www.nzfisher.co.nz 1

ISSUE 45 March 2015

www.nzfisher.co.nz

Marlin MARLIN

Kingfish from the Rocks II

Tired of Catching Small

Getting sorted for offshore Yakking

www.nzfisher.co.nz 3

5.. Editorial

8.. Question A: Marlin, Marlin

14.. She’s thick with trout in Mangatainoka, bro. Yeah Right!

16.. Legasea Update March 2015

18.. Kingfish Off the Rocks VI

22.. Reader Pics

24.. Video of the Month

25.. Competition

ABOUT /Short and sharp, NZ Fisher is a free

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to forward-thinking fisher people.

EDITOR / Derrick Paull

GROUP EDITOR / Richard Liew

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Cover Image: Cam’s new PB - 68cm of deepwater snapper

Contents

Know whatyou’re doing

Phone 0800 40 80 90 or visitwww.boatingeducation.org.nz

Core Courses Specialty Courses RYA Courses

Wide range of courses for all types of boating available nationwide

Ocean Yachtmaster

Day Skipper

Boatmaster

Maritime VHF Operator Certificate

Coastal Skipper

Radar

GPS Operator

Engine Maintenance

Marine Medic

Sea Survival

Sea Kayak and Waka Ama

Club Safety Boat Operator

Bar Crossing

PWC

Powerboating

Sail Cruising

Motor Cruising

www.nzfisher.co.nz 5

Editorial

OVER THE LAST FEW years we’ve been fed

some pretty hard facts to swallow. We’ve

been told we catch too many snapper

in the Hauraki Gulf. We must accept

that commercial fishers can take smaller

crayfish than us in half our fisheries, but

now it’s ‘leakage’ when a commercial boat

sends hundreds of small (they weren’t

undersize because the commercial sector

doesn’t have a size limit) gurnard back to

the sea after a trawl.

I gotta tell you, I’m bloody upset by this.

We in the recreational fishing sector work

hard to improve our practices and return

unwanted fish safely and quickly to the

water. We use new, safer techniques to

land our fish, and we spend time teaching,

guiding and educating new comers to the

sport. On the one hand, I say to myself,

“Why do I bother” but on the other, it’s an

easy answer – because I care for the health

and longevity of our fishery.

A week after seeing Kerren Packers video

of the ‘leaked’ (I believe it was dumped,

but let’s play along) gurnard, ultra small

through to large ones began turning up

in fish shops. It’s like the commercial

guys got the word, ‘Quit dumping your

midgets’ and they started landing them.

Again Facebook was alive with disgust as

images of these baby gurnard were posted

from across the city. I was interviewed

by TV3 (It hasn’t aired yet) about how I

feltseeing these fish for sale, and it got

6 www.nzfisher.co.nz

me thinking, ‘what value do we put on

our inshore fishery?’ There’s always talk

about the worth of our fish to the world,

but these very small gurnard weren’t being

sent overseas – there is no economic value

gained by killing them. These fish were

sold, on the cheap ($1.99 per kilo, retail

including GST) to New Zealanders.

There was no magic international dollar

coming into New Zealand to justify their

death. Just 30 cents a kilo in GST collected

from within our borders. Where is the

sense in this transaction? The exchange of

a few dollars, of which the trawler would

have earned nothing I suspect, for the

death of the future of a fishery. A group

of recreational fishers have asked for the

head of MPI (Fisheries), Mr. Dave Turner,

over this action.

The MPI team quickly came out and stated

this was a case of ‘Leakage’ not dumping;

something the boat in question has (we’re

led to believe) done ten times in the last

two years. As a conscientious fisher, if I

accidentally kill a fish - a single fish - I

change what I’m doing there and then and

make sure it doesn’t happen again. In the

case of this vessel accused of dumping,

MPI made a decision on the cause of the

leaked/dumped fish within a couple of

days. I’d suggest they probably simply

asked the skipper and accepted his word

without a skerrick of investigation

In an unrelated case, I recently reported

an illegally set net in a neighbourhood bay

near where I live. The net was unnamed,

staked and left dry above the receding

tide. There’s a swag of offences right

there. I rang MPI’s 0800-4POACHER line

four times, over three weekends before

they finally sent someone down to have

a look. And when they did, they took the

offenders details, issues no formal warning

and let them go without a fine but in

possession of their net.

