Fishing firsts are always memorable. I have vivid and joyous memories of my first big snapper, my first 20kg kingfish, first kahawai, mahimahi and wahoo – all of them! I can smell the bait, remember the colour of the lure and which rod I was using. Fishing firsts are special and mine are all etched in my mind.

The Ranfurly Banks off the North Island’s East Cape is a place I have always longed to fish, simply because it’s world-renowned as a Mecca for monster fish. This is a place where fishing dreams come true.

Friends have described their trip to ‘the Banks’ as the best day’s fishing of their lives. I just knew that fishing there for the first time would be an adventure of epic proportions.

‘The Banks’ is an incredible fishing spot. Twenty-five nautical miles offshore from Hicks Bay, this isolated area extends 30 kilometres in every direction. The bathymetry is incredible, with depths ranging from 1000 metres to 15 metres, set amongst impressive underwater mountains and valleys.

I wondered why this area produces such amazing sea life and discovered that much of this is due to The Banks lying on the edge of the continental shelf (the section of ocean between the coast and the deep ocean floor). Consequently, the ‘fishy’ underwater terrain here is accompanied by strong currents and upwellings that produce great fishing. In basic terms, an upwelling occurs when dense, cooler, nutrient-rich waters are driven towards the ocean surface, replacing warmer, usually nutrient-depleted surface water. This stimulates the growth of primary producers in the food chain, such as phytoplankton, an originating source of food in the marine ecosystem. Nutrient-rich waters draw all forms of sea life for obvious reasons – there is plenty of kai (food)!

The Banks also stays a really special place because rough weather conditions help to maintain its isolation; it’s definitely not like cruising out to your local reef. The result? Jurassic-size fish and plenty of them!

Beach launching on a glorious morning from Onepoto Bay, I was giddy with excitement and dizzy with anticipation. When I was asked to host Maori Television’s new fishing show, Get Your Fish On, fishing at The Banks was at the top of my to-do list. After months of waiting and dreaming I had to pinch myself: the day was finally here and I was on my way there! I knew there was a good chance to catch the fish of a lifetime and I couldn’t wait to see what the day would bring!

We were filming an episode for Get Your Fish On, which is light-hearted fishing entertainment for the whole family with a men versus women Kiwi fish-off. Each week I travel to a fishing hotspot, where a challenge is set down and the losing team has to cook dinner.

Accompanying me on this adventure were my ‘kapa wahine’ (ladies team) team mate, fellow ‘Gizzy Gal’ Jo Holley, along with East Cape locals Rawiri Waititi and kaumatua (elder) Kahu Stirling, who stepped up to represent ‘kapa tane’, the men’s team.

Behind the scenes, but central to what we were doing, was Kerren Packer, our director. With a wealth of knowledge in fishing television and years of amazing fishing feats to his credit, Kezza is well respected for his experience and passion for the ocean.

The challenge was set down by our skipper Aaron Sargent from Coastal Fishing Charters. The first team to catch six edible deepwater fish would win. Pretty straightforward, I thought.

Somewhat new to deepwater fishing, I was keen to learn as much as I could about the techniques Aaron used (with the hope of increasing my chances of a win). We would be fishing depths of between 100 and 250 metres, so lots of line and hefty gear was needed to haul in the big bottom dwellers.

The gear alone was epic: 400-pound leader on 37kg braid, size 16/0 hooks, and a 32-ounce sinkers. A Shimano TLD 50 reel was matched with a sturdy, medium length rod capable of handling what we planned to dish out (the last thing we wanted was our gear failing when hooked up on the fish of a lifetime!). Then, with barracouta strip baits on our two-hook ledger rigs, we were set for action.

The ‘stray-lining-type’ technique we were shown was interesting: we left the reel in free spool, controlled by our thumbs, to make sure our lines stayed in touch with the bottom and the fish.
I wasn’t keen to lose this challenge, so listened intently to our skipper’s instructions, following them to the tee. (Aaron and Mikey – our deckhand – were superb hosts in every sense, and I would thoroughly recommend Coastal Fishing Charters. And ladies, there is a loo on board!)

All right, no more mucking around; I was amped for my first drop. Two minutes to reach the bottom, and only one minute later my rod tip slowly dipped and plunged into the water. Fighting against every ounce of instinct to strike in response, I followed our skipper’s instructions to slowly lift the rod while winding to set the massive 16/0 hook. Rawiri, another first-timer here, hooked up too, and the long slog to haul our fish from the depths commenced. What would it be? Bass, hapuku, trumpeter, king tarakihi, bluenose…? The variety of fish life at the Banks is something else.

Just feeling the weight of the fish was buzzing me out; it was a dream start to our Ranfurly Banks challenge. Around 15 minutes later a beauty of a bass popped to the surface on Rawiri’s line, followed by an 8-10kg hapuku on mine. It was unbelievable – our first minute at The Banks had almost instantly produced – and we had six more hours to go! Yes sir, blimmin’ great to be here!

Time for Kahu and Jo to step up to the plate with the score tied at one apiece – and wouldn’t you know it, within minutes at the bottom their rod tips plunged down amidst whoops and ‘woo-hoos’.

Jo wasn’t holding back, wrangling and wrenching the whopping rod and reel, while Kahu, with a determined grimace on this face, slowly but surely gained line. With concentration at an all time high, there was no time for trash talking!

A bit of the ole ‘Ranfurly shuffle’ ensued, with our anglers’ feisty fish crossing lines, and about 15 minutes later Kahu’s fish burst to the surface. A lovely 30kg bass and a hapuku – a double-header! Looked like the guys were planning to make short work of this challenge!

Minutes later a solid hapuku emerged on Jo’s line, her first fish at The Banks, and she was stoked!

Once he’d caught his breath, I asked local kaumatua Kahu Stirling about the origins of the name hapuku, commonly called hapuka.

‘Ha’ he told me, refers to the mouth, and ‘puku’ is stomach in Maori, which made perfect sense to me. After all, these fish are mostly mouth and stomach.

Apart from winning the challenge, our intention was to gather kaimoana (seafood) to share with the local community as our thank you to them for the fantastic hospitality they’d provided over the week (Gillian Te Moana at the Waihau Bay Lodge, you’re the best!). The Maori term for this is manaakitanga – when you acknowledge and respect others, building unity through humility and the act of giving.

So after two drops we had five beautiful eating fish ranging between 8 and 30kg – plenty of kai to take to the marae later. When these fish come up from the depths, their swim bladders inflate, meaning they’ll most likely die if released, so we planned to prepare and share every ounce of kai (food) on these beauties. Heads, backbones, wings and fillets – we knew nothing would go to waste.

It was my turn again, and having felt the weight of a relatively standard hapuku (for these parts anyway), I felt well prepped for something gigantic. This time a fish of epic proportions took my bait, and before I knew it I was being hauled toward the railing. Mikey, our deckie, was on to it and grabbed the back of my gimbal belt, holding me steady while I gained my balance and prepared to do battle. This felt like the fish I had dreamed of many nights leading up to this trip, and can I tell you the sensation of my rod bowing down to the power of this fish was simply awesome...

	This article is reproduced with permission of    New Zealand Fishing News 2014 - by Mandy Kupenga Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited