White island carnage

<>After a 
fantastic november  snapper fishing i was looking forward to the 3rd of december 
to head to white island chasing kingies......december started well then my boat 
broke down (and is still broken) then 3 days after christmas my dad passed away 
after a long illness..with dad passing 2 days out from the white trip and the 
funeral the day after the trip i decided to go thru with the charter and headed 
off on saturday lunch time with my mates from work and "elpescador" from this 
site..
The trip down was uneventfull except for 300 piss stops for mikey and 
a bit of lite hearted  humour amoungst the boys.
We loaded  "pursuit" with piss and tackle 
and headed out into 25knts of sw wind,the trip out was good but a few miles off 
the island the seas got pretty ruff and a bit rolly.
At anchor for the night 
we proceded to catch livies,i was using mikeys new spining reel which had lights 
that flashed as you turned the handle and looked like a disco ball.
All was 
going well untill a flying fish hit me square in the chest at high 
speed,followed quickly by another in the shoulder.
These rockets were driven 
by the now 30knts of wind and were very dangerous.
We continued catching 
livies with the boys now distancing them selves from me as the flying fish were 
hitting my area every few minutes.
We hit the sack at 12.30 with 70 live 
jacks and a squid in the tank as well as a few flying fish .
The anchorage was a bit rolly but we got some sleep.
The morning 
dawned and with breakfast under our belts and 20knts of wind  we headed for the 
volkners.
The trip was slow due to the confused sea,mikey had the 1st gin and 
tonic open(5.45) and we were rigged and ready to fish.
The 1st drift we had 6 
livies down and hooked 4 fish,the second drift was 3 kings and this carried on 
with good fishing each drift with the fish about 15 to 19kgs most of which were released.
Heres Elpescador with a nice fish

Lionel 
turned up on memory maker and soon found the going hard,3 other boats jigging 
were getting nothing as well.
Both El and my self jigged for 2 drifts with 
not even a tap.
The fish were biting livies so we went changed to livies and hooked 
up instantly.

The fishing continued like this till 11am when the sea 
flattened off to glass and the fish went berserk.
What followed was complete 
carnage,on 1 drift we boated 8 kings with the fish biting right up in to the 
shallows .(26 mtrs)

We were getting smasahed to bits by the kings that were now all 
between 22 and 30kgs.
This fish was 1.39 mtrs on Pursuits measure and very skinny,rick put it between 30 to 33kgs
But im happy with 30

Heres donny with a fish over 30kgs.hes pushing 130 and hardly sweating 

And another fattie a bit smaller
Al got smashed on a livie fished on his jm 500 and then 
a shark smashed him.The head of this fish suggested a fish in the mid 
30kgs.

Donny and my self had boated fish est at  30kgs on the same drift and the 
other boys all had some big fish.Heres Rick about to iki Mikey because he wont lift the fish.
Get me a gin deckie im parched...and wheres that stunt cone gone  

For me the day was already a ripper with 8 
fish over 20kgs and a fish of 30+ kgs(released).
The new jm300 kojak and OJ4000 was hooked up with a 450gram rocket jig and dropped.....it never hit the 
bottom and was hammered on the drop by a new pb on a jig for me at 
26kgs.

After a Courtesy weigh by the skipper it was released into the ice box ... i dropped again on the same drift and once again the 
jig never hit the bottom...24kgs of kingi released.
Being totally jig "un fit" 
and hurting bad  i dropped again on the same drift and made the bottom.
Two 
winds and smash,this fish was smoking off and the bend in the rod made me take 
it from the gimble and point it at the fish on full drag and thumbs on the 
spool.
This fish made its freedom never stopping its 1st run till it broke 
free.
After re rigging with another jig we started another drift and i 
dropped the jig,1/2 way down it got smashed,with the rod in the gimble rick 
quickly had me take it out and once again.The bend in the 300 was more than 
kojak would of wanted and the voice of reason said point it at the fish and hang 
on.
Judging how far to let the jig rods bend is something that i will learn in time i guess but im not going to take any risks.Running 48kg braid thiers not alot of room for error 
That was 2 gone so another was rigged up,this on the same drift i dropped 
the jig down and jigged it up 10mtrs when it was slammed hard.
I kept the rod 
in the gimble this time and closed my eyes... the fish was steaming down when the OJ packed it in for the 
day.The fish was pulling hard and the reel was not feeling good at all.
The 
drag was backed off and the fish lost.The reel was retired for the trip with a suspected blown anti reverse bearing..
While this was going on with me Al was 
catching fish hard out as were the other boys.
The anglers were dropping like 
flys with 2 sitting out the rest of the day and didnt fish again till midday on 
the last day.
Elpescador never sat out,here he is with another fat fish 