Just like the limp wristed results we see

on Coastwatch, these guys got their fish

(illegally caught), their net, and no fine for

openly abusing the rules. I’m at a loss to

understand why we should other following

the rules at all. Do others feel this way?

Do you all obey the rules because, like

me, you care and believe you’re making a

difference? Or am I fooling myself and the

majority know there’s no chance of getting

caught, so they take what they want,

regardless of the greater good? Somehow I

don’t believe this to be the case.

Our inshore fisheries are being fished very

hard. There’s little intent by Government

to restrain the commercial fleet, and

the commercial guys see little value in

sharing the bounty with the recreational

sector. In the snapper one submission

put forward by Seafood New Zealand in

2014; they referred to the recreational

sector as “…high value consumption of

imported components…”, Which roughly

translated, means they see our enjoyment

of our pastime as the wasteful use of our

imported fishing gear while taking fish

from the sea for no ‘profit’.

It seems clear to me that every decision

made by New Zealand Fisheries is one

that provides a greater return for the

shareholders of the fishing companies that

fish our waters. They’re not in the game

to share – ‘shared fishery’ is a misnomer.

www.nzfisher.co.nz 7

I learned during my time on the

Recreational Fishing Council that it was

a race for fish, possibly even the last fish.

But I believed a little in the fact that these

fishers would be cutting their throats if

they over taxed the fishery.

The problem with my thinking is that the

guys out there catching the fish don’t own

the quota, they just do what they’re told.

If they’re told not to land any gurnard, but

they pull up a net full of them, what do they

do? They ‘leak’ them. In layman’s terms, they

dump the lot, tonnes of them. This practice

has been witnessed time and time again by

fishers but almost invariably MPI can’t (or

wont) find the offending vessel.

Snapper, our main target species, has

been fished down to under 20% of

its virgin biomass on the upper North

Island and below 10% on the west coast.

Why do we still allow the horrendously

damaging method of trawling to occur in

our inshore waters?

We had a world leading fisheries

management system in 1986 when

the Quota Management System was

introduced, but the core value of that

legislation envisaged the original quota

owners would be fishing their quotas.

It did not envisage that they would be

selling them for significant profits to quota

accumulating oligarchs who focus on the

inflowing dollars alone, with no thought to

the destruction their poorly paid workers

on the oceans coalface inflict upon our

struggling waters.

OK, so I’m getting a bit romantic in my

ranting’s, but it hurts. I’m genuinely

cut up seeing the abuse of our oceans

at the hands of blind corporations and

their actions brushed under the mat by

ineffective managers. New Zealand, this

resource is ours, the peoples, not the

property of faceless corporations. Don’t

forget, our Primary Industries (Fisheries)

is charged with the protection of the

resource. Let your voices be heard, don’t

settle for ‘it was leakage’ when you know

damn well it was dumped. Don’t stand for

baby gurnard turning up in fish shops for

$1.99 a kilo.

The Minister of Primary Industries

(Fisheries), Nathan Guy can be reached at

n.guy@ministers.govt.nz – please let him

know how you feel about his Ministries

inaction over these recent and historical

offenses. Please cc’ me too at

derrickp@nzfisher.co.nz if you do send

him some words (But keep it clean please!)

Tight lines NZ Fisho’s!

Derrick

8 www.nzfisher.co.nz

SPO

RTS

FISH

ING

AS I SAID IN the last issue, I fished the

Beach & Boat out of Marsden Cove with

the Honda Team. I was paired with Honda’s

Auckland sales rep Cam and client, Alastair

– also an old mate of mine.

I’d like to tell you that this story is all

about how Al, Cam and I managed to nail

some monster fish, claimed the title and

ranked ourselves silly revelling in the

afterglow. But it isn’t.

Nope. The B&B went well for us for

sure; we landed great fish on both days,

nothing to write home about, but plenty

to keep us interested.

The event itself was great. With 2500

fisho’s trying to get their boats in and out

each day, mayhem was expected. But the

organisers did a great job; from organising

the local Fire Brigade and Coast Guard

to managing the ramp, to having the

weighed-in fish iced down, packed and

protest before being distributed within the

local community.

