Jack Lucas

It is one of those things how a chance encounter can lead to a lasting friendship. This was certainly the case for Pete McGregor and Jack Lucas who, after meeting on a NZ Fishing Community trip to the Three Kings, have enjoyed some great fishing adventures ever since.

We hit it off just fine, maybe it was the rum, and separated with promises to keep in touch. Neither realised that it was the start of a great fishing friendship encompassing snapper, kingies, marlin, bluefin tuna and even carp fishing.

Even after three or four days out on charters, Jack still jumps at the chance to go out for a fish. It’s quite simple really: he loves fishing. It started when he was a youngster on the Gold Coast jetty fishing with his dad for flathead, bream and whiting. At age 19, he settled back in NZ as a corporate salesman. However, he always wanted to spend his life fishing. The opportunity came when he was made redundant. While he had a bit of cash, he got his NZ skippers licence.

These days, Jack never seems to have any problem getting offered skipper jobs. I guess it was a bit harder back then. However, get one he did, and he has since skippered for many Hauraki Gulf charters, most notably with Phoenix, Double Rum, Hauraki Express and Wave Dancer charters. Jack specialises in live-baiting and fishing with lures and has become the go to charter skipper for these fishing methods.

Jack runs about six or seven charters per week over the summer months, alternating between Hauraki Express and Wave Dancer. This plummets to just two or three over the cooler, less popular months. He’s paid per charter so, as you can imagine, this is not the most reliable way to earn a living. But Jack loves it and accepts that he will never be rich. His comment: “The pay’s crap, but I do it for the lifestyle – I don’t aspire to do anything else!”

Jack’s a great skipper. He’s humorous and very knowledgeable. His charters usually leave Westhaven at 6:30am and he will travel 80 to 100 nautical miles chasing flocks of gannets, often well to the east of Little Barrier or north of Great Barrier. It’s rare for his customers to be disappointed.

Jack knows how to make his charter customers happy.

Jack has two rules: don’t drink too much and stay inside the boat. Punters who drink too much will find themselves on a trip back to land as they can spoil it for everyone.

I asked Jack for his funniest /worst experience. He recalls motoring at speed when a very large customer decided he wanted to wash his hands. He grabbed the wash down bucket and rope and tossed it overboard to get some water. Jack heard a yelp and turned to see this guy being dragged aft along the railing of the boat breaking several rods and several ribs in the process before disappearing overboard still holding the rope. He was rescued promptly but that was the end of that trip due to the customer’s painful ribs and a shortage of rods.

He’s had some interesting experiences including working with Scott and Mig (Fishing and Adventure TV series), assisting them to get their own skippers license, filming for the Maori TV series Come Hunt with Me and a short stint as Nikki Sinden’s (Addicted to Fishing) skipper and production manager (the only time he has ever been fired, he laughs).

Jack doesn’t endorse any particular brand of gear. On a job interview with John Donald (owner of Catch! tackle and Wave Dancer), he stated quite firmly that John was not to expect him to be promoting Catch gear. He explained that he would also be working part time with Hauraki Express who use Daiwa kit and his long term job prospects were best served by not promoting any product. To his credit, John said, “Yup, that’s cool by me.”

Jack recommends buying mid-range priced fishing gear as it will last longer and perform more reliably in salt water conditions than expensive glamour equipment. He says he hates bait-feeder style reels as they don’t last in charter boat conditions. For himself, he favours what he calls ultra-light gear, meaning 2lb to 6lb maximum. He combines a 1kg to 3kg Okuma rod with a Shimano Sustain 2000 reel and under 30g lures. Most of the time he is fishing over sand so is not worried about busting off on structure.

I’ve fished a lot with Jack and we’ve had a lot of fun. Some of our most memorable trips have been on the Gulf chasing gannet workups. We mainly fish in 45 metres on the east and south of Little Barrier and the inside edges of Great Barrier.

We enjoy a robust banter, usually about who is catching the most or biggest fish. I like the fact that he can take it as well as hand it out. Jack mucks round with his light gear and cheap lures, while I favour my quite considerably more expensive Smith’s acid wrapped rod and outrageously expensive lures. I often catch more fish than he does; but, bugger-me, he nearly always ends up hauling in the biggest snapper or a mighty kingfish right at the end of the day, gently teasing up this denizen of the deep without busting off his light braid. He wants the sport. I want the sport PLUS a good feed, but I love the fact that he still gets excited over a good fish.

Jack’s partner Carolina only recently came to New Zealand from Columbia. On just her third trip with us Carolina caught a 21.5lb snapper. Outstanding fishing, and naturally on Jack’s light gear which makes it even more meritorious.

Jack hooked up to a stroppy kingie on ultra-light gear.

Our first marlin together was in late June out from Whangaroa Harbour, which we had to traverse in an almost complete fog whiteout early in the morning. Jack had been designated angler for the day as his only previous experience was a small 60kg specimen. We trolled for around three hours without success until we passed a small group of resting gannets. They took off as we trolled past. I noted that they circled round and landed at roughly the same spot. “That look’s interesting Jack.” We turned and ran back over the area. Sure enough, there was a loud BANG as the line popped out of the short rigger clip and a Shimano reel started to scream. ZZZZZ! We were on. One hour later, we had it beside the boat and Jack sank the gaff in. Not satisfied with that, he took to the fish with a hammer to finish it off. There was no way this bugger was getting away. The fish went just under 112kg, so quite a good one.

We also managed to get Jack a bluefin tuna at Waihau Bay. We were only in the water for half an hour when we drove past two diving birds. Jack seems to have an affinity with birds because as the lures passed them the shotgun lure was hit. Jack buckled in and 1hr 35mins later, a very puffed angler had the tuna beside the boat and gaffed. High fives were exchanged.

Pete's boat, Significant Other, strikes again.

We have always wanted a swordfish so after getting some good tips and our gear set up by Luke Davis at Yeehaa Fishing, we drove up to Tutukaka to have a crack. Everything went as planned. The sea was calm, we trussed up a big squid and lowered it down 450 metres with a sacrificial weight which obediently dropped off on reaching the bottom. I was easily able to keep the line pretty much vertical under the boat so it was looking pretty good. Unfortunately, the only thing missing was a swordfish. They just did not want to play that day. However, we had proved that the systems worked so are keen to have another crack sometime soon.

Recently I was invited out on Wave Dancer as a guest, my first time out with Jack as skipper. We motored for about 1.5 hours from Pier 21 to the northern end of Little Barrier Island where a huge workup was taking place. What followed was two hours of great snapper fishing with most anglers getting heaps of fish from only one drift. It was interesting seeing small groups of dolphins herding bait into a tight ball and then a large dolphin racing in and swatting the baitfish with its tail to provide others in the group easy pickings of the stunned targets. I really enjoyed chatting with Grant Bittle who is an entertaining guy to fish with. His Catch lures worked a treat.

When planning this article, I talked to Jack about photos. He said most of the photos of him with good fish were taken by me on my boat! When he’s on a charter he rarely gets a chance to fish. He promised, however, to look though his fishing photos and send me a few – some 120 images turned up a short time later!

Jack now lives with Carolina at South Head, Kaipara, often needing to rise at 4am to get to Westhaven in time to get the boat ready before his guests arrive at 6:30am. He’s still keen, he’s still enthusiastic and he’s still good at what he does. Good on you Jack. You are a great mate, a great fisherman and a great skipper living your dream!

October 2021 - Pete McGregor
New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
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