Hey Krow, don't worry -it could have fired and you'd have been only boat there. We spent a bit of time down there in girls tournament and didn't see any -but a few (and there were only a few) good ones were caught down there that weekend. It can fire up at the back and south of pinnacles very quickly, so if your instincts tell you to go there -its only a matter of timing and luck. And its always nice being first or one of few boats there when it happens. We used to always go round Northern end and head North and yes there is a lot of water to fish out there. But when she fires closer to Knights either just behind or south, then the fish can be more concentrated at times and it sure beats trapsing miles in a small boat up to home point along that 200 meter line. If I wanted to fish up there in a trailer boat you may as well launch from bland bay.
Another option if you wanna go North is head up to Mimiwhangata -put gear in at about 100 and troll up coast and out to 160.
We were out fishing off Langs in weekend slaying snapper and little kings on softies (my backbone elite two piece is now a three piece thanks to releasing a king overside before I managed to successfully unhook him). I've never seen so many rat kings in my life -there were heaps. Given the prevalence of mahimahi and rat kings around this year, my pick would be lumos and not running too wide at moment.
Not fishing Tuts again myself till about 7th March, so might see ya out there then. Lookout for a little stabi with a blue canopy - that's still lookin for its first marlin for this year.