The crew gathered at the Whakatane game Club on Friday arvo for a few coldies and some tucker before loading all the necessary gear, and then some, onto Pursuit. Soon enough we were briefed by Rick and heading out through the bar.

Pitch black and blowing hard, we anchored in the lee of White and went bait fishing, well attempted to. It was very slow with the baitfish not really playing fair and it�s nothing to do with lack of baitfish, they were just bloody hard to catch.

With 30 or so baits in the tub the last fisho hit the hay about 3am. .  big effort there Ratso!!!

Saturday morning saw us waking to the homely aroma of bacon cooking and seeing we were it really hit home what i/we were about to take part in. A good feed was had and we headed to the place where big Kings live.

Rick put us on a couple of pins, did a dummy drift, went back to the start of the drift and it was GAME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

Livies went down, jigs went down. . . ahhh . .  and I think a couple of beers may have vanished as well. .. 

I have no idea who hooked up first but people did, including myself but even all the kind words of encouragement from Rick i couldn�t get the fish to stick. .. FAK!

So I baited up again on the next drop, bait got taken, played with, hooked up, not hooked up. . . FAAAAAARRRRKKKK!!!!!!! Rick was again more than willing to offer his encouragement.

I sat out a drift and enjoyed a coldie and watched others get all bent up by White Island Steamtrains. GREAT viewing!!

 Gavin gettin some treatment. . .

 

 

Babb's catchin' a train. . . and it aint goin' to Georgia

 

We had one more drift before meeting up with another boat back at the Island. The deckie Zane loaded my 9/0 with the biggest livie in the tank and on handing that livie to me he said �hang on�. . . . . lets just say Zane knows his stuff!

As I was free spooling the bait down it got hit by a steamtrain, counted to 3 and went to strike on the Penn 30 and got dragged to the rail as line peeled off, Zane clipped me in and got Rick to start the boat. Here was the Le�Mon strapped to a fish that did not want to relent, and didn�t ..   it took line, I took some back. Rick was telling me to �kiss your ass goodbye Drew�. . . �don�t f**k it up Drew� as the fish had everything in it�s favour.

I was told that it required a certain amount of mongrel to beat these fish, so I found mongrel and became hell bent on breaking this fish.

Between short-strokin and using the lift of the boat I felt like I was getting somewhere. . but the fish read my mind and headed for the bottom again forcing me to put both hands on the rail whilst sitting into the harness with my knees against the coaming. The power of this run/fish simply blew me away, especially on finding out later that I had 22kg of drag on this fish.

Things were starting to go my way a bit more and then others started �positively affirming� the condition of the fish as colour could be seen.

It wasn�t until Rick had the trace that I caught a glimpse of the brut, I can�t type what I said. . . . . . .

The transom door was opened and the fish pulled on board for measuring, tagging, a couple of pic�s and then i fired the White Island Express back into the water.

I had just achieved something I have wanted to do for a long, long , loooooooong time and that�s what this trip was all about.

Everything was squared away and we headed back to meet with the other boat and have some lunch.

A hearty feed of pasta and we made our way back to the grounds and on arrival found that the fish had gone, the lights were on but here sure as hell wasn�t anyone home.

Rick moved us to another area and found some good sign over terrain that really wasn�t in our favor but he set us up for the drift and the bell went . . . .�ding  .. ding  . . round 2�

Every drop there were reels screaming, rods buckling . .  memories being made. . .  some good, some bad. . . .

The KeenOne isn�t sure whether he got 3 or 4 20-23kg, all TnR�d, fish in the afternoon but every fish nailed the bait on the way down and this is the best way to get hit. The thrill of feeling the free spooling line triple in speed  . . . well, to say it floats my boat is a huuuuge understatement!!

We stayed at this spot till about 5�ish before heading in for some bottom fishing and more bait catching. The bottom fishing wasn�t particularly hot and we went and anchored for the night, had a feed and tried to catch bait for the next day�s onslaught.

I�m amazed at how hard these baitfish can be to catch. . .. . they were that hard to get that were a lot of �I hope you guy�s like Terahiki fishing� jokes going around. . .

Day 2 saw us heading out the grounds in much a much friendlier sea state seriously under-gunned in the livie department, hopefully they were fairly keen on nailing metal as they were the previous day.

I went in the first drop and it didn�t take long before the line started to disappear real quick . . I hit it and fak me if this fish didn�t hit me back. . . .. . I got smoked, well and truly.

Greg got smashed as well but he was lucky enough to keep his on and holy shet did it give Greg a going over . .  pulled string like no tomorrow, had Greg on the rail numerous time. Rick fired Greg up with some �positive encouragement� along with other advice and the fish came boat side and it was a very good fish, fish of the trip in fact at 35kg.

The jigger were getting amongst it along with the livies with fish averaging 20 � 24 kg

Babb�s was getting seriously amongst the fish and quickly became Rick�s pet. . .  Gavin got amongst em on jig�s. Jb got some very nice fish on jigs. . . I think ol� Koro even got slightly jiggy with some kings on jigs.

Koro got himself all strapped up to one of the many setups he took and sent a bait down to meet it�s maker. . . . . Koro was ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I think the fish may have taken a wee bit of line from winch he was strapped to. . . .. I�ll let the photo�s tell the Tale of Koro. .

get in there son!!!!!!!!!

.

Just look at the youthful determination would ya!!!!!!!!

 

 

Ka Pai koro

 

We did a bottom bash which didn�t produce much but Koro was very happy with the Bluenose he scored for tea.

Rick and Zane sorted the crew out with toasties for lunch and we started getting sorted for the cruise home in very pleasant conditions.

Rick put Pursuit on the rails and he and Zane started to carve up the freight, but not after a great team photo with the spoils of a magic trip.

There is a lot of stuff I will have missed out on but i had put some stuff down whilst fresh, my apologies team. . . but I�m sure the other fisho�s  will be more than happy to add to it.

I thank Gavin for sorting this trip out . .  awesome mate!!!!!!!!!!!!

A really BIG thanks to those whom seriously got me sorted for this trip in term of gear etc. . . MUCHO RESPECTO

To Rick Pollock and his deckie Zane. . . . Wicked fella�s. .  a great team to go fishing with!!!!!!!!!!!!