Words by Derrick Paull & Ian Biddick Images by Tony Orton & Derrick Paull

Orca in the anchor

Marlin MARLIN

What do you get when you hang a large kahawai over the side of the boat at the Mokohinau Islands when hunting Kingfish?

www.nzfisher.co.nz 9

As part of the Honda Team, I was treated to

a caravan within the VIP zone, meaning we

were essentially on site the whole weekend,

at least while we weren’t fishing that is.

On day one we found really good numbers

of snapper and rat kings around the uber

popular Coppermine at the Chicks, as in

the Hen and Chicken Islands 10 miles out

from Whangarei Heads. The fish weren’t

concerned about the bright sun and

extremely clear water and weren’t even put

off hitting baits mid water when we were

being buzzed by Orca.

Including this one that spent a minute or so

rubbing itself up and down the anchor rope,

including wrapping the rope around its tail

and rubbing. We were a bit concerned at first,

but it swam away and came back again and

again. It was a very cool experience, albeit a

little freaky!

We headed in and found out that the others

in the Honda crew had fared similarly. Except

the crew of Ian Biddick, Edan Craig and

Graham Keogh, who’d headed out with Tony

Orton of Offshore Adventures in search of big

Mokohinau’s kings and had found themselves

connected to a striped marlin mid-morning.

Ian Biddick, Honda GM was on the rod and

managed to land the fish in about 90 minutes

on gear normally used for kingfish.

This was Ian’s first marlin. While he’d been

offered plenty of chances to chase them

previously, he’d always turned them down,

focussing on inshore fish and kings. So

landing this fish was quite a surprise and

while well received, not the lifelong ambition

many fishers have.

So, when his line took off again the following

day in 35 metres, just metres from where he

hooked the Stripey the day before, you can

imagine the shock when an estimated 300kg

black marlin broke the surface, shook its head

and bedded down in an effort to beat Ian at

his new found sport.

Edan recounted the story back to me

later and praised the work of Tony Orton

on the helm, often getting the Offshore

Adventures boat up on the plane hunting

the fish. Eden estimated they never had

more than a 100 metres off the reel as Tony

kept Ian in touch continuously.

You can see the highlights of Ian’s weekend.

Day one is here and day two, here.

Alastair with one of the better rats.

Marlin MARLIN

10 www.nzfisher.co.nz

Here’s Ian’s recollection of the weekend

and the fight of his life – 45 minutes of

adrenaline one day followed by 75 minutes

of ‘Why me?’ the next:

The back story:This adventure started in December 2104

when my team and I were discussing how

we could best gain as much attention as

possible for Honda Marine at the Beach and

Boat. Honda Marine, of course, is one of

the sponsors of the Beach and Boat. And, of

course, the answer came in a flash, why don’t

we just try and win it in a Honda powered

boat, easily said, much harder to achieve!

We were so confident we decided to take a

dedicated camera man with us for both days

of fishing, ‘just in-case’. We needed someone

who knew their way around the area; enter

Tony Orton of Offshore Adventures. Tony

specialises in fishing the Mokohinau’s

(Mokes). We talked to Tony about our goal

and hired the boat for the two days of the

B&B. Based on our needs, Tony formed a plan

(Actually 1 through to 25 - as one does), so

off we went cruising out of Marsden Cove on

Friday morning

Friday - Day One:Our plan was to head out to the Mokes

early and first off go for the 5XL kingfish,

and then fish for snapper once we achieved

that goal, loaded with lives kindly caught by

our skipper the day before, off we went with

our hopes, and expectations high. A quick

trip out to Mokes due to Tony’s beautifully

set up Extreme with twin Honda BF200’s on

the back, saw us setting baits in no time. We

proceeded to fish small live baits and caught

a couple of nice kingfish, nothing that would

win the B&B, however, when Tony suggested

we need to up-size our baits. The boil-ups

were everywhere, and we hooked a couple of

nice kahawai which were deployed in short

order. We had spotted what we thought was

a marlin feeding in the area, so Tony rigged

one of his Shimano Talica 50’s onto a game

rod, and the trolling continued. I had asked

him specifically about the size of the bait and

if a kingfish would take a three kg kahawai.

He assured me it would, and my excitement

continued to grow.

