Hey all, Cuzzy Rory reminded me to post this up here.
It's a report I did for a recent comp I was in. Enjoy the read and if any of you are cruzing over to NZ through summer or to see the RWC look me up would be more then glad to go chase some fish.
Big bronzies show up end of October - begining of November and right through till March if you're in the country around that time.
So Team Sonik consisting of myself, Michael Jenkins, Jimmy the fish and Scuzzymoto finally all met up around 10pm on Thursday night. Much chit chat, farting and joking later a plan was formed, times were agreed upon and good nights sleep beckoned. I knew it was going to be a good day when my alarm went off at the gentlemanly hour of 05:15. No sooner had I hit the 10min snooze the old barstools that were already awake started cranking Motorhead’s Ace of Spades. Upon hearing the sultry sounds of early morning inspiration I was out of bed and walking out the room only to find they had changed to some Sabath. This energising start to the day was followed by a massive feed prepared by skilled hands of Scuzzy. Michael can sleep like a log, and slept soundly through the epic start but joined us once the food was ready. We inhaled that and were out the door packing up the truck and on our way some time after 6ish. We had decided on fishing the tried and tested and thrashed ledges just up from Fantail bay, arriving at around 07:30 to find that someone who was not in the comp had literally setup up camp by the ledge with all the sweet rod holders and had 2 or 3 baits in the water already. So we moved along to flat shelf and setup shop. Gear was prepared first before the burley was put out. We had livie rigs up and ready to go first. Once the gear was assembled and burley was out the piper and jack macs showed up in very short order. We had a fair wait till any kahawai showed. They eventually showed up but in small ferocious packs that moved past very quickly. We eventually figured out the grey hounding piper on the bays and ledges either side of us heralded the impending arrival of a marauding pack of kahawai and so baits would be deployed ahead of time ready to hold and intercept them. The part that I forgot to mention was the pack of 3 – 5 kingi’s that showed up just before we got out first livies. I think Scuzzy might have had a jack mac out already but can’t remember to clearly. Cleary it was kingi country very early on but they didn’t take anything and that set the tone for day one. We had another rat show up a bit later which molested MJ’s piper livie, followed by a larger unit that toyed with another of Scuzzy’s livies. Jimmy caught just about as many kahawai on his livies as he did baits. The KY were also on the larger side then we expected and finding a good sized one proved to be a challenge. There was a notable catch made on that day pity there was no category for it...
Please note that this beast was subdued with the awesome might the new 15kg Sonik LBG rod. It was a first for Scuzzy and thankfully a feat never to be repeated. The rest of the day involved packs of kingi’s coming past giving things a once over and then moving on. The fella that had occupied the other rock had said he was going to leave Sunday morning but ended up leaving that day, only after dumping all his trash in the water
. It was decided after some other fella’s dropped in to see how we were doing (who informed us of an uneventful day at northern most point) that we would get up even earlier and get to the other rock before them on Saturday. A bit of friendly misinformation may have also helped us out making sure we got there first the next day
what comp? what kingfish? And so day two started much the same as the previous morning, with a smaller breakfast, much less time spent farting about in the warmth of the of the cabin, with more Motorhead than the morning before, followed by a quicker drive to the ledges. We got there to find someone had been fishing over night with the remains of a fire and a big muscle burley still in the water. We took fewer rods this time and went solely loaded for bear. With the equivalent of a bait rod, livie stick and popper/drift bait rod each. Bait and burley was divided between the two ledges at the bottom, Jimmy and MJ to the right, Scuzzy and myself to the left. Same as before except now we had a wider spread of burley. Livies were deployed in short order and the wait began. I think MJ got another visit on his piper livie and that moved on. About an hour or so later scuzzy’s jack mac got one shotted by a king that kept the bait but not the hook. The rest of the day was spent swapping out livies catching more ky while waiting for some good bait sized ones.
