WHAT A COMBO!

By John Clynes

Every now and then a whole bunch of ingredients get thrown together with the outcome that works out to be a brilliant combo. Food and weddings come to mind, but a fishing trip?

A boys bonding session in the form of a stag party for my son was the first set of ingredients, wanting a fishing trip with a difference. What to do? In the back of my mind from the recent Boat Show in Tauranga, I heard the echoes of De Coro Fishing Supplies. They were blowing off at how good they were at catching Kingies with their new fangled high tech Japanese rods and high-speed reels braided up with a Zest jig hanging off the end as terminal tackle.

Yeah right! Jigging seemed to me to be too much hard work so I hadn’t contemplated or tried this fishing style for a long time. Remember when jigging was popular? Well believe me it has come back with a vengeance with this new gear on the scene now.

The Decoro boys assured me their hook up rate was hugely successful and ran out of fingers and toes to tell me how many kingies they had caught recently using this new tackle and method.

I was cautiously optimistic to put my neck on the line with a whole bunch of my mates who would not hesitate to use me as shark bait if our little venture failed.

The next problem was how to keep 12 guys plus the Decoro boys floating, occupied and having a great time. So the final ingredient had to be a craft capable, with plenty of room to avoid the tangled up nightmare that charter boat skippers talk about after their fishos have gone home disappointed minus a few kilometres of their line.

There aren’t many charter boat operators available to deliver this last and vital ingredient. How can you pour on the tangle free shampoo and remain sane with a whole bunch of guys lined up on the rail jigging like crazy, A lot of skippers shuddered at the thought but Blue Ocean Charters with their trusty 50 footer “Te Kuia†came to the party. It was kind of like having a “walk around†on steroids with flat deck walking space from stem to stern.

Traditionally Te Kuia or TK as she is affectionately known is deployed as a pocket battle cruiser undertaking manoeuvres on overnight Puka trips to Mayor Island, ferry runs to Motiti Is. and otherwise bottom fishing for up to 35 people within the Bay of Plenty on day trips. Believe it or not she is registered to take on board 97 passengers and it is because of her load carrying capacity and large deck space that makes her a treasured part of the Bay fishing scene.

The skipper that day was Arch Mctainsh who has a wealth of local area knowledge and is very intimate with the Bay of Plenty’s bottom. If all else failed with the kingfish plan, I could rely on Arch to produce a fishy area at a moment’s notice. Blue Ocean Charters has years of GPS marks with each skipper sharing information so with confidence the date and time was set with eager enthusiasm.

The pig’s refuelled and ready to fly all ingredients came together and left the Bridge Marina at 13:00 on the last sultry Friday afternoon in November headed for the Penguins. Good company and a designated driver, what could be better? This gave us plenty of time to relax and prep the boys to battle with the mighty kingfish.

Fed lubricated and trained in the use of the new piscatorial weaponry to fish in approx 70 metres of water, we settled the lads all down the starboard rail. Matt from Decoro Fishing Supplies assured us that multiple hook ups were likely and those that didn’t had to get their gear up fast to avoid tangling kingfish going ballistic.

Yee-hah, what an afternoon. Bang, bang, bang; three hook ups straightaway as they laid into kingies barely legal, just legal and oh my arms hurt legal! For the next few hours of absolute fun, nine drifts later we had caught 18 kingfish, released most of them and kept a couple of whoppers that would feed us all for the next three days. What a blast! One guy off the transom also caught a nice 3 kilo snapper fishing with his light spinning gear and gulp bait in 70 metres! What a blast and not one tangle!

Well we tried something different and it paid off. All these ingredients made an excellent combo and as the next opportunity arises my tackle box now is bristling with some of these jigs in pride of place. I couldn’t have done it without the help and experience of the Decoro boys and their gear and of course my special thanks to Arch the Skipper at Blue Ocean Charters.

By now some of you will want some more of the technical details so here goes. We fished with high-speed reels such as the Okuma TG15, Okuma VS 80 and the higher spec American Accurate 665.

The rods were Kilwell Fibremax Jig Stik, Berkley 37kg Drop Shot and Jigmaster 500.

All loaded with Jig Star 37kg colour coded braid every 10metres. The bottom line terminal end fitted with Zest 300gm jigs of various colours, which are the real secret weapons that kingies love.

What made it an excellent time and a great combo? Well firstly make a plan and stick to it. Several times I lost faith in the idea and developed back up alternative contingencies to cater for my boy’s stag party playing fishing mind games where else we would go. Bad idea, just go with your gut intuition first and then select the best ingredients you can find.

Keep your team happy with adequate food and drink. Plan to keep them warm and get the best equipment and knowledge you can find and you’ll end up with such a good combo; they will talk about what a great time they had years later. I’m glad I did it and I’m looking forward to the next excuse we can get away and do it again.

From December right through to March Kingfish gather in greater numbers closer in as the rats fatten up to legal size and the already bigger ones turn into bust off monsters. The entrance around the Mount is already hotting up with big ones marauding around the incoming tide.

Kingfish rule!