When my rod went off I thought, it was the

kingfish of my dreams but then everyone

started getting real excited by the way

the rod was loading and behaving. The

next minute I’m into a 160kg (estimated)

striped marlin. To say I was stunned would

be an understatement! I had never caught

a marlin up to this time and could never

understand the enthusiasm that fisherman

have for trolling around our waters for

hours on end attempting to catch one. I got

that misunderstanding sorted in the first 5

minutes; I can tell you!

What followed was 40 minutes of pure

excitement as we chased down the marlin

with yours truly responding to Tony’s

instructions on what he wanted from me.

Some awesome footage of the fish was

captured on camera and high fives all around

- yahoo my first marlin, an unintended catch!

For us, everything else on the day seemed to

pale into insignificance even though we still

weighed in a kingi on the day that managed

5th heaviest. What a day! Back at the venue,

and after a beer or three we all started joking

about ‘wouldn’t it be a hoot if we did it again

on the Saturday’. The irony of that chatter still

stays with me today.

www.nzfisher.co.nz 11

Saturday - Day Two:

We agreed to run the same plan for day two

(not the marlin part), despite the fact that

one of our number, friend and excellent

fisherman Edan Craig slept in. So, instead of

a 5am start we finally sailed around 6:15am.

You can imagine the grief that Edan copped

on the way out.

We had seen the quality of the snapper

catch on Fridays weigh in and realised very

quickly that to win the snapper section

would need a very special fish so we

decided again to focus on kingfish; and for

the big kingfish, big bait. There is nothing

I like more than catching fish on light

tackle so I’m right in my element catching

kahawai, and soon a fat kahawai was set

up for trolling and off we went. I was again

under instructions from Tony about how to

handle the reel as there was just sufficient

drag set to tow the kahawai.

My instructions were to slow the reel with

my fingers if it was a kingi to allow the fish

time to swallow the bait or to hit the strike

right off if it was a marlin. I would have

saved some skin off my finger and thumb

If I had known how prophetic those words

would turn out to be. There was another

strike and not believing that it would be

another marlin (two marlin in two days –

impossible, right?); I kept my fingers to the

Tag in GP

12 www.nzfisher.co.nz

spool as instructed. We soon realised it was

indeed another marlin and the drag got

set to strike in short order. Having caught

a marlin the day before I had some idea

of what was ahead of me and as such was

totally engaged with the catch, rather than

being somewhat stunned.

Around 90 minutes later an estimated

300kg black marlin was beside the boat,

tagged and released, And finally a rather

tired Ian Biddick was able to take a break.

I’m ‘running’ fit, and this allowed me to

stay with the fish and not tire overly, but I

must admit to being a little sore the next

day. What a workout!

What a beast! What excitement!?!?!

The adrenaline rush! I now know why

fisherman target marlin, there is nothing as

exhilarating as catching a big fish like this

- two in two days is simply awesome! We

didn’t win the contest, but we did get what

we set out to do, and that is capture some

awesome footage of the some great fish,

something to cherish and remember forever.

www.nzfisher.co.nz 13

Teamwork:I had never considered the role others on

the boat would play in successfully catching

a big fish like this. It is as much about the

skipper and others who assist on board, as

it is about the angler. I would like to thank

Tony Orton ‘Offshore Adventures’; Edan

Craig, fishing friend; Honda Marine; and all

of my team for bringing a successful B&B

together. Finally, thank you to all of the

well-wishers who congratulated me, for

making this catch possible

Fishing from here on:One of the joys of fishing for me is not

always wrapped up in catching the biggest

fish, nice to do as that may be. I take my

fishing pleasure from catching fish on light

tackle. A three kg snapper or a 13kg kingi

brings as much reward in their own way as

catching the marlin at the B&B and sharing

the experience with like-minded friends.

Catch and release – awesome. Taking only

what you need for a feed - awesome. Look

forward to seeing you on the water at some

time. Come and say hi, I will be in the blue

1850 Stabicraft with a (you guessed it)

Honda BF135 on the back. ■

Released to swim again, there were plenty in the bin already

Schools of solid trevs spent the day frustrating us and busting up spasmodically

14 www.nzfisher.co.nz

She’s thick with trout in

Mangatainoka, bro. Yeah Right!

IN DECEMBER, I FISHED a very remote

stream in the back blocks of Pahiatua. It

was a stunning piece of countryside found

by travelling through the hills and valleys

away from Mangatainoka and east towards

the sea. The hills here are walked by sheep

and hardy farmers; there are few cows, and

their absence leads to clearer water, better

stream definitions and consequently more

attractive waters teeming with solid trout.