This was turning into a very special day,Lance on enchanter 
pulled up along side and we gave him 10 livies for his crew of juniors  who were fishing a 
comp.
They fished along side us with the kids all getting fish between 17 and 
26kgs.
The day for us ended at 3.30 with broken bodies broken reels and an 
empty live bait tank.
 39kings for the day.
10 for Donny the maori (off 
the geoff thomas tonga trip) 17 to 30kgs 2 sharked
11 for elpescador  (19 to 
just under 30kgs) 1 sharked ,4 busted off
10 for me (19 to 30+kgs) 4 busted 
off on jigs, 2 on livies
2 for mikey (22 and 26kgs)
1 for des (26kgs) 
retired hurt after the 1st fish
5 for iane (17 to 24kgs)
We travelled into 
the island and fished for trevs,the burley worked a treat and attrtacted every 
rat kingi in the area to the boat ..so no trevs but lots of kingies and terakihi.
Rat kings were on tap and took a popper at will,every cast a hook up.
We had a school of 
koheru in the burley and put 12 in the live bait tank as well as another 
squid.
The night went by very slow with the deckie making many coffees... with the bait tank finally full we went to bed at 1 
am,lance and the team on enchanter were close by and had an amazing night on the kings with 
one young fella landing a 42 kg fish.and at least another 20 big fish behind Enchanter.
We woke to a calm sea and off we went 
with a full tummy to the western end of the island.
The fishing was superb 
once again,3 fish on the 1st drift and fish on each consecutive drift.
The 
size was average (15 to 19kgs) 
We persisted with a few more drifts with the 
best a fat 24kg fish to me and a real fat fish around the same to 
elpescador.

We made the call to head to the volkners and that was a bad 
call..the hot fishing of the day before was gone and the livies were 
untouched.
3drifts for no kings and we went back to the west end.
The fish 
were on the bite still and we hooked fish consistently every drift.
It was 
hard to get enthusiastic about these fish after the day befores insane fishing.
Day two gave us all another 6 or 7 fish over 15kgs and numerous rats that were easier to catch than the clap on waiheke.
We pulled the pin and went to the trench to catch a few gem fish and 
other bottom dwellers.The water was blue and a warm 20deg but not even an albie 
on the lures in 2 days.
We left the trench and headed home with smilies and a 
cold beer, reliving the memories of possibly the best days fishing kingies for 
us all.
The trip was fantastic with 4 PBS  for the boys and im shure every 
one was happy as...

So as allways with my trips thier is acts of 
muppetry,here they are.

1, Zane the deckie jigging with the plastic tube 
on the assist  hook
2,mikey cutting Elpescador off by not moving and a good 
fish lost with al throwing a tanty 
3,mikey drinking 24 gin and tonic 8% pre mixes,15 stienies and a 
1/3 bottle of rum in 18 hours and still standing.....well sort of standing 
4, mikey fishing with the 
rod in the gimble and harnessed in, getting smashed on the drop resulting in a 
birds nest which resulted in him getting pulled over the side with Elpescador 
grabbing his ankles as they went over the side..very lucky to be alive and if he 
was pissed he would of been dead if not for elpescador.
That about covers the 
muppetry for this year we can only hope things keep looking up and getting 
better.
My Dad was cremated  today and personally it has been a struggle up 
unill today but im shure things will change when my boats back in the 
yard.

Heres a few more pics,
Mikey with his 2nd and last fish for two days fishing...".wheres the beers deckie im parched"

Des with his new pb of 24.5kgs,this fish fought very hard and Destroyed Des  physically for some time..He was happy to sit and watch with a smoke and a beer.
You can see the conditions were tough ,alot of the fish had spawned and were very skinny.
The ones that hadnt spawned fought hard and were easy to pick with the fat condition they were in...We kept 9 kings for 6 of us,mostly  fish around 20kgs and ones that looked to have spawned.Some were damaged or foul hooked and were kept as they were bound to die a slow death.
The bradley smoker will be running all week,thanks to a few tips from GAMFSH cheers Mark 

The fishing at white is nothing short of spectacular at the moment,1 boat went home early after the crew lost most of thier jigs.
Thier was another 40kg fish caught at club rocks on a popper this week and the fish thier seemingly impossible to stop.The hapuka fishing is going nuts in the trench with fish on the gambler to 29kgs and limiting out in a few hours 2 days in a row.The puka are full of jack mackeral.
The livies are easy to catch at the island and im shure thier will be some horses caught thier in the next few weeks.

So thats about it, Cheers Wayne

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