On Board Pursuit with Capt Asparagus

For years now I’ve been wanting to go on a Fishing Trip with Rick Pollock, one of  New Zealand’s best known and regarded  Charter Skippers. Rick has operated the Pursuit, a 45 foot Morgan  boat, and in this lovely lady he earned himself the reputation as the Top Dog in fishing circles. The one small hold-back I had with going out with Rick was that I knew the old Pursuit to be --er, somewhat snug in the sleeping and living arrangements, and as I am not the smallest person you’d meet, this was a bit of a worry.

You wouldn’t believe how it can upset small guys when some lumbering behemoth such as myself  squishes them for the umpteenth time due to a scarcity of maneuvering room in the cabin. So, when I found out Rick had started building a new boat, I was immediately keen to  see what the new boat would be like. The new boat, still bearing the proud name of PURSUIT is a Nautic Designed 15 metre vessel, built by Aztec Marine of Tauranga.

Rick had been planning this boat for a long time now, since 1994 in fact, and I knew well that there would be a huge rush to try this new Jewel in the Crown of New Zealand’s Charter fleet. I was delighted then to find that  only a couple of weeks after Rick started operating the new “ Pursuit” He had an opening for a couple of days-- so I booked it real quick!

Organizing six other similarly keen fisho’s was a cinch, as interest in this new arrival has piqued the curiosity of many of the guys I go fishing with . The crew assembled had all done other trips with me before, with the exception of  Mike Barlow of Auckland.

We assembled at the Whakatane wharf  at the due time, to see for the first time Ricks new PURSUIT.  Our immediate impression was that we had the wrong boat. This boat was flash. This boat was spic and span. Hell, this boat gleamed ! For an assorted collection of scruffs such as ourselves to clamber aboard this beauty seemed  to be almost sacrilege. The new Pursuit looks a million bucks, it truly is an awesome creature.

Rick was soon on hand though to quell our anxieties and to welcome us all aboard, helping us to store away all the masses of gear and food and tackle that seven guys create. As we stowed our kit away, we all took the opportunity to have a good nosey around the lay-out of the Pursuit.

Wow! What a boat! Rick had obviously taken heed of the spacial requirements of the fuller-figured (such as yours truly), and had this boat designed for Big Blokes. The upshot of this is that the Pursuit  has room to burn inside and outside. Comfortable, wide seating abounds. I think one of the best room-making moves was to keep the salon clear of any of the controls- the only helm-station on the boat is in the Flying bridge, apart from a small  fighting-station in the cockpit. Doing this created room in the salon for another bench seat and a small Dinette with two fixed bar-stools-- very handy indeed.

After a quick round of introductions, Rick fired up the motors, and off we headed for the wide Blue Yonder. We had really lucked out on the weather, it was perfect, with barely a ten knot breeze, and crossing the Whakatane Bar was an absolute doddle. Our plan of attack was to head out to Whale Island for that night, concentrating first up on catching a heap of live-baits at anchor, so that the next morning we could head out to the Ten Mile Reef to get stuck into a bunch of the smallish Kingies that haunt the area in the winter.

After anchoring up, our immediate attention to the task of  bait catching was diverted by the snacks, nibbles and drinks provided by our pair of Deckies we had on this trip. Rick had along two of his regular Deckies along on this trip, Gavin and Quentin,  so the service, which is usually brilliant ,was now almost super-nova in its intensity-- barely a minute went by where either of the guys were offering us hot-drinks, cold-drinks or something- anything-- to eat. It was not long before I was sloshing and waddling about the deck, replete with Milo and crackers.

It was just as well though that there was such an abundance of warm drinks, as the wind was from the south, and although not too strong, it was really cold, and cut through you like a knife. And people wonder why I like fishing the tropics in the winter!

The bait-fish were also not keen on playing ball,  with the small mackerel avoiding us in droves. What with the cold and the lack of action, it was not long before the guys started fading off to their bunks, until by mid-night there was only Paul Alach, Rod Lang and myself left, tenaciously trying to eke out a supply of livies for the next days fishing.