My guide on this trip, regional Fish and

Game Ranger Hamish Carnachan, has

good relationships with local farmers and

arranged access to a seldom fished piece of

water well off the beaten track. The water

was crisp and clear, still a little milky after a

few days heavy rain and flowing fast over a

loose shingle base.

Hamish was confident of fish on a dry fly,

something I hadn’t yet managed, as the

brown beetles were out, and the trout

FLY

FISH

ING

Sticking with dry flies in the face of evidence they’re not working can be one of the most frustrating and then rewarding processes of trout fishing.

www.nzfisher.co.nz 15

She’s thick with trout in

Mangatainoka, bro. Yeah Right!

were happy supping them off the surface

throughout the day. We arrived with a

couple of hours of sunlight left and, after

enjoying a quick beer to get the joints

limbered, we headed downstream to fish our

way back to the car.

As an Aucklander, I’m seldom exposed

to these sorts of streams. The Waikato

streams usually protect me with their

elevated silt levels, so I don’t spook fish

easily. Sadly, these fish and waters were

not so forgiving and I saw fish swim away

before I had a chance to flick at them. It

seemed pretty much guaranteed since I

forgot to bring a jacket and was fishing in

a bright white tee shirt, but Hamish was

kind enough to lend me a camo jacket

that helped disguise me a bit.

I had been flicking a nymph under a Royal

Wolf, which was serving as an indicator

when Hamish suggested I was probably

doing more harm than good with the

nymph. He recommended I stick to a dry

only, working on presenting the fly rather

than blind casting. OK, to a pretty amateur

fly flinger like me, this concept is like

stripping to a pair of speedos at the beach.

I’m not one to run form a challenge, but

rather than a challenge, this is apparently

the way real fly fishers fish down here.

The first thing I noticed was how much

easier it was to cast a single dry fly. And

secondly, very shortly after, I had my

first take for the day. It was all captured

on Hamish’s Go-pro mounted aboard his

quad-rotor drone – you can watch it here.

The fish ran me hard downstream, leaping

energetically and putting my under the

pump. Hamish’s Sage 5 weight did the trick,

keeping me on my toes and securing a new

PB Rainbow or around three to four pounds.

It wasn’t until I lost the nymph that this fish

became interested in my offering. Not only

was it a dry, but specifically a tiny winged

model to imitate the vine hoppers we could

see buzzing around.

Thanks Hamish for the great afternoon on

the water – I learned more in those two

hours than almost all my previous weeks

on the water. ■

16 www.nzfisher.co.nz

SEVERAL TRAWLER MEN have revealed

that dumping happens on every trawl.

One skipper estimates 10 to 15 bins of

undersized fish were thrown back dead

after every trawl. By law, the crew is

required to discard undersized fish, but

they say that in practice, damaged or

unmarketable fish are dumped as well.

The trawler men have said that most of this

wastage goes unseen because it happens

over the horizon or after dark and that during

daylight skippers have been known to take

evasive action and stop dumping fish when

recreational fishers start filming their actions.

In February experienced fisherman, Kerren

Packer found a trail of dead gurnard floating

off the Manukau Harbour, on the northwest

coast. He was so concerned about the

wastage he used his cell phone to video the

scene. This footage went viral on the internet

and created a media work-up.

The response from the Ministry for Primary

Industries was underwhelming:

Dave Turner, Director Fisheries

Management, described the incident as

‘accidental loss’. He confirmed the skipper

had filled out the necessary forms, not just

for this incident, but for nine other events

over the past three years. This settled the

matter for the Ministry.

How can this be acceptable?

The very existence of ‘accidental loss’

paperwork signals the prevalence of dumping

and the Ministry’s sanction as long as all legal

sized fish are counted against the quota.

It’s not good enough. Better at-sea

information is required.

In 2013, the Minister required increased

coverage on inshore trawlers by observers

and cameras. For almost a year commercial

fishers on the northeast coast have been self-

reporting the weight of undersized snapper

discards from every trawl. As yet, no results

have been released.

www.legasea.co.nz

LegaSea Update March 2015

FISH

ERIE

SMA

NA

GEM

ENT

www.nzfisher.co.nz 17

LegaSea is the public face of the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council. The Council has an experienced fisheries management, science, policy and legal team. On behalf of the

Council LegaSea provides public-friendly information about a variety of processes that are important to the sustainable management of fisheries for future generations.

