My time off work and family has been very precious of late thus why I never get much time off to go fishing.  I did manage to get away with some mates to NZ for 2 days of fishing.  We were blessed with the weather and also the fishing.  Anyhow I got in touch with Mark Armistead of Extreme Fishing in NZ and the trip was booked. Met all the boys at Auckland airport and got a very comfy transfer to Tauranga where we checked in to the very comfy Sebel. Next morning we were greeted by a very sunny and still day and the water looking like a swimming pool. I was SOOO excited by this stage that I could not sit still . Anyhow after the buffet breakfast we headed to the hotel’s wharf where we met Mark and the skipper of the second boat – this was fishing in style.

So we split up over the 2 boats (3 in each) and headed out to the grounds. Oh I could not contain my excitement by this stage. We get out there and Mark shows us how to jig properly as one of my mates had never fished before and the other only a couple of times. He drops the jig over the side and after about 3 cranks he is in to a small kingie. Anyhow off we went and started jigging and not long after I was onto a fish. I thought he might have had a bit of size to him but turns out he was just a small fish (by local standards). It was great to see my two mates get stuck into some good kingies – our mate who had never been fishing opened up his account with an 80cm kingie – not a bad first fish!

The boys in the other boat got stuck into some good snapper on plastics and eventually came to join us on our ‘kingie reef’. I got a couple of decent kings that gave the 24kg gear and me a good workout. Our boat ended up with about 30 odd kings for the day and I managed the biggest at 119cm which meant I won the cash prize of $20 from each angler for the day.

That night we all had long hot showers, big meals and a few beers to dull the tired and aching muscles.

Next morning same deal, great weather, buffet brekkie and of to fish different grounds where we expected a lesser number of fish but bigger size. We tried to get some live baits in the harbour but no joy. We tried for a few small salmon on the way out but again, no joy. Bugger, we would have to rely on jigs again – oh my tired, sore, aching muscles. Anyhow we got out there and excitement took over and I forgot all about my muscles and got stuck into jigging again. Fish proved much harder to come by and we worked pretty hard all day to get into them. We got a few smaller fish then went to chase reds. On the light gear we hooked up to what we think may have been kings as they were unstoppable and we got busted off. We decided to try over some shallow reefs for reds and while the boys did that I was throwing around a stickbait for some kings. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a big kingie come up from nowhere, try a few times to smash the stickbait then disappear. Amazing sight and I reckon my heart was beating at about 400 beats per minute, man it was awesome!!! Anyhow try as we might we could not raise him again.

The day was growing long, the sun was getting low but we didn’t give up. The other boat had gone back to chasing reds, we have moved into deeper water and kept looking for kings. It was hard work at the end of a long day to jig in 100-120m of water with 400gm jigs. I got blown away by two decent kings that were unstoppable on 65lb gear. One we put down to gear failure as we think a ‘couta we caught earlier may have nicked the line but the second one just sounded and I could not stop him on 65lb gear. Just as we were about to go we had ‘one last cast’ and I was on to something decent. The drag was screaming, I was screaming in a combination of pain and excitement and eventually managed to haul up the biggest king for the trip going 124cm. I was over the moon and when our skipper announced it over the radio to the other boat there was some rather colourful language across the airwaves. I had scooped the pool and picked up the $20 from each of them again and also had bragging rights. I ended up using the winning to pay for lost gear anyway.

What an awesome experience, we had perfect weather and most of all the fish decided to turn it on for us. Mark certainly knows his stuff and it was pleasure to fish with top of line gear. Now I know why people spend big bikkies on good gear – you need it when doing this sort of fishing. Anyhow, we had a great time with mates and many, many memories. I can’t wait to go back, I am trying to convince the wife that a holiday in NZ is a good idea.

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