Great Barrier is one of those locations that produces a variety of great action and is a favourite destination of charter skipper Nick Jones, with or without clients on board…
Having run snapper and kingfish charters in the Hauraki Gulf for many years now, it’s fair to say myself and fellow Hauraki Express skipper George Bourke have a soft spot for the area in general. However, there’s one place that is particularly special and almost always delivers on the fishing front – Great Barrier Island.
After fielding a few requests for adventures to Great Barrier, it wasn’t hard to make the call recently for Hauraki Express to start offering multi-day adventure packages to the island. Linking with Great Barrier Lodge in the sheltered Whangaparapara Bay, we can cater for all manner of fishing experiences – be it work-up fishing, dropping livebaits over reefs and pinnacles for hard-fighting kingfish, soft-baiting the miles of pristine coast for big moocher snapper, stickbaiting for cruising kingfish, or even diving for crayfish or scallops in the clear waters. But before we could start advertising George and I put forward a relatively flimsy case to the rest of the business for the necessity of a ‘test run’. Much to our delight, permission was granted, and we were off like a robber’s dog.
Although it was early winter and the bite had been slow in the Gulf we weren’t fazed – we were going to the Barrier! It wasn’t hard to find a couple of other good keen men to join, and we set off from Westhaven as the sun set behind the city hills. Our 9.5m Extreme vessel Midnight Express made short work of the 10-15 knot south-easterly, and we pulled into Port Fitzroy just in time to fire up the BBQ for a late dinner. With the snarlers snarling on the hot plate, we rigged up to catch a few livies. Not only is Port Fitzroy a beautiful sheltered inlet, it is also full of mackerel – our preferred livebait for kingfish! With full bellies and a full livebait tank we tucked up in the cabin for the night, our minds racing about what would be in store for us the next day.
Rising the next morning to the smell of a strong Columbian roast brewing in the percolator, we cruised out of the entrance to Fitzroy. We pulled out the Daiwa TD Sol spin combos and attached some big 7’ soft-baits to them. Pulling up to a likely area, George ghosted us in under the cliffs and we began firing softies right into the nooks and crannies. The plan was to land our offerings in front of big snapper cruising in the gutters shaded from the morning sun. It didn’t take long before we had our first hook-up, and a feisty, rusty-hued snapper graced the net.
After missing a strike on my first cast, I was lucky enough to snag the next fish. Concentrating hard as my soft-bait dropped through the water column, I saw a twitch in the belly of my line and got my strike in at just the right moment.
This fish took off at speed, and just as I was slowing him down the hook pulled. Hard luck, but I didn’t have much time to sulk as the action was hard and fast over the next hour or so. Kirk Bunting managed the best moocher of the session, a solid fish going 75cm in length that was quickly released after being measured.
Kirk Bunting wrestled this nice snapper out from shallow water after it had nailed his soft-bait.
We noticed how clear the water was as we drifted over the shallow reefs, and the freediving boys on board, myself included, were itching to get in the water to hunt out some delicacies. Once we were suited up George dropped us off and I quickly stumbled into a crack that was absolutely chocka with crayfish feelers – all in less than 5m of water! By the time the boat returned we’d grabbed plenty and earned a few slaps on the back from the folks back home.
With the sun higher in the sky and the wind still low, the call was made to head to a nearby pinnacle to stretch the arms on the local kingfish population. Pulling up to the spot in 40-odd metres, we began marking kingfish sign very high in the water column – an almost guaranteed indication that we would be on them soon.
The pin was loaded with kingfish sign and the prospects turned into hookups with the drop of a jig.
And we certainly were! Even though they weren’t huge fish, averaging around 8-10kg, they were hungry for both livebaits and jigs. We left the school of kingfish, still biting their heads off, and headed back towards Port Fitzroy. We had a few hours in the day left, and the plan was to get in some more soft-baiting. However, our plan was smashed to smithereens when we spotted gannets bombing right on the shoreline around Katherine Bay.
As we approached, we could see yellow tails breaching and the TD Sols were quickly replaced with the Daiwa Saltiga stickbait sets. The kings were feasting on pilchards trapped against the shoreline and we had a ball nabbing kings on topwater lures in silver/blue colours. The fish were around the same size as out deeper but put up a better tussle on the longer rods in the shallow water. Boy, what a fairy-tale day for the lads – and we still had another full day to look forward to!
With our livie stocks decimated, we anchored up in Port Fitzroy and set about catching bait once again, although this time we paired our yeasty beverages with a veritable ocean feast instead of sausages.
A much more mellow experience was in store for us the next day. We enjoyed brekkie in the harbour and then headed off towards the northern tip of the island to fish the Needles. The scenery here is superb, with pinnacles rising from deep water and swirling currents. We deployed a couple of big jack mackerel livebaits and slow-trolled them over the likely-looking drop-offs.
There was no action for over an hour, but we decided to persist as we knew the big kings would be nearby. Finally, George had a few bumps on his bait before it was inhaled. He freespooled patiently for a few seconds and then flicked the Saltiga’s bail arm over. The drag – set high – started pinging off immediately and we knew it was a decent fish. It made the mistake of running to deeper water and with some handy boat-work we had the fish under control reasonably quickly.
Locked and loaded on topwater tackle.
Just as the fish revealed itself, however, it went for one more scorching run. Turning its head, George persuaded it up from the depths and managed to get it alongside the boat. It was a stunning coloured fish and destined to be sashimi later that evening.
Although the kingfish were modest in size, they made up for it with their feisty fight.
At that point we only had one more box to tick – workups. We cruised south along a benign sea towards the gannet colony on the western Great Barrier coast at the Broken Islands. While we didn’t find an intense work-up of the type this area is known for in winter, we located a patch of scattered dolphins and gannets and unleashed the Daiwa Kohga lures. Orange was the flavour of the day, and we binned some nice medium-sized snapper to take home before the call was made to cruise back towards the big smoke at 26 knots. With the boat back in its berth and scrubbed up we even had time to pop up to Swashbucklers bar for a few celebratory handles – what a trip!
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