Call 0800 LEGASEA (534 273)

Email us info@legasea.co.nz

Subscribe at www.legasea.co.nz

Read more at www.facebook.com/legasea

Our fisheries are a national and natural

resource, there for us to enjoy and protect for

future generations. We cannot nurture this

resource if trawl nets are being dragged, for

hours, across the seafloor every day.

Trawling within 100m depth has the

inevitable consequence of catching small fish,

and unwanted species. The evidence suggests

that unmarketable or uneconomic fish can

be slipped over the gunnels without even the

slightest of blinks.

Innovative solutions

LegaSea has developed policy to address

trawl damage and fish dumping issues.

Ban trawling within 100m depth contour

and rebuild inshore ecosystems.

www.legasea.co.nz/faqs-management.php

Protecting inshore benthic (seabed)

communities and habitats from damaging

bottom contact fishing methods is a priority as

this is where snapper fry and other small fish

live, grow and hide from larger predators. ■

18 www.nzfisher.co.nz

BEN

ISLA

ND

.CO

.NZ

THE PLAN FOR YESTERDAY was to target and

arrest kingfish. Everything went according to

plan, and we experienced spectacular rock

fishing action.

Conditions & Timing Sunday, 01.02.2015, Great Barrier Island, calm sea,

cloudy, variable tail wind and very warm.

Choosing the right time might not seem

that straight forward but with low tide at

12.30pm, I felt confident that there was

no need to get up early. We had the Burley

deployed and the first bait in the water at

10.20am, the first kingi sighting was at dead

low tide, we packed in around 1.30pm.

I cannot explain why, but kingfish love low

tide, this is the best time to target them off

the rocks.

Almost an hour after the burley was in the

water, and there was still no sign of kahawai.

Sinclair and I were fishing our bait-rods and

watching the water. The better you are in

catching the right bait fish, the greater your

chances of landing a kingfish.

I was very happy and surprised when a

kahawai was at the end of my line. I caught

it quite far out, right after the bait hit the

surface. It was about 35cm long and went out

quickly and without any fuss under a balloon.

Sinclair landed a similar-sized kahawai

moments later and by 11.30am we had both,

one of the best live baits swimming around

As my friend Sinclair put it some time ago, “there is quite a bit to (rock) fishing”.

Kingfish Off the Rocks VI

Not much happening, waiting for a kahawai

www.nzfisher.co.nz 19

the ledge. We held them in close, from two to

10 metres from the rocks.

Meanwhile, we switched to our respective

snapper gear and started landing 30cm

plus snapper. Nothing exciting. The

fishing remained slow, and there was no

other kahawai in sight, bar a big one who

managed to get away.

The action started a few minutes before

dead low tide. I saw a kingfish come up

from the deep and have a good look at

Sinclair’s kahawai. Next thing, I’m pointing

at the location of the kingi, Sinclair holding

his live bait rod, and we observe how the

kahawai swims quickly to shore. I tell you if

it had legs, it would have hopped onto the

rocks and ran away. One scared kahawai.

The kingi was out of sight now; I was

holding onto my rod. Surely, it’ll come back

for mine. A couple minutes later, another,

but less spectacular sighting.

The kingi was not interested in my kahawai

nor Sinclair’s. Well, his fish was hugging

the kelp on the rocks. I decided to give the

popper a go and cast it out far, even saw

the kingi on one of the retrieves. But his

majesty was not impressed.

Hmmm, what to do? I was thinking. The

answer was right in front of us. During all this

commotion, we noticed three to four kahawai

swimming really fast and picking up bits of

the Burley. As I said in the beginning, there is

quite a bit to fishing…

I knew we would get a hook up if only we

could replace our scared kahawai with

fresh ones. They were more agile and eager,

swimming confidently in the presence of a

kingfish, feeding away on the Burley.

Kingfish Off the Rocks VI

Ben’s 23lb King - thanks to a missing, live kahawai

20 www.nzfisher.co.nz

To cut long, frustrating minutes short, the

trick to catching them was to use squid

tentacles. Those kahawai were picking up bits

as they came off the Burley, so the right bait

size also had to be small. If I hadn’t landed

one on the tentacle, I would have put a piece

of burley on the hook.

