Whats going on Fishwrecked!

This is going to be quite the lengthy & detailed report! but there is reason to it.

Well the lead up to the trip was quite stressful, as the charter organiser, someone pulled out with 6 days to do, Just a tad late notice isnt it? we were all quite dissipated at the situation. though it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

There was 6 left (Rob(robert1979), Pirate, Jimmy, Randy , Ethan & I)...we planned to meet in Mongenui at 6 pm for boarding. Unfortunately 4 of us, got sent on a wild goose chase in Auckland chasing camera parts. Who would of ever thought, you could have the same Address number on a specific street 3 times! NZ is certainly backwoods in ways. We were a few hours late, but boarded the boat albiet in the dark! Out came the beers and a few meets and greets, and next thing some of us knew it was 4 am! blind we were, with pirate keeping the entire boat awake with his constant "chilli bin" hatch slams!

Day 1: Soar heads were everywhere bar the smart one or two for the voyage out, with the weather looking quite pear shaped for the week ahead. Lets say Ol Lancey boy was not very impressed with our drunkenness the night before, and had a quiet word about quietly opening and closing the chill bin hatches. We steamed out from Mongenui , Marlin gear set and headed to the North Cape. To break up the day Lance advised us we would have a jig somewhere off the cape for an hour or so. Unforuntately the place was filled with rats, and we decided to keep on going. We eventually made it to the Kings after sundown and pulled up in North West Bay for the night. We had a quick feed and discussion with Lance about tomorrow, and the main topic was "to brace ourselves". I headed to bed rather early, as the soar head was still soar after a couple quite brews. Our english angler "Jimmy" , found out quickly what having you sea legs was all about, and unfortunately for him, didnt do to well for the voyage over.

Day 2: We woke up ot a very angry sou east wind pumping, i went out for a quick durrie on sun up, and noticed the 2 commercial boats still anchored up inside for protection. Hmmm...i thought, but the bacon and eggs smell comming from the kitchen was to go to refuse and i headed back into the galley. Eating away, at this wicked cooked breaky Phil the decky cooked up , we had lance telling us "lets go for a look, lets just see how it is", so we pulled down some of the rods and started tying knots while Lance attempted the steam out to the king bank!

we made the hour steam out, albiet battling 35 knot winds gusting to 40+ with a nice 3-4 swell. Lets just say it wasnt fun nor pleasant. We arrived at the first mark, so some seriously curling swells, one of the boys was out cold asleep in his bunk, not feeling to shabby. You know its bad, when you see the decky running for cover every know and than in the galley!!!! we pulled up to our first mark, eyes on the on coming 3-4 m SHARP swells and chop. Lance yells out the colours, and down 5 of us went..... a few jigs and we see Rob loaded up to something solid, whack i was on and then Pirate. Mine turned out to be a small fish of around 17 kg and was quickly released with rob only just starting to get his fish up and pirates still going. Rob ended up landing a nice 32 kingie and pirate once the grandma got hsi fish up landed the best for the trip, a 45 kg trophy king. Both we swiftly released after a few pics.  Randy also scored a nice kingy in the low 30s. We soldiered on but the rats was the common word for the rest of the day and Lance decided to pull the pin roughly at 2 pm for the steam back , we were would burely up the bay and possibly get some top water. On one of the drifts a nice curling swell decided to swamp the back of the boat, and there i was not holding onto anything and i slid from port to starboard and back, with rod in hand and nearly going over the rails...Rob said it was quite a laugh! We hit the bay for a much needed beer, and sent out some lives. Jimmy once again was head over side!

For the next couple hours all the boys hooked up some how or some way whether be on livies, plastics or stickbaits. Mind you the livies outfished everthing. Ethan finally came out and landed a few fish too! dont think he was felling the best from the tough drive home. Kingies to 20 kg were landed and the highlight being the decky Phils nice 23-24 kg king on stick bait. Jimmy the pom, wanted to catch a trev , so Phil showed him the rig and a way he went catch his pb trev of about 5 kg!

Day 3: Middlesex bank, with the weather on the improve we headed for the 3 hour steam out to middlesex. There wasn't much current and the kings were not playing the game in the morning so we decided to go for some bass/puka. this is what my main target species for me, i wanted to tick of the 50+ bass. Some of the boys were using bait, some fo the boys jigs, and myself the 800-1200 gram fallings. A few good fish  pulled up, with Ethan bring up a nice puka on a fallings 460, and Randy bringing up a nice bass on a fallings 460 of around 20 kg....the baby bass kept on rolling through, Then there was me, the man using PE6 and getting absolutely smoked. In the morning i list 4 jigs to bass, running up a costly bill. I was starting to be being labelled as "bust off brett"( i think a certain other member on here knows the name bust off quote well ha ha). There was a lot of banter on board so it was all good.  Pirate got a 38 kg bass on dirty bait.

We had lunch, and the current picked up and off we went chasing kings...This was IMO of the trip , the best king session we had, the entire boat was getting railed at stages, with 6 or 7 fish in the 30s boated, and myself contributing to 3 bust offs, and yet to land a decent fish for the day. Thats right PE6 getting bricked constantly.None of my knots were letting go. Just big fish and being reefed. it got to the point i had my drag so locked up, i was actually breaking the braid. Everyone got wicked fish, with a 40 kg fish lost to Ethan by a shark, all we got was the head back. The biggest fish went 37kg to Rob, with a few 30-35 fish for Ethan, Randy , Jimmy and Pirate. Myself 0! after a long frustrating day , with alot of swearing. Thought it was pretty cool seeing the entire boat hooked up and getting railed at the same time!!!

