Dad’s Army booked Epic for the day.  2 of us rocked up at Whitianga Wharf at 6am armed with Uncle’s sabikis, some squid and a bucket for the livies.  Fishing was pretty slow and after an hour we had only 15 in the bucket including a couple of spotties (rejected by Capt Chase).  We introduced ourselves when Epic arrived and Chase helped with berley and our catch rate went up immediately.  The rest of dad’s army arrived and manned the sabikis from Epic and pretty soon the livies were flying in.  Chase was looking after the livies, keeping them off the concrete, and ferrying them to the live bait tanks regularly.  The charter was from 7am, but we spent about another hour at the wharf.  We had very well stocked bait tanks, and fresh coffee from across the road, so all good when we left just after 8.

About 9 we started fishing, live baits only, 2 at a time, and we used the supplied gear, which was clean and worked well.  The first customer was a rat, and after a short tussle it was sharked.  We only got the head back.  Fishing was steady and all the guys caught kingies, 76 to 103cms, maybe up to around 14 Kgs.  There were some great arm-stretching tussles, but no-one complained when their turn came around.

The first one I hooked was only medium, but it gave me a good mauling before I got it to the boat.  3rd and forth kingies were about a metre, and both fought hard.  Around 10:30 it slowed and we went thru long periods of inactivity.  We moved spots and it picked up again immediately.  The wind moderated and the kingies kept on coming.

By this time we were catching and releasing, enjoying the kingies but starting to think of something else for the bin.  We moved spots again and targeted snapper from 50m down to 120m.  All we caught were 3 golden snapper for about an hour and a half's effort.