The Big One That Got Away!

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    Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 8:57am
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Hi All, I'm sure most of us have had an experience of been beaten, busted off, or spooled by a Whopper? I'll kick it off. Back in 2010 two years after taking up boat fishing and before i joined the forum i had the best year to date on the Big Snaps. Was catching fish to 12 kg regurlary and hit one at 14.4 k's. About a week after the big one i was in the same spot similar conditions. Had plenty of fresh Kahawai so set the Straylines out whole Fillets!Good Snaps came on again, boated one close to 20 lbs. Decided then to go Whole Kahawai Heads and all under belly. A Bait weighing close to one and a half kg's. A real rod bender when you castLOL Doing this almost halts catching fish as its only going to be a shark or a seriously big Snap that take them on! After two hours sitting with no action it was home time so pulled ahchor and slowly retrieved each Strayline. Two in one to go, about to wind then off it went like a freight train! Heart rate up! could it be a Snap? Nearly down to me knot on the top shot of 100 metres of Igfa line, with Crap under that  to full rest of spool. Use to do to save on a few $$$. Slowly got some line back and off it would go again! Closer to the boat fish got, i confirmed a monster Snap! With head nods pulling rod tip into water, Not quite under boat after playing for about ten minutes with the fish still not off bottom the weight came offCry Bugger! that feeling hit, but then my thoughts turned to the fish, it beat me fair and Square. I meticously prepare my traces and gear for every trip in case of hooking a Snap of huge size! At the time was using VMC 9/0 circles that Mat Watson Swears by for big Snap Straylining. Expensive To! Thought at first my 100 lb Trace had come between its teeth and gone, but reeling in to my surprise the hook was unfolded and near Straight! Did a test on hooks when i got home with two pairs of pliers and found they bent to easy, so now use the stronger Mutsu circles. On guesstimate compared to other biggy's iv'e landed  would put it 16 kg's plus, who knows but would love to land one like that!Beer
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mr Moritz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 9:43am
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Lost a good fish and discovered hook had been bitten in half, leaving just the stem.
Censored
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Clifftastic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 9:57am
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Great yarn Geoff!

Mine was also in the Naki. The old mans launch had been based up in New Plymouth and we were steaming back to Wanganui (when there used to be a small marina). It was a beautiful summers evening, the sun was setting on the horizon and I has happily trolling a marlin lure - more for the reason the set-up was there, rather than me actively wanting to catch anything. Dinner had just been served as we were rounding the cape and I had just sat down when all of a sudden the reel went off! I dropped my eating sticks and ran out the back to see line smoking off the reel. I got ready to lift it out of the holder. In my excitement, I forgot about how fast this line was ripping off and it caught the top of my knuckle burning a nice we line in the flesh. Then as soon as I had the rod in hand and relaxed into the weight, the line went 'boof', the weight came off and then this huge (as I recall) marlin came leaping up out of the water in the distance doing a beautiful shaking tailwalk on the red horizon....a magical image that has been burned into my memory forever.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (2) Likes(2)   Quote Tagit Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 10:45am
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Was moving the boat from place to place on my own one day for a haulout and stopped in the Rangi channel to grab a couple of pannies for dinner. Caught a couple of reasonable pannies in just a few minutes and thought I would have one more drop before heading in. 

Seeing as I wasn't really planning on a serious fish I had been using a softbait rod with a 20lb fluro trace that had probably been on there for too long. Cast out the softie, couple of twitches and then bang. Rod buckles over and I have a serious fish on. Initial thought is shark or Kingi due to the weight but it starts to feel like a Snap. Loosen off the drag a little due to worrying about that trace. Eventually get the fish up to the side of the boat and it is huge. I have seen & caught a number of 20lbers and this was well past that size. Maybe a 25lber I am thinking. My main excitement was that this was all happening in the Rangi Channel. How often to you get fish like this in the Rangi?

I wouldn't say that the fish was totally beaten, but I had it under some control boatside when I remembered that the net was up in the rocket launcher. I couldn't lift it on that dodgy old trace like the smaller fish, couldn't get to the camera/phone which was inside on the table, so ended up doing something only ballerinas would normally try to reach the net. Well I am not a ballerina and the poor old trace finally went pop.

Biggest Snapper I have seen in the Rangi by a factor of 2 or something near that at least. Was going to release the fish anyway, but would have loved to get a photo of it with Rangi in the background. Unlikely I will ever see another one like that so close to home.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Tonyg26 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 10:54am
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Ive never been too bothered on hooks, as long as its a reasonable brand i was happy, This was until i went  to Rarotonga chasing 50kg Giant Trevs, I was left with a mouth wide open at some top brands of hooks bending out or snapping, I think there is a fine line to having a hook too hard and too soft, 
Anyway after this the hook that out performed all others were the Owner brand circle hooks, I got these from Mike at Fullon fishing, Not cheap but were the only ones that didn't snap or bend, I wont use anything but Owner hooks now.