Then, at about half-past, all of a sudden the fish arrived. It was as if some-one had rung a dinner bell, as masses of the small mackerel pounced on our Sabikis with a vengeance. In half an hour, we quadrupled the number of livies in our tank. See, you can tell when the Gun Fisho’s are in charge, eh!

With heaps of bait now on hand we decided it was time for us to hit the hay too.

Next morning, after a hearty breakfast and more copious quantities of hot drinks, we headed out to the Ten Mile. Our plan here was to get stuck into the kingies, but also to nail a few of those tackle-robbing vermin, the barracoutas. No good for eating, as they tend to be full of Parasitic worms, the barracouta make excellent baits for the deep-water fishes we were planning on hitting later.

Most of the guys were rigging up light live-bait rigs,  which were basically a four- to six ounce lead sinker, above a swivel, 80lb trace, and a small, say 4/0 or 5/0 , live-bait hook. These hooks were small enough to easily and harmlessly hook into the little 125mm mackerel we had as baits, yet strong enough to land decent sized small kingfish.

Personally, I opted for a 125gm Green/yellow Grim Reaper, with the treble hook replaced by a single hook, as I wanted to get both couta and kings. By using just a single hook on the jig, I don’t think I miss many more strikes than anyone else, but it is much, much easier releasing fish (a treble hook can chew up the side of fishes’ face, even if you intend to release it, you can still mangle a fish with a treble) and on larger fish I think a single hook actually holds better than a treble.

When fishing in ‘couta infested waters, always use Black swivels and old, duller sinkers, as couta snap at anything shiney in the water. I was using black swivels, but still managed to get snipped off a couple of times by these tackle-robbing mongrels! 

Fishing on the Pursuit was a breeze, the walk-around lay-out made following the fish as they ran around under the boat (as kingfish tend to do) very easy. The kingfish themselves were pretty enthusiastic to play with us- that is, on the occasions when we could get our gear through the Razor Gang.

None of the fish landed were of any decent size at all, by summertime standards not one of these fish would have been kept, but for winter time on the Ten-Mile, they were about average. Still, playing with these little scrappers on lighter gear was a real buzz, the guys all having fun, with Terry Masters, who had never caught a kingfish before, landing the best of the day, a plump little 10 kilo fish that really gave him a mean work-out on some light gear.

After a couple of hours of  playing with these little fellas, Rick decided it was time for us to head on out to White Island to go for some of the Deep water fish out wide. This was fine by us, as we had kept enough kings for the Pot, had enough ‘couta for bait and wanted to have a shot at a hapuku.

The hapuku fishing this winter so far has been hard, so Rick reckoned on starting out on some deep areas before heading in to the shallow spots. It’s funny how all things can be relative, eh. When talking ‘Puka, “deep” means about 350metres, and “shallow” is a measly 250 metres! Not exactly Hauraki Gulf Depths, eh!

Our first “drop zone” was into around 1000 feet of water, and once we had finally got our baits to the bottom (the thought of having to wind all that line back in as you are watching it whistle out with such ease is really quite daunting!) we began the long, patient wait for something to happen.

For the guys fishing with nylon, this can be a rather tedious process, as nylon has a lot of elasticity, so once you let out more than 100 metres or so, the stretch cancels out any sensations of fish-bites or hook-ups at all. There is a fairly new sort of line on the market now though, commonly called ‘Spectra’, which has very little (pretty much nil) stretch, and only about a third the thickness of nylon. Fishing with this is enormously different.

I use spectra for deep fishing all the time, as I can feel every slight tap or nibble on the line, even in these great depths, and it makes for much more interesting fishing I can tell you!

At least, it would have if there had been any fish biting there. There were stacks of fish on the screen of the fish-finder, but they must’ve been bloomin’ well fed ones, because they weren’t hungry at all! Still, a slow flow of fish started to come aboard in the next few drifts, mostly small bluenose and gemfish, with no big fish putting in an appearance there that day. After a few of these less than electric drifts, Rick asked if we felt like mugging a bunch of tarakihi on a shallower spot, and as all our r arms were aching from winding in three or four hundred metres of line, we readily agreed.

