Advice & Info: Bay of Islands - 'MV Target' & Sublime apartments |
 Rated 11 time(s). |
Email to a friend
|
| |
| It was Thursday 4pm, 35knot gusty northwestlerlies with rain and Marie and I were meshed in a procession of snail-paced traffic on the northern motorway. One bright spot was the forecast. A change to 15knot SW and clearing sounded good, so we were heading for the Bay of Islands. |
 |
|
Our destination was the Sublime apartments run by Jo and Jason and owned by Mark Hockley. As part of the operation, Mark runs a charter boat, 'MV Target', skippered by the very capable Mark Vezy. The plan was to have a couple of nights at the apartments and a day out on Target with Mark Vezy. Sounded like fun! |
 |
| Once were past the Albany turnoff the big guy upstairs made all the traffic disappear and before we knew it, we were in Paihia. We caught up with Jo, Jason and Mark and planned to leave for a days fishing at 8am to get the best of the tides. Dinner at the Sugarboat that night was quite outstanding and would be on our ‘must do’ list next time we’re up that way. |
|
Friday dawned as forecast and we headed out of the bay with Jason and Mark on route for Rocky point, and hopefully some Kingfish action. We’d put a dozen livebait in the tank and had a fairly good selection of Zest jigs and other Kingfish catching kit on hand so the Kingies should have been a bit nervous. |
|
| The razor gang had taken residence on rocky point unfortunately and seemed to outnumber kings 10:1 at least. They were some of the biggest Barracuda I’d seen however that was of little consolation when they mashed the line and another set of gear disappeared. Plenty of patience and a dash of persistence paid off and we did catch a few nice Kingfish. |
 |
|
Marie lost a really nice one after five minutes or so on a livebait but it was Jason who cleaned up the biggest with a fish of around 10kg on a long jig. I was giving my Diawa 2500 spinning reel/rod combo a run and soft plastics worked well but caught mainly smaller fish around the 60-80cm mark. Kings hitting soft plastic baits hard on light gear is seriously entertaining.
|
 |
| After a hour or two of that, it was time for a dive & Jason took us to one of his special spots where we bagged a few crays for dinner. The visibility was pretty good and it was excellent cray country with plenty of nooks, crannies and cracks that each held a bug or two. The notable thing about the day so far was it was very relaxed and both Mark and Jason were great hosts. |
 |
Back into the bay and over the side again for a few scallops with the remaining air in the tank. Jas was freediving and did remarkably well for rather murky water and the scallops being rather small and many undersize. The bonus was the legal sized scallops were as fat and full as I’d seen for years and tasted superb as we were to discover later that evening.
|
All we needed at that point was a couple of snapper to round off the day. Mark put the boat on a small area of foul well into the bay and on a spot I suspect many would drive straight past. We were a couple of hours away from full tide so there was a degree of urgency in getting some baits in the water. Using half pillies in the berley trail did the trick and it wasn’t long before we had bites. We had released a few smaller ones before Marie had a nice fish hooked and heading away from the boat at speed. |
 |
|
The snapper made several long runs but it was only a matter of time before we saw the flash of orange deep down and in another 20 or so heartbeats it was on the surface and in the net.
Stretching the scales to a tad over 6kg and in supreme condition it was a welcome addition to the days catch. Over the next hour we caught half a dozen more nice fish between 3 and 5kg before we decided we all had enough to eat and it was time to call it a great day.
Any day you catch and concoct a smorgasbord of Snapper, Kingfish, crayfish and scallops for dinner has to be a sublime day! |
|
The Bay of Islands really turned it on for us and it was a strong reminder that in addition to marlin (when they are about) the other fishing and diving options in the Bay are simply stunning.
| The Boat:
Target is a 1989 Wade design vessel, glass over ply powered by a 330 horse Cummings diesel. It is in survey for 11 passengers and under Safe Ship management. It is more functional than luxurious, however has everything you’d expect including full electronics package (GPS, chartplotter, colour sounder, auto pilot) toilet, hot shower, oven, cooktop, chiller fridge. |
|
It’s comfortable and appears to be handle the slop and chop well.
Mark Vezy, the skipper, grew up in the Bay and has been living and breathing game fishing since he was a kid. Mark has had the experience of 11 seasons gamefishing in Cairns and has wired a fish that tipped the scales at 1247lb so he knows what he’s doing when it comes to catching marlin.
Apparently, if you ask any of the top Skippers he learnt his trade with they will say he was the best deckie they ever had. Game fishing is his passion, and he told me “I just love catching something bigger than me”. Mark has also skippered dive boats, dolphin boats and the Excitor in the Bay of Islands and has a great knowledge of the history and natural history in and around the Bay. He is also a top spear fisherman and excellent company.
|
The Apartments:
Mark Hockley owns 11 apartments which can sleep 4 or 5 people (a queen bed in one bedroom can be split into 2 singles), so it’s ideal for 2 couples or a family holiday.
All apartments have been recently renovated and a clean, tidy and functional.
Amenities include a wi-fi internet set-up – just log-on and you’re on-line to your favourite Fishing Website, heated pool, guest laundry and BBQ's for guests to cook the day’s catch. |
 |
It’s not the Ritz but it’s very good value and catching the last of the evening sun looking out of the bush covered hills behind Paihia is a very pleasant end to a great day on the water.
For more information about Sublime apartments or cartering MV target click here or vist the Sublime apartments website.
December 2006 - by Grant Blair
 |
|
This is an original article copyright of Grant Blair &
The Fishing Website
It may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the author |
