toerag, i worked on the vikki 2 with rich but quit after 3 months after the descruction i witnessed

Barrie i rekon that would be a swell idea as i havnt seen those shots yet...or i could check em out at the masters

Tuna300, welcome to the boards.  I enjoy your odd posts at Allcoast and know that us Kiwis would love to hear more about your long range exploits esp for those 300+ YFT.

Toerag, the nets off the seven mile reef (ummm...or is it the ten mile reef, I forget) off Whakatane were/are every bit as bad.

Officially, "OFFICIALLY" the gill netters are after warehou, but have this unfortunate, unexpected accidental by-cach of rat kings.... gosh, what a surprise!

 So, anyone here able to tell me just how many Waehou are caught in the boP? If you say "None" you will be right on the nose.

And people wonder why the fishing for kinies off whakatane is crap these days, those gill netters boys, they dun it, you betcha!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......

Stu

Fellas

This is a southern Ca. sport fisher with a bunch of "Firecracker" yellowtail/kingies caught beneath floating kelp. It would not be unusual on some summer days for 700 to a 1000 of these to be caught by the fleet. However in recent years skippers and anglers are becoming more aware and will pull off these schools and continue searching for Bluefin/albies or larger grade kingie (yellowtail). It is usually the one day overnight boats that take and keep the smaller fish since there is greater pressure to come in with "numbers".

The tags are angler ID's. when you book on the boat with 28 to 45 other anglers you are given a tag number and a set of tags. When you catch a fish you give the deckie a tag which he in turns staples onto the fish for easy identification when the boat gets back to shore.

I have fished this way numerous times and i can assure you that this is the were the picture is from. The deck hatch in the back ground is to the below deck brine tank were the fish are tossed into and kept frozen or chilled until the boat returns to shore. Most summer trips are for 3 to 5 days. However there are many overnight boats.

If you think these are rapist you should see the Mexican gill netters catch of kingies. YIKES

Evil

Diversion, if you look at the fish down along the port gunnel, you will see the white tags in some of the gills.

Stu

you have brilliant eyesight, i tried and tried but could'nt see a tag anywhere, I was amazed at the guy balancing on a coke can though!