On the way to our tarakihi drop,  Rick called over Steve Haddocks’ Zambucca, to pick up Gavin the Deckie, who had to get back in for a Radio course the next morning. Watching these two boats ease up to each other, without touching but only a mere 200mm apart is really impressive and a great indication as to the skills of these two top skippers. Once Gavin had left, the constant flow of hot drinks buttoned off a little, we actually got down to about a cup per half hour.

On we went then, closer to White Island, as we went the water was flattening out all the time- brilliant weather!  This time, Rick assured us, we’d get ourselves a good feed of tarakihi, so we changed rigs from the big heavy hapuku gear- 250lb trace and big 12 to 14/0 tuna circles, to 80lb trace with either small 10/0 tuna circle hooks or even 2/0 or 3/0 bait hooks for the smaller mouths of the tarakihi. Because I was using Spectra, and was able to “set” the hooks when bitten, I opted to use 2/0 Mustad Accupoint hooks.

So, down go the baits, and straight away, the rod-tip started thumping and bumping to the beat of hungry tarakihi. Jon Junge, also using Spectra, also reported heaps of activity, and before long we all had fish coming up. Nice tarakihi, all of between 1.5-2 kgs, to drop on the decks, with Terry Masters again proving to be a demon fish-killer. Three hooks down, three fish up!

Me, well I wasn’t quite so prolific, though perhaps more fortunate. I put down my little hooks and boomp! Something heavy latched on to it. Putting up quite a struggle, this fish or fishes unknown really did not want to come up, but 24kg line will tend to win most contests, so up it came. To our considerable surprise and delight, it turned out to be a nice little 10kg Hapuku! It was actually a lucky catch, as it had all but straightened the tiny 2/0 hook and gained its’ release, but luckily for us, the gaff got to it before the hook let go.

After loading up with enough tarakihi to keep us all happy, Rick suggested heading back out to the general area we had fished earlier-- the fish sign on the sounder had been just too good for him to ignore, there had to be fish there! So off we motored again, re-rigging our heavy gear, hoping that this time, as evening approached, the fish might be a bit more co-operative.

We were pleased to find that Rick was right, the fish were keener on dinner now, and in just a few drifts, we hauled up a good number of bluenose, and Glyn Acraman picked up a couple of nice little 5-6 kg bass, establishing himself as the trips’ resident bass master. By the end of the last drift however, evening had well and truly set in, so Rick fired up Pursuits' motors and headed us in towards White Island, dropping anchor in Works Bay, while Quint busied himself cooking up a huge spaghetti bolognaise for the guys.

Out at White, the bait fish were way more prolific, and they were big fellas too. One of my favourite parts of fishing these trips is chasing the big mackerel at White. Sure, partly it is because they make dynamite baits for everything from kingfish to hapuku, but mostly because they are suckers for a hook and fight like pocket rockets on light gear.

Sabikis have to be pretty substantial to survive long at White Island, and in the long run I have found it easier, and usually safer, to use just a single small (say 7 gm) silver jig. Jon started the bait-ball rolling, as soon as the anchor was down, he was out the back fishing for livies, and once we saw the success he was having, the rest of us emerged from the luxury of the warm salon to do battle with these wee beasties.

It wasn’t long after the fish started to grow in numbers around the boat that the first squid showed up-- and it was a monster of a squid too. The common arrow squid you get at White Island is about 300mm long, but this one was easily twice that size. If I could get that squid, man, I reckon I’d have one Monsta Puka bait! So, off with the mackerel jig, on with a squid jig.

The squid was not too impressed with my choice of lure though, obviously he wanted something a little tastier than bland plastic, so with the addition of a little bait to the lure, I again put temptation in the squids way. This time the lure of bait was too much for this big  critter, and after a decent little tussle, we finally managed to ease a little dip-net under it to lift it aboard. What a beauty!

