Hauraki Express Winner's Trip

If Grant Dixon ever needed affirmation as to what is good about life, it came following the Daiwa/Hauraki Express subscription prizewinner’s trip in the Hauraki Gulf.

To me, good mates, family, fine food, friendship and fishing are what life is about and we had that in spades aboard Midnight Express, one of the three Hauraki Express vessels operating out of Auckland.

Prizewinner Glen Miller was notified of his good fortune pre-COVID and a date was set to go and chase Hauraki Gulf kingfish. He chose his two brothers Ross and Bruce and son Nick to join him but unfortunately COVID stepped in to postpone the trip until this summer.

Skipper for the day was George Kitto, a former crewman for four seasons with Rick Pollock aboard the Whakatane based charter vessel Pursuit, and I was along for the ride – just! – to record the action.

Glenn had earlier received the first part of his prize, a Daiwa slow-jig combo – a Daiwa Blue Backer rod with a Fune XT 150H baitcasting reel spooled with J-Braid X8 line and with a selection of Kohga Bayrubber Free lures – which he had been putting to good use on the Gulf’s snapper population once lockdown was over.

Midnight Express carries a range of Daiwa tackle to handle the broad spectrum of angling opportunities the Hauraki Gulf presents and there go-to kingfish live baiting tackle is the Saltist SD40H reel matched with a Saltist X 565/6B pe6 jig rod, a combo that looks more like snapper gear on first look. I was soon to be shown otherwise!

With all the crew on board, the first task was to get livebaits, with jack mackerel the preferred species. At the head of the Motuihe Channel, just out of the ferry lane, the terns could be seen working a school of kahawai and baitfish. The mackerel were close by and with more baits than we would probably need safely swimming in the tank, it was time to head wide.

It was a bit of a cruise to Little Barrier’s Five Mile Reef but on arrival, the sounder showed why George had chosen to make the effort – small balls of bait lit up the Furuno with the streaky marks indicating kingfish close in attendance. The first drop confirmed what the electronics were indicating. It was the start of a frenetic session where no bait came back up untouched.

Not many livebaits came back unscathed, with just about every drop resulting in positive contact with the target species.

George was a patient teacher, especially when it came to not striking the fish as you might when targeting snapper. Live baiting was a whole new learning curve for most of the crew and there was a fair bit of banter when a bite was missed. But by the end of the day even the slowest learning student ended up with ‘Making Great Progress’ on their student report card after starting off in the first term with ‘Must Do Better’!

By the end of the session, Nick Miller ended up with a ‘Making Great Progress’ on his report card, after overcoming the temptation to strike every bite!

With the kingfish on the bite, the plan was to keep one specimen for each crew member, the rest being returned to fight another day. While there is plenty of room on the Extreme 985 Game King, George fished just two rods at a time, a wise move given the agility and hard-fighting characteristics of the target species.

As we got closer to the bottom of the tide, the bronze whalers arrived and while no one was taxed, George made the call to move away to a nearby reef to avoid any potential carnage.

While the action was a little slower, the bonus was the fish went up a size grade.

I even got in on the action, first targeting snapper on Glenn’s prize slow-jig rod to produce some nice pannies and a decent trevally, before stepping up to the plate and deploying a livebait.

Having probably done this a thousand times over my time with the magazine, I was a little nervous. I had been helping the others with their hook-up technique, now was mine going to stand up to close scrutiny?

Dropping down to the prescribed depth – colour coded braid is a wonderful thing – it was not long before I felt the twitching of a nervous bait and line started slowly peeling off. After waiting for 3-4 seconds – it seems like an eternity – the reel was engaged and I started winding, taking up the slack and giving time for the circle hook to work its way into the corner of the fish’s mouth like it’s designed to do.

With the hook firmly set, it was time to go to work and soon an 85cm kingfish graced the net. What little reputation I have as an angler was still intact – whew!

With the clock ticking and facing a 40 nautical mile trip back home, stumps were called on a kingfish session Glenn and his family will talk about for some time to come.

Over the years I have been on numerous winner’s trips and all have had their special moments.

What I will take away from Glenn’s one is how important it is to enjoy life and that fishing is not always about nailing trophies but having fun out on the water with a decent catch being a bonus.

Our trip was full of banter, pranks – no boys, I have not erased the photos! – and generally good times. The food wasn’t bad either – the scallop and tuatua sandwiches were a treat, putting my cheese and onion offerings to shame.

The brothers obviously enjoy each other’s company, as judged by several ‘in-house’ jokes and ribbings, and apart from the great catching, the day’s fishing was filled with humour – great stuff.

Thanks to Daiwa and Hauraki Express for the part you played with this subs prize – much appreciated.

Filleting service

Readers will appreciate that after the fun of a great day’s fishing comes the work of cleaning tackle and the boat, not to mention dealing to the catch.

For the winner’s trip our guests walked off the boat, leaving the clean-up to the skipper. Dealing with the catch was just as easy. LegaSea, through its Kai Ika project, has a filleting station based at Westhaven.

On the way in we dropped the fish off at Z-Pier where a couple of the Kai Ika crew were there to take it the short distance to the filleting station, an appropriately kitted out trailer.

By the time we had berthed Midnight Express at Pier 21, said our goodbyes and driven the short distance to the filleting station, the fish had been processed and iced down, awaiting delivery.

The Kai Ika filleting station is a purpose-built trailer used to process recreational catches.

There is a small fee for this service, but at the end of a tiring day out on the water, you arrive home with all your catch processed and chilled, ready for the table.

The Kai Ika crew take the heads, wings, frames and trimmings away which they use as a food source, as well as a fertilizer for their community gardens.

The service operates Thursday through to Sunday and on public holidays through summer and can be found in the corner of the Westhaven parking precinct nearest Swashbucklers Restaurant.

This is a convenient location – if there is a backlog of fish to be processed anglers can enjoy a cleansing ale and a bite to eat at ‘Swashies’ while awaiting a text to say their fish has been done. What a great way to end the day!