So here goes, I put a fresh kahawai under

the balloon, it rockets away from the rocks,

and within five seconds two kingi shoot up

attacking. Right next to me. I was so sure of

the hook-up. However, my kahawai managed

to escape at least three solid attacks by

two fish – competing for lunch – and then

managed to swim back to the sea weed line.

From then on, it did not swim even half a

metre out, I tell you if it had legs…

I tried to get the bait further out, even

threw it gently by hand a couple meters

out, but it just swam back to the surface

and back to my feet. For my last attempt,

I took the kahawai out of the water and

walked five meters to my left and released

it back into a different patch of water, a

small gutter. My rationale was that it might

now swim out a bit further, and hopefully

the wind could then catch on the balloon

and take the fish away from the rocks.

It worked. Within a minute, the kahawai

was about six metres out, and the yellow tail

surfaced. The kahawai panicked, nowhere

to hide; it went left, right, up, down, but in

circles. I was on the highest rock around,

knees bent, and just waited for it. It took

about one minute, the kingi had so many

unsuccessful goes at it, and then, finally, the

balloon went under.

The Hook-up

I increased the drag to a third, waited for

the slack to disappear and the rod tip to

bend. Then I struck and increased the drag

to fighting mode. The kingi had no chance;

it was well hooked and only about eight

metres out. It gained nothing on me; it

changed sides, I didn’t give it an inch, it

turned directions and finally managed to go

for a strong run. Maybe a few meters until it

changed direction again, I had the fish well

under control, rod aiming high, solid drag.

It was a keeper, about one metre long, fat,

angry, green kingi. Well, scared, too. Sinclair

had a couple half-hearted attempts at

gaffing the fish, and we finally landed the

fish on the leader.

20 something pound kingfish. Look at Rani….

BEN

ISLA

ND

.CO

.NZ

www.nzfisher.co.nz 21

Sinclair still had a kahawai out there. I

cleaned the kingi and secured by rope, put it

back into the water to keep fresh. About 20

minutes later, we were having a chat, and I

noticed how the water around his balloon

rose. I shouted, “There’s another kingi” and

thought, ‘that was heaps of water, like a

wave, but there were no waves’. It was odd.

Even odder, Sinclair’s kahawai seemed now

dead, just floating in about a meter of water.

I walked up high onto the rocks and saw this

massive bronze whaler come back toward the

kahawai. Biggest shark I have seen.

It had another good look at the half-dead

kahawai, and I really thought Sinclair would

be soon in 500 plus kg of fish. In retrospect,

he was fortunate not to get the hook-up, he

wouldn’t have been able to stop that fish.

We saw a school of mullet swim by and the

shark another handful of times up close but

all too quick to get a shot. On this occasion,

everything went according to plan. Having

a good live bait out and seeing a kingfish

does NOT equal hook-up, I’ve seen this

plenty of times. I worked hard for this fish,

constantly making decisions, presenting

a fresh, motivated bait suitably and then

staying calm enough to not rush things.

I saw Sinclair today; he asked something

I’ve been pondering about for a while: “So

Ben, what happened to the kahawai the

kingi took?” “I don’t know buddy; it just

disappeared. They always do. I have never

gutted a kingi and seen a kahawai inside.” ■

Kingi Steak

This article is reproduced with permission of Ben Assado. Check out Ben’s website www.benisland.co.nz for more fishing stories and a great read about island life

22 www.nzfisher.co.nz

REA

DER

PICS

Aaron Mcdonalds boat mate, Brendan, with a horse of a Gemfish from the Garden Patch in January.

Winner! Reader Pics

Ed Stubinitsky’s Tuna and Mahimahi caught off the West Coast

Geoff ‘Y Knot’ Marmont and his Stripy landed on his boat YKnot

Geoff Marmont, Marlin and family

www.nzfisher.co.nz 23

Geoff Marmont Marlin with a West Coast Stripy landed in March

Ray Ransom With one of two puka he landed off Great Barrier aboard Highlander

Ray Ransoms second (32kg) Barrier Puka

Sea Ox with a serious (38kg) Barrier Puka aboard Highlander

24 www.nzfisher.co.nz

VID

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