http://www.waikatosportfishing.co.nz
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Telecaster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 12:25pm
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Had a Friday off work and a mint forecast around this time last year. Launched the kayak at Leigh and was doing some micro jigging in about 30m. Hooked up after dropping on some faint mid water sign. Epic battle for about 5 mins and then I got a glimpse of it about 5m under the yak before the hook pulled. Massive snapper around 10kg I reckon. The air was blue.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote CrayZfish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 12:57pm
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I was surfcasting from the rocks about a 30min walk south of Waihi Beach. I managed to catch a small kahawai and was explaining to my then girlfriend how this would make an excellent livey for kingi's although at that time had never caught a decent fish off the rocks, let alone a Kingi. Out went the livey, and about 5 mins later i had a nice fish on. Not a kingi but a very nice John Dory. Got it to the rocks, it was certainly the biggest i had seen approx 6pound and naturally posed for a photo on the water's edge.
Big smile, johnny did the same, flash went the camera, splash went my prize catch, and i was left with a sob story and a photo of me waterside holding my rod and a pair of brown lips leaving a half chewed live bait.
Bugger
Why choose either diving or fishing when you can do both. Besides crayfish tail is very good bait!!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote OuttaHere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 1:27pm
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Gamefishing in Raro, had a black marlin cruise in through our spread of 80 wides and smash the short corner which was the only 50w/24kg setup in the water. Almost spooled me on the first run... 90 minutes later I had it 50m under the boat and it got grumpy and dumped the spool again. Another hour and I had, inch by inch, cranked it back to the boat. Skipper took a wrap, lifted, fish shook it's head and the 400lb leader broke at the hook. We even got the lure back. Estimated at 250kg. Going back in November to try again :P
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Muppet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 4:16pm
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Army Bay, beat a big arse 20lb plus snapper in really knarly ground only to have no net and did not want to gaff it. It was just on the surface next to the yak then it made one desperate lunge onto a bommie 2m under the yak I watched in horror its big white belly up wrenching my line against the oysters and it did not last long. Wound in my limp braid it sucked balls.

Lost my PB King to a sealion too. Ouch
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote PE Pete Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 5:31pm
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Three years ago I hooked a King while jigging aboard Enchanter at the Middlesex bank. Set up was a Stellar 8000pg with 100lb Gosen braid on a Synit Razar.
I had landed numerous fish in the 30's with this setup with out too much issues.
This particular fish hit a long way off the bottom so I was really hopeful of landing it.
I had the drag set at 13kg but knew immediately that more drag was needed so cranked it up, still not stopping the fish I maxed the drag, no more drag to give I tried pumping the rod but this just made it angry.
Long story short I didn't even get a wind on this fish, in one run it took over 100m off me and smashed me off on the reef.
Still sore about it now.... but hay that's fishin....
Tight lines
PE Pete
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote viscount Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 5:33pm
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Fishing at the aldermans at our spot I was fishing with a split mullet head, wham a burnt thumb and most of the line off the reel, played the fish for ever then it weeded me, we dropped a buoy on the anchor went over the top of it and you could see the snapper, I thought of swimming down and grabbing it but one big flick of its tail gone, it was big as I have a 25 on the wall probably the biggest I have hooked up to.
Calling fishing a hobby is like calling brain surgery a job - Paul Schullery
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote kitno Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 7:21pm
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I was fishng in an annual Tauranga Harbour fishing comp in a couple of meters of water and had hooked up on a strong running snapper. After a scrap that saw him going in all directions a fat heavy good conditioned snap arrived boat side. While trying to get a net out that had got caught in a part of an old canopy bracket, he thrashed around on the surface and managed to spit the hook. I knew then he would have placed well in the comp and the weigh-in only confirmed it.
Top 10 finish
2024 Grunter Hunter.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Bounty Hunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Sep 2018 at 9:35pm
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when spearing you see a lot of big fish that you want to shoot but are unable to

ive seen two snapper up close that i will never forget - one at Stephenson Island and another up at Cape Wiwiki 

both would have up around 15kg
No disintegrations!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Snappa Geoff Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Sep 2018 at 6:07am
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Originally posted by PE Pete PE Pete wrote:

Three years ago I hooked a King while jigging aboard Enchanter at the Middlesex bank. Set up was a Stellar 8000pg with 100lb Gosen braid on a Synit Razar.
I had landed numerous fish in the 30's with this setup with out too much issues.
This particular fish hit a long way off the bottom so I was really hopeful of landing it.
I had the drag set at 13kg but knew immediately that more drag was needed so cranked it up, still not stopping the fish I maxed the drag, no more drag to give I tried pumping the rod but this just made it angry.
Long story short I didn't even get a wind on this fish, in one run it took over 100m off me and smashed me off on the reef.
Still sore about it now.... but hay that's fishin....
Great Replies Guys, Thanks... Pete out of interest the huge kingi's you see in mags etc to 50 kg's are they caught mostly on big overheads or spin set ups. Which would be the more popular? Have never done this sort of Fish'n but seen a few decent size ones racing around when i'm Snap fish'n.Beer
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote kitno Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Sep 2018 at 8:55am
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Maybe you should take a stickbait setup with you Geoff, for those times. Never know, might be some monster king's there especially with all the kahawai that seem to always be there. A livie might be a hassle with all your straylines out.
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2024 Grunter Hunter.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote kitno Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Sep 2018 at 9:30am
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I have another story of the big one that got away.
Many moons ago I thought I'd try my luck on a dating site. I'd received a message from an attractive looking lass. A date was organized and I was to pick her up from her place. I arrived on time and was greeted at the door by a fine looking young lady. She said, I'll go get her, I think she is ready. A short time later a whale of a woman came to the door. Ah ffs I said to myself (I don't think it was audible). Nothing like the photo from the dating site. I was invited in for a drink and politely said yes, as this may buy me time to find an escape. After about 5 minutes I said I'll go get my smokes from the vehicle. That was the last I saw her.
Quite happy to let that big one get away.
Top 10 finish
2024 Grunter Hunter.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote fish-feeder Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Sep 2018 at 10:49am
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No tag and release?
dont get my personality mixed up with my attitude,my personality is me,my attitude depends on you.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Potty Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Sep 2018 at 11:05am
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Great story kitno but there must be some regrets, imagine how the whale would have felt on the end of your rod😂
Love fishing, love my job. It's a bloody shame that they clash.
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