The Bluewater Classic

Hayden Speed headed to Waihau Bay in search of a competition winning fish, but it was a couple of unexpected species that kept them busy.

The Bluewater Classic is a game fishing tournament hosted by the Mount Maunganui Sport Fishing Club and I had been so excited to fish the full event for the very first time this year! My aim this summer was to catch my first marlin – would this be the lucky trip?

The event started with a briefing on Thursday night before we did the final check on the boat and made the three and a half hour journey to Waihau Bay. We arrived just after 11pm and had a short sleep before our alarms sounded at 5:15am. 

We set the lures at the 100m mark off Oreti Point just as the sun was starting to creep up over East Cape. Without any recent knowledge of where to head, we choose to go south towards Te Kaha, but apart from a medium sized skippy we had very little interest. With all things quiet down this end of the coast, and a few hook ups being called in up by the cape, we pointed the boat back up towards Cape Runaway and trolled our way there. It was still all pretty uneventful until late afternoon when we just clicked over the 1000m line. 

Dad had found a small temperature break on a glassy ‘tide line’ which he thought looked promising. He was also the only one awake at this stage with Gareth, Joel and myself all fast asleep either in the cabin or on the deck of our 6.5m Rayglass!

Then, without warning, the shotgun went screaming off. I jumped up and started clearing the gear, but Dad yelled, “Leave the lures in!” as he could see a big pack of mahimahi darting around in the spread. Not long after we had another, and another, and then finally another hooked up! We had a four way and there were only four of us onboard. Dad was trying to drive the boat, leader and gaff the fish, as well as film on the GoPro at the same time. It was mayhem – which is also our boat’s name!

Luckily, one of the fish dropped off and we were left with three. Gareth’s fish was first in, and after about six wild swings with the gaff, Dad finally hit the target! Mine was next and after a couple more terrible gaff shots it was also in the boat. The third fish joined us on board soon after, and you can imagine the carnage of these three fish going mental on the deck of a small boat! 

After taking some photos and packing them on ice, we realised the school was still hanging under the boat! I grabbed my soft-bait setup (that we had rigged specifically with a seven-inch Z-Man soft-bait in case we came across some mahimahi) to see if I could catch one on light gear as it would make for an epic fight! Sure enough, I hooked up but it was short lived as the big mahimahi jumped and spat the hook. Joel then flicked out a stickbait and had a shortbilled spearfish smash his lure, jumping clean out of the water, but sadly it didn’t stick either.  

And that was the last we saw of the mahimahi, but we were stoked as they were a good size, going 7.5, 7.7 and 11.9kg. This was the first mahimahi for the boat and was also my first. 

Hayden and his tasty mahimahi caught trolling off Waihau Bay.

On our way back in we were greeted with a huge pod of dolphins. We trolled around with them for an hour or so trying our luck for another gamefish but it wasn’t to be. Although we had good success on day one, we stuck to the game plan and drove back down to Whakatane that same evening to prep for chasing kings at White Island the following day. 

Once again, we were up at 5am to make the most of the day. We caught a tank full of livies (easily this time!) and headed out to White Island full of excitement!

Soon after arrival, we got onto a great kingfish session which resulted in a lot of fish in the 100-105cm category. However, we were after the big boys so left the fish biting to try find that one trophy fish. Interestingly, all of these fish we caught were on livebaits and none were interested in taking jigs. This again highlights how important it is to spend the time catching livebaits as it increases your chances of success dramatically. 

After about a half hour of scoping out a couple of reefs, Dad made the call to drop our baits. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes I had an inquiry on my livebait. I let it run for about four seconds before clicking the reel into gear. Straight away I could tell that this fish was substantially bigger than the fish we had caught earlier that morning. Luckily, I had hooked it 40m up off the bottom so I had a bit of room to spare. (Rainbow coloured braid that is sectioned into 10 metre colours is very handy when targeting kingfish in deeper water as you can count your colours and place your bait/lure right on top of the fish.)

After a solid battle, colour appeared and we could tell the fish was a step up from the morning’s efforts. We landed the kingfish which we estimated to be around 20kg. The very next drift, Joel hooked up within a couple minutes and up popped a very tasty surprise –a hapuku of about 12 kilos! We repeated this same drift and sure enough after a few minutes Joel had another inquiry. He loaded up and could straight away tell that this fish was in a league of its own! Luckily, we had once again hooked it 40m off the bottom so we at least had a little playing room – we definitely needed it. 

We were really hoping it was a donkey sized kingie; however, as time went on the fight in the fish slowed and the line angle drifted out behind the boat. Bubbles started to reach the surface and then a massive hapuka bellied up about 50m behind the boat! We could tell this fish was massive, and even more so when we tried to lift the beast into the boat! It ended up going 46.4kg on the scales.

A very welcome bycatch when livebaiting for kingfish!

Unintentionally, we were now chockablock full of prime eating fish, so the call was made to target a few more shallow water kings where ‘bycatch’ wouldn’t be such a problem! Who would’ve thought that catching ‘puka would ever be a nuisance! However, apart from a few more feisty kings in the 10-15kg bracket, that was all that day two offered. 

Day three only resulted in a quick unsuccessful troll out of Whakatane, with the highlight being spotting a whale, a seal, blue penguins and dolphins – and having a massive cook up of all the leftover food! Maybe no marlin this time, but who could be upset about these epic three days out?

May 2021 - Hayden Speed
New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
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