ANOTHER TRIP WITH SOME BIG KINGS AND ONE MONSTER LOST

Today's trip consisted of half beginners and half regulars and they are always exciting as the beginners luck sees for an interesting day. And this was no exception! Although the closer spots held heaps of bait the kings were lacking and a move to deeper water saw instant hook ups on large kings. The first timers did well with some big ones hooked and lost and eventually some landed. One particularly big one was hooked pulling off maximum drag and eventually reefing the angler, a shame to loose his first big king. Sometimes it doesn't matter what breaking strain your leader is, when you hook a big king right on the bottom they know exactly what to do. The River2Sea Spike jigs were doing all the damage, they remain my favourite jig for the larger kings. The kings were in a very small area so boat positioning is crucial otherwise you catch nothing. Unfortunately the kings didn't play for too long and didn't return at the tide change but a couple of bigger models each was a good effort for when the kings are temperamental.

MORE BIG KINGIES

Again the ocean was full of hatch and bait fish with schools of salmon and bonito around the heads. The deeper reefs were tried first with some nice fish up to 97cm caught,but again they were not schooling, with the fish being spread out. On arrival at a closer spot the sounder was red with bait fish and kings lurking under them, all hell broke loose with lots of hook ups. But they were on the move quickly with bait schools everywhere to pick from we couldn't locate them again. I was hoping they would hang around the pinnacles and we would bag out on really big kings but that's fishing. Another trip of big kings and lots of potential.

BIG FISH BUT NUMBERS DOWN

After more days of strong winds it was good to have a good forecast to give the jigging another bash after previous succesful trips. As usual the winds and seas were worse than predicted and it was a struggle for everyone but we were all desperate for a fish. The dust storm has caused a massive hatch to occur in the ocean with the largest schools of small slimies I have ever seen. We decided to give a wreck in about 65m of water a bash so as to give time for the seas to settle with no result (I've been told by someone that has dived it that kings abound but can't seem to catch one, although we have never really given it a good go. The move to deeper water resulted in some good kings being caught but they were very shy and not schooling up, resulting in lots of searching and long times of jigging between fish. About 12 fish to 7kg were caught but if my bucket of death is not full I'm not happy. On our way back to port a large shool of bait fish erupted around us but consistent jigging and lure casting resulted in zilch. All up not a bad day with some good potential for big fish but with the whole ocean being full of bait the kings were spread out and hard to catch.

FINALLY THE WEATHER BACKED OFF

After weeks of cancelled trips it was good to finally venture out wide to see what effect it had on the kingies. The closer reefs looked promising with good shows of bait but swirling currents made it hard to hit the spot consistantly and I just had a feeling we should move on to another spot. The move was right as the current was flowing from the north and a good drift direction over the reef. The first drop saw mutiple hook ups on big kings taking drag. Unfortunately one large fish was lost due to a braid cross over but a few were boated. Interestingly we jigged up two small albacore in close well off the reef, it's been a while since I've caught them in so close.

The fish weren't there in big schools but they were caught randomly throughout the day. I like it when it's like this as schools of fish up to 80cm can be annoying, they stop you from catching larger models. One client even caught a trevally,which is a rariety these days as the southeast trawl boats seem to have wiped the large schools out.

All up we caught about 12 kings in the 8 to 10kg range and a couple of 4kg models. The beginners on the trip did the best, it looked like the slow jigging was the best method and the green and gold spike jigs out performed the rest. More photos are posted on the web site. I'll have to improve my photo taking as the fish wre 10kg models but only look small in the photos.

PHOTOS POSTED ON WEB SITE FOR THE LAST YEAR

I'VE BEEN REALLY SLACK AND HAVEN'T POSTED AN UPDATE FOR 12 MONTHS. MUST DO IT AFTER EVERY TRIP BEFORE IT SNOW BALLS AND BECOMES TOO HARD. ANY WAY, I'VE POSTED ALL OF THE PICTURES OF FISH CAUGHT OVER THE LAST YEAR IN THE PHOTO ALBUMS ON THE WEB SITE. SO IF YOU'VE BEEN FOR A JIGGING CHARTER WITH ME HAVE A LOOK AND SEE IF YOUR UGLY MUG IS THERE HOLDING A FISH.THE FISH HAVE BEEN A BIT CAGEY THIS YEAR, THERE IN BIG NUMBERS ONE DAY AND GONE THE NEXT.THERE HAS BEEN A FEW SLOW DAYS AND MANY OTHERS WHERE BAG LIMITS WERE CAUGHT.