Flushed with this Cephalopodian Success, I decided to dedicate myself to the capture of more squidlies, so as to have enough for some fresh squid rings in the morning. Meantime, the others concentrated on the task of acquiring a stock of healthy live-baits for our next days fishing.

After a few hours, the bait tank was filling up, and so a couple of the guys decided to see if there were  any kingies around among the stacks of baitfish around the Pursuit. First, Glyn put out a little Livie, but this was soon nailed by a prowling squid, not a king. Then Jon, studiously slaughtering mackerel for the next day noticed some rather larger fish circling deeper in the water. Ah-ha! The kings were in town!

Alrighty then, off came the small jigs and last remaining sabikis, as Jon, Terry and Glynn concentrated on nabbing a rat king or two. These fish were all small- around five to 7.5 kg, (these little kingies are known as “rats” in White Island parlance), but as the guys were using four to six kilo line, these small scrappers still put up a serious struggle.

Jon was the first to hook up, on a sweet little 4kg set-up, with the aggro little kingie making his small Abu reel scream on it’s first run or two. (It’s more fun to leave the ratchet on for a minute or two when fishing at night, as it really bugs the guys trying to get some sleep below!). However, with no rocks nearby for the fish to bust off on, Jon soon had the fish under control, and ten minutes later we released unharmed the nice little 15lb (7 kg) king.

One down, heaps more to go. From then on, every few minutes, either Jon, Glyn or Terry would be in action, sometimes hooking up, sometimes not, and sometimes catching squid on their livies! Although most of these kings were of legal size, we all knew them to really be too small to keep, so we put them all back. After the guys had made as big a dent as seemed reasonable in the local fish stocks, we all decided enough was almost enough, and so retired for the evening.

Next morning dawned calm and clear, and Rick had us motoring off to “the Horseshoe” reef, a few miles north of White as soon as dawn broke. Quentin cooked up a giant breakfast of steaks, acon and eggs, baked beans and sausages with heaps of  buttered toast (the cholesterol special) served on the table while we cruised. Following the idea of always towing a lure when moving, Paul Alach, Mike and Terry all cashed in on a passing school of small albacore tuna, adding a very tasty bonus to the growing catch list.

Our time was a little limited, this being our last day, but it didn’t take long for Rick to find us a nice patch of fish on the sounder, and this time I think he must have pushed the “Hungry Fish” button on the fish-finder- because as soon as we got our gear to the bottom, the thump-thump-thump of good heavy fish started bouncing my rod-tip.

One by one, the rods started loading up, with Jon and I, using spectra lines, having the best fun, and the hardest work, on the trip so far, as our fish repeatedly ripped line off us. 

There was not too much doubt what these fish were, the strong fight well up off the bottom being a fairly strong indication of some good Bluenose.

Most of us picked up good big bluenose on that drop, all except Glynn, who, affirming himself as our bass catching specialist (the Bass-man, the deadly Bassassin!) picked up a  juicy prime eating sized bass of around 15 kilos.                                                 

With a nice bunch of these prime table fish on the deck, we decided that it’d be a more enjoyable use of our final few hours heading back in to the Ten Mile Reef to play with the kingies there- especially as we now had some good big live baits, which hopefully would deter the rat kings long enough for their big brothers to have a go. Of course, if we were to pass some good looking hapuku holes, on the way, we could always have a last shot for a decent puka, eh.

So it was that, passing the Volkner Rocks, Rick hit the anchors, did a quick spin about and after a little sonar search, had us send down our last ‘puka drop for the day. There we were, waiting for that famous last chance (come on, we all really know that this happens nine times out of ten), when sure enough Terrys rod loaded up again.

Obviously a good fish by the way the rod folded over so quickly, Terry was soon straining away to lift this fish from the deeps, when- gone, Nothing, he’d broken off. Oh dear, such a sad lad. Nevermind, more drama was unfolding at the back of the boat, as Mike found he’d gone and snagged on the bottom. Unwilling to break the line himself, Mike handed over the rod to Quentin to “fix”, and was amazed when Quentin, after a couple of seconds, handed back this ‘snagged’ line, with the instruction to land his own blinkin’ fish. Fish? Surely this was snagged? Nope, it is a typical trap for new players in Deep-water fishing, that a good fish will seem like  the anchor of the Titanic.