In discussion with Lance & Phil it was time for PE8 the next day, as they both knew how much i wanted my big bass! Again, Jimmy was alive over red rover throwing his ring up on the bumpy ride home.

Day 4:well it was my day , well at least i hoped but the morning turned out anything of this. Again the currents were slow out at middlesex, so we were chasing the final amount of bottom fish we needed for the trip, a few baby bass, and a heep of king terahki . I got a few on jig , which i was pretty happy with (people say no bait no terahki over hear....) and then slam... on the falling 1200 gram i was buckled over on the PE8 locked drag, it went for a sustained run and i hear " Billy the bass is here , he F****** here!" from lance, to all of  sudden ping. All over red rover. An inspection of the rig, showed me JM monster 13/0 hook had straightened. F*** me i thought, i was never going to win....Rob was stuck with the Tarahki label for most of the day, while a few of the bait boys going some early morning surprising kings and, young Ethan was slaying it on a 460 gram slow jig.

You need to understand here what has possibly gone wrong for me:

• Typical Reefed, cant do much about that
• AG Chain knots with knot sleeve, breaking at the figure 8, on more then once. Never using those JM figure 8s again.
• Braid popping half way down form pressure
• JM Monster hooks straightened etc etc

New assist, added on a glow squid and down went the 800 gram fallings, my shoulder were seriously starting to gear soar from these jigs (along with the 1200), and yet again i was buckled over, and line pealing. This is it, its near on lunch and i knew the current was turning. a few very tight minutes past, and i had got her up. Slowly but surely my bass was coming up. it breached the service and i hear lance go to the decky "you better not F*** this up Nip!" and there she was , not quite 50 but 48 on the scales. STOKED! you dont understand the satisfaction , of keeping with your guns and try and trying no matter how many times i was kicked in the balls to get this fish.

We then had a  lunch, and one of the marlin rods went off bang, a nice 140 kg stripy was soon enough tagged with Jimmy the pom yelling out " i want my mummy" mid fight!

After what was a cold lunch after it got cold! we rocked up to a mark, and had a jig. I jigged up a trev with a few mid 20s kings coming up. the boys having fun, Randy became buckled over, and then i thought what i had on was a trev, then all of a sudden Randy's line (180m deep) all of a sudden starts heading at a very fast pace towards the horizon....I loose contact with mine , only to start winding up and exactly the same thing is happening to me, line going to the horizon. Lance is yelling MARLIN, MARLIN!! then all of sudden randy's explodes at the back of the boat with a nice 130 kg stripy dancing away, Jig flying left right and centre like a pendulum....

I was getting pulled around the other side of the boat, then all of a sudden about 4 metres deep behind the boat, these light stripes and pecs fins appear. We had Enchanters first ever Double hook Up of Stripe Marlin on Jig, and most likely NZ's first ever double hook up on jigs.it didn't even know it was properly hooked at this stage, as it still had its electric blue fins and body going....then all of a sudden it starts bee lining, "loose drags lance is yelling, when the bills on the surface loose drags" i must of loosened if off to a PE5 drag setting and it was just sun setting. Both of are just watching and fighting in aw of what was going on. Unfortunately Randy's leader snapped about 20 mins into the fight, and there just me solo.

to cut the story short, it was an hour 30 mins fight time, we got it to the boat, tagged it and revived and she swam off well. Game over, the day was over and we started the 3 hour steam back to the islands.

Day 5: We decided to target Marlin in the morning before a few kingy drops.... first thing in the morning, we were on switch and teased a nice stripy for around 140 kg for young Ethan, his first ever billiy! yeoow. we had a few more shots but dropped the rest of the fish. We all think Lance kept this mark for the final day, as well of us rooted, and this seem to hold some fo the biggest kings so far. We all get bricked and dusted at some stage with fish to 39 kg landed, and biggens lost!

obviously i could go into much more detail, but quite frankly , this has taken me already 2 hours to report!!! In terms of the charter, its the best live aboard i have ever been on, we have already decided to re book for next year. Lance knows his stuff, and works very very hard to put you on the fish and enjoy the time.

Over all stats:

18 fish over 30 kg

1 fish over 40, and should be 2 if it was for its tail going (it weighed 35 kg with out the tail)!

Biggest bass went 48 kg

Biggest puka just a tad over 20 kg

3 Marlin T&R with another 8 raised over the trip (including the loss on jig).

Enchanters First ever double hook up of stirpes on jigs and Enchanters 2nd ever tagged billfish from a jig. I am the 3rd person to achieve this in NZ history.

Numerous XOS lost bass and Kings, which will be there for us next year.

you want a charters, hands down head with enchanter!

There is photo of a wall of water behind a shot with randy and a king...that was a nice swell say on the first day!

There will be another thread for 3 kings Marlin on Jig. i cant fit enough photos and the fact i still have 100s to sort through............ We will be making a vid too. Some photos have been intentionally left out for the video

Cheers

Brett

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