REEF MAGIC CHARTERS Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 Im putting this in on behalf on Boonga as I can upload more photos than him. Below is his report from their trip to NZ. Hi all, We just got back from NZ last night after 4 days of soft baiting with our mate Brett from Assassin Charters. This is the third time in 6 years we have fished on the Assassin from Great Barrier Island out from Auckland to north of the Bay of Islands. This trip was back up north with Whangaroa Harbour again our base for each day. We were armed with Daiwa Certate 3500 HD custom reels with 12lb braid with 20lb leader & Team Daiwa Saltwater 701MHFS rods. Our first day greeted us with great weather and we fished the washes down south for some great reds to 9kg and did a bit of jigging for kings. Day 2 and we headed north 30 miles to some pinnicles where we were greeted by some hungry snapper with triple & quadruple hookups on 5-6kg fish all day and again some good kings. Day 3 was very hard fishing with the current slowing right down but we still managed to find some good fish after trying a lot of different spots. That night we were in the pub when “Primetime” a famous NZ game boat radioed in that they wanted to weigh a striped marlin which they were calling close to 200kg. The publican who is also the weigh master for the game fishing club said they would be an hour or so. Myself and Brett hung around to see how big is was. It pulled the scales at 204.5kg – a club record on 37kg and 1.6kg under world record size. It was a great effort with only 2 on board and on 37kg standup gear. Day 4 it was predicted for the wind to pick up and it did and so did the current and fishing. We caught fish after fish in 8 metres of water ranging in size from 1kg to 9kg. Again it was a great spot to fish but this time a lot more boats on the water – we had 2 more groups fishing for 4 days each after us on the Assassin so we are looking forward to hearing their reports. Cheers Damien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGF Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 awesome trip those kings look tasty i cant wait till i take a trip to NZ my mates over in welly are keen to get out for a fish as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidNrthFisho Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 Mate that looks like it was one hell of a trip! they are some massive snapper - even by kiwi standards! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGF Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 how did those glow in the dark jig heads go Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moro Mou Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 Hello - I am off to 3 kings in NZ next week. Hopefully my report will be half as good as that. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boonga Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 Yes it was great fishing over there and would highly recommend it to anyone. We were catching & releasing over 100 snapper per day along with that many salmon, king fish, pig fish, leather jackets, maori wrasse, trevalley you lost count. Aaron those jig heads (hard hats) worked well but I lost two big snapper when the hook snapped and also twice when the fish was actually lying on the deck it also snapped. Once when I was trying to remove it & once the fish bit one clean in half. I would not recommend them to anyone and will take what I have left back to the shop and show them how they break. At $3 dollars each they are rubbish! I will put up a couple of other pictures tomorrow Cheers Damien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregg.michael Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 Fantastic pics from what looks like an awesome trip. Well done for getting into some beautiful reds. A quick question though - Where are their humps and bumps? I would expect Snapper of that size to have a prominent bump on their nose and forehead. They are beautiful looking with their smooth profile. Are they a different species ? or are they just adapted to a different environment and don't spend their time bumping the rocks for prey. Again congratulations on a great trip. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil D Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 mate those snapper are tiny seriously those are seriously cracking fish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeh191 Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 Top report and pictures guys, awesome fish. Cheers Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boonga Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 Mike the snapper never seem to get the bumps at all over there. They definitely ram into the rocks as we go bust off quite a few times in the rocks & especially in the kelp that they like to run through. I would guess they are a slightly different species - I wish they would take a swim over this way as the numbers over there are ridiculous considering the amount of small longliners/dropliners that are working every day. Hopefully they won't ruin a great fishery! Cheers Damien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gretsch Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 Nice one boys.. I did the same in Feb this year out of Clevedon in a trailer boat. Magnificent fishing. I had a big King steal a Kahwai off my line.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunatic Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 How big are them babies - good work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arpie Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 Now THOSE are SNAPPER!!! Only in NZ ........... Well done Damien - looks like you had a ball!! Lots of terrific pics to remember them by! Hey Ceph - I used to live near Pakuranga in Auckland & regularly went to Clevedon to toss in a line! If you didn't catch snapper, you just didn't rate!!! Fun tho! Cheerio Roberta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVZ350 Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 looks like it was a great trip after all mate!! were they all taken on plastics??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boonga Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 looks like it was a great trip after all mate!! were they all taken on plastics??? Hi mate yes they were all taken on Gulp 5