Got out in the weather window yesterday.
Originally planned to launch at Mana at about 11 and head down to Verns for some Tarakihi then maybe go wide and try for a Puka if conditions were decent.
Figured I would stop on the way out and try catch a few livebaits - I've had a few Tarakihi get hit by what I'm sure were Kingfish at Verns so I've always been keen to livebait it. However, we did kinda well on the livies, and before long we had maybe 15 or so likely looking suspects in the tank. Conditions were better than expected, and I had my jig rod onboard anyway, so the call was made to head out to Hunters.
First drop of the jig resulted in a wee 72cm Kingfish, nothing exciting but encouraging. A couple of drifts later my friend (out from the UK, never caught a Kingfish) gets a hit on the livebait that turned into about an 85cm model. Kingfish are yum so we whacked that one on the head and carried on.
It soon became apparent that there were a few coutta around, so rather than risk losing jigs I changed over to livebaiting as well. Another rat landed by my mate, followed by a maybe 15kg fish that gave his arms a decent stretching. We were running over some very decent looking sign when I got a hit on my livey that promptly screamed off a bunch of line from the Stella under heavy drag. In 25m or so this was somewhat problematic, so I gave the fish heaps and managed to start gaining line when the hook pulled :( Would have been a very decent fish based on how it was behaving.
The norwester started to get up so we headed back in. The Mana bar was actually behaving kinda like a bar for once, at almost the bottom of low tide with an opposing swell. First time I've had to sit on the back of a wave coming back in through there.
Anyway, a good feed, lots of fun and one mate very stoked on his first three Kingfish including a fairly decent one. And as a bonus, all we managed to lose was one ball sinker and a circle hook.