Not having much luck on the livie front, there was period I didn’t have one out as couldn’t get a decent one. A school of KY showed up and before I could get my line in the water Scuzzy had one on his bait stick (which by the way was a new Sonik spinner stick. I got to use it earlier in the day and that thing is the sex of a little rod. Nice almost parabolic action and can take good high sticking and puts a hellaoflot hurt on fish while fishing the light gear) which he gifted to me, while I was grabbing my rig he then even hooked it up to the live trace for me. I then biffed it in the water and it decided it wanted to swim out wide. Scuzzy and I had been having livie wars all day and it was near the end of the day, I was gutted about no one had anything to show for the trip/day other then Scuzzy’s kina and day two’s eel
feeling all emo and despondent I let it go wide and decided to stick my rod on the holder on the high ledge/cliff so as to not have to constantly stop it from trying to school with Scuzzy’s bait. For those of you that know the ledge it ended up sitting about 5 or 6 meters off the weedy ledge in the middle (but looking out from the rocks) off the top left corner. I had only just put the rod down (I think, maybe it only seemed like it) when a kingi showed up and started taking an interest in Scuzzy’s bait. It circled a few time then headed off over the ledge in the middle into the deep water. It then came back for another look. By this stage Jimmy had his popper rod in hand so tha the next time it headed for the deep I guided him in to the general area it was heading for from the top of the small cliff. As the popper splashed down it came charging in out of the deep again to have a look. It followed the popper and then backed off last seen heading to my livie now out off the ledge. The popper was thrown again and landed right next to my balloon. It made a move for the popper and I was so busy watching it being retrieved so I didn’t see it take my bait. Next thing I know I look up and my balloon was gone but it wasn’t pulling any line yet. Instructions were bellowed at me from Scuzzy to taking my ****ing ratchet off and put it into free spool. No sooner had I done that then it slowly started heading off. Not even realising anything was wrong yet. It took about 15 meters of line then turned and head back toward the ledge. I kept up making sure to keep a slight bow in the line (learned that one from sharking so as to not pull the hook out) then waited for it turn away. Tightened up the drag and started striking like a mad man to set the hook. So it took off, not the insane run I was expecting but a solid one none the less. I had the drag at strike and have no idea how much it was as I had just guessed and checked the preset once the day before. So I decided to stop it in it’s tracks and pushed past strike. As soon as I did that it turned back and headed towards the rocks. This time I played catch up really fast and tried to skull drag it a tiny bit. Once it was heading parallel to the ledge I backed off, it turned around and started to head the other way along the ledge and I gained a little more line. It didn’t like that and tried to take off like a bat out of hell. But the drag was to much and the run short lived. It turned and headed back in again going the same way parallel to the ledge. It then turned and head the other way along the ledge and tried another run once it got closer to the end of the arc it was swimming. Again it was short lived, but I was not prepared for it and almost lost my balance. Third time around it turned and did the same thing and this time I paralleled it and manipulated the arc with my skull dragging to lead it to the part of the ledge Scuzzy was on waiting with the gaff. It came in bumped its head and the gaff was sunk into it’s gutt. My first kingi off the bricks was all over, much wooping and handshakes followed. The whole thing was over in less than 10 min, probably closer to 5. Meh I had the brick cherry popped and we had something for the trip/time we put in. There was a small woopsy when I tried to pick it up for a photo that then resulted in it thrashing and bouncing down the rocks towards the water. I was making frantic grabs for it, MJ started to get wraps on the main line and Scuzzy swung the gaff, which hit home in the back but pulled out. It then landed in the water and he got another one into the gut. I then dragged it even further from the water.
It weighed in at 15.2 so we knew it was not a winning fish. Filleted it on the rocks to make carry out easier.
The best bit about this trip for myself was the company. I was stoked with the fish, but Jimmy Scuzzy and MJ are 3 of the funniest and most knowledgeable guys I have ever met. I learnt a **** tonne and a few things stuck out for me. 1.) Turn the ****ing ratchet off – having 3 different kinds of TLD’s on the rocks and Scuzzy kindly reminding to do it on day one meant that on day to there was far less confusion as to whether or not a reel was going nuts when you're reeling in line.
2.) Don’t shout/dance/holla/scream/go nuts – I feel a little silly about it but I fully reckon if I had of been on the bottom ledge the kingi would have just ****ed off. I get really excited and stand 2m from the fish that showed shouting kingi and waving my hands like a medicine man at the water didn’t help anything. From the ledge I managed to shout and jump but was further enough away to not bother it.
3.) Poppers or cubes – the fish where there all weekend but not hungry, that popper really helped to fire it up so that when it happend upon my bait it was not longer playing games, it was pissed and so munched it. In the absence of popper and suppose skip bait and pillie cubes could do that same thing.
There were a bunch of other little things but those stuck out. I can’t wait for next year, and I also can’t wait to get my hands on those new LBG Soink rods, while the 24kg one didn’t get a bend in it the 15kg one did a few times on kahawai, they are beautiful, light and look pimp as hell. Mark, Jimmy and MJ it was ****en blast and I would gladly head out with you guys again. Hope the fella’s that couldn’t make it enjoy the wall of text (all 8500+ characters without spaces) of it