So, somewhat abashed, Mike began grinding away doggedly on his reel, still not 100% sure of Quentins’ piscatorial prognosis, until even through hundreds of feet of nylon, even he could feel a deep, sullen nodding. Ah-ha! Proof! With a squirt of adrenaline Mikes head came up, the arm pumped faster, the whole world seemed a better place-- this was the man with the biggest fish for the trip!

When the nice 25kg hapuku broke the surface, Mike was understandably full of smiles, as we congratulated him on his good luck. A bit too early though. Once we got this fish aboard, what was all this extra gear here?

It didn’t take too long for the facts to emerge. This hapuku was not hooked by Mike, it was connected up to Terrys hook and trace. What Mike had caught, was Terrys trace!

This had to be the worlds unluckiest hapuku, but we didn’t care! So, in a rare sharing of glory, Mike and Terry got to claim joint ownership of the catch of the trip.

We all were now keen for another fight with some kingfish, so without further ado, we sorted the gear out, and headed off for the Ten Mile. On the way, Rick and Quentin filleted all our catch for us, saving a ton of space in the rather limited amount of space available in the guys cars.

The closer we got to the coast, the flatter the sea became, until as we reached the Ten Mile, the sea was a sheet of glass. Pulling up over a dense mass of fish on the sounder, Rick had us all ready with the livie baits, and in a minute seven surprised mackerel were heading for the deeps.

At first one or two guys had some problems with ‘couta,  Terry hooked into another small kingi , then at the back of the boat Rod Lange let out a holler as he locked up solid into-- something. Hmm, no pull, what was going on here? Curious, Rod cranked flat-out and again swung on the rod, a real heavy duty hook-setting strike. This time there was a response.

The first I knew about it was when I saw the eight foot mako leap fully clear of the water, doing a brilliant back-somersault, crashing back in a foam of white water. Oh boy, now what! Without further ado, the mako, now transformed from an inert weight on the line to 120kgs of extremely ‘ert’ (the opposite of ‘inert’?) and not a little annoyed biting machine took off in the general direction of White Island or Peru, cutting a swath through the other guys’ lines on the way.

Rod, to his credit, tried to keep clear of the rest of the crew, and to stay attached to this mean munchie, but if you hook a big shark on relatively light nylon, there really is only likely outcome -after a very fraught two minutes, the trace went “Ping!” and Rod had to return to the stern of Pursuit where the rest of the crew were trying to unravel their combined mess of mako manufactured Macramé that the shark had zig-zagged through their lines.

That was about it for the trip, time was rolling on and after seeing such a magnificent fish as that mako, any further fish tended to look a little insignificant, so the decision was made to head back to Whakatane.

So, what did we think of the “Pursuit”? Frankly, this is about the best boat I have seen for Rick’s sort of Operation. Words like “Awesome” and “Brilliant” just can’t come close to how impressive this boat is. For a combination Sport-fishing, Game-fishing Luxury Fishing boat, you will not find better anywhere.

The way Rick worked in with Arch McTainsh of Nautic Design and Peter Marks of Aztec Marine to Design and then Build this beautiful vessel has resulted in a damn-near perfect boat.

Everything has been laid out for ease of use and anglers comfort, from the incredibly handy for’ard live-bait tank and rod-holders, to the way all the doors and seats have been made a little bit larger for bigger guys. The salon and Galley area is clean, functional, open and roomy,  with a wide open panoramic view from the seats anywhere inside.

The berths are just great- although admittedly I did grab the extra-roomy double berth, but on asking the others, they were all thoroughly satisfied with their beds. The Flying bridge has enough seating for the entire crew, we had six guys up there at times, with no-one even close to being crowded.

For a top-of-the-line charter fishing vessel, you truly will find none better in New Zealand. You wait, the Rave Reviews in all the fishing magazines will tell you all about it this year, I bet you!