care facility. He was returned in good health after having one of his USB ports surgically removed. It was also decided that he should go onto a new diet. He had been weaned from birth on NIWA complete SST food and conditioner. But a new product has come onto the market which promises better performance, stamina and value for money. So it is www.seasurface.co.nz for you, my young friend; eat it and enjoy it. It is always trouble changing an animal's diet and I can't pretend that the switch was without problem. Weasel kept vomiting his breakfast. He'd be fine for a day and then he would bring it all back up again for the next three. Or retain some of it and chunder up the best bits. I am at a loss know why at the moment - I thought decimal lat/lon was the problem for a couple of days, but no - but it will be sorted. So we had nearly realtime SSTs most of the week (good cell phone coverage at the Mercs and Toots and you get up to five or six satellite passes a day) but only live GPS overlay for three days.
Weasel said the warm water (no chlorophyll on the passes I had) had moved out and had split into two bodies north and south of The Hook. No problem we'll do that for the Wednesday. Back to the scene of Boulder's triumph and who changed things around? In particular who nicked all the bait? We tool around for a couple of hours but this is not working. Make your mind up time. Options. Stay where we are and she'll come right. Not attractive for nebulous reasons. Go South. Good looking water at the Aldermans, better weather there now but no reports of any fish and do we want to go to Mayor? Go North. Weather will be fine by tomorrow and there is a good bite off Ocean Beach. North it is. An arid troll to Arid Island and I can't remember what protein was roasted for tea. The roast potatoes still causing concern.
Thursday and its off to Whangaruru. A nice trip this as you have to do the 155 and the Bream Knolls on the way. Second marlin encounter of the week as we pulled in a skippy leaving the Barrier. A fish gave Boulder's Under Long Corner (deary me) a wee touchette as the bait got to the boat. No more despite an effort with a livey. We were to see this behaviour (or lack of, more like) a lot over the next couple of days. Stop at the 155 for a puka drop in weather that can at last be said to belong to the first week in February. Two puka about that big and a load of small sharks. The Bream Knolls produce nothing on the pelagic front and we set course for the outside of the north end of the Knights. Channel 4 tells of two fish that day in 105 and 110 metres inside the Knights, the remnants of the Weasel's breakfast show good water inside the Knights and so inside it is. 1800 and the Bull is onto a small stripey which comes from nowhere to eat his 'orrible pink thing being towed in the most 'oribble position in the spread, shotgun. In short order a 70kg-ish stripey is in perfect health sitting on the snooter with a tag in his shoulder. A few pics and he swims off into the sunset. That's better. In three days Tagit has had the largest and smallest marlin he's driven for at the boat. Into Whangaruru, fill up the livey tank with some kahawai and beer battered hapuka.
Friday. Drop the bubble blowers over for a couple of crays and into the trolling. No reason not to stay in close and off to Ocean Beach. None of us (not even Boulder, I think) had fished here much and it was make it up as you go along time. Never seen so much bait. I mean the sounder blacked out much bait. We can't miss. Well we can. Several shots at towing lives produce as much as towing plastic. Can't buy a bite. Head back to be just inside the Knights in time for the evening bite and we come across a huge work up of largish fish. Can this be a yellowfin work up? BIg hair, flared trousers and multiple YFT hook-ups? Bang, long rigger hooked up. Bang second shottie (I said it had been a quiet day up to now) hooked up. Keep going. More strikes but the lures are too big for their current customers. Two on and the expectations still high that these might be yellowfin. Well they had yellow fins but only at the back. A pack attack of kingfish in the mid teen size range over the Laughlan Shoal. These are no match for a 37kg chair rod and soon four decent kingfish fillets were in the freezer with 'Go to Mr Bradley' written on them. No evening bite for Biggear to munch upon and into Toots for roast chook. Bull excels himself and was awarded two Moggy Stars for the roast spuds. I wanted to add the garlic clusters but was out voted. Nautigirls on at Toots so we anchored off much to the relief of some of the crew (including your aging scribe) and the consternation of others (who had better remain unidentified).
Last full day's trolling so a splash of diesel and lures in at the crack of 0900. Weasel was having a good day on the retaining breakfast front and so we were able to accurately troll the good water all over the show - and I mean all over the show - for precisely no result. Again the conditions looked primo. Great temperature and water colour, bait for Africa (and Asia and half of South America) but Mrs Marloon was hiding with her mouth severely closed. And we weren't the only ones. A hundred boats out today, I would think, and a handful of marlin only for the effort. Newly waning moon, small tides, world price of tin at the wrong level? All possibilities discussed and we will take these into account when planning the next trip in a few weeks time. Well perhaps not the commodity price bit. Last night and its anchored off in Toots harbour again with the third roast pork of the week. This is a crew I can work with.
More Weaseling to plan the best route to the Mokes for the trip home. Two choices. Pinnacles-Bream Knolls-Mokes or inside, yes inside, the hundred metre line past Ocean Beach and the Hen and Chicks. But definitely not down the middle. Chose the 'safe' option of the former but we would have caught as much if we had put the boat on a transporter and driven it down SH1. A tailer in 70 metres 6 miles NW of Little Barrier was the only feature of a somewhat surprisingly lumpy (well certainly for an hour) trip back to Westhaven. Has anyone actually ever caught a tailer - inside the Gulf or not? I certainly haven't.
Back on Z pier 27 minutes after predicted ETA and we are done. Conclusions. A fantastic holiday. I felt (still feel) totally rested. Ten days with excellent company just playing the goat (a shaving ban dictated by rules that change by the hour anyone?) cannot be beaten as R & R. I somehow managed to not put on any weight. Goodness knows how as my Tagit trips are the best (read most unhealthy) I eat all year and my exercise levels drop to the levels that would shame a sloth. Game fishing is very complicated and difficult and I wouldn't have it any other way. If it were easy I would have given it up years ago. Well I haven't and I want to do some more and pretty soon please.
lots of bait good water seems to be the flavour, better than no bait and no fish
Dead Ant wrote: Another great read thanks Obald.. 2 Marlin in 5 days is a pretty good result. Bring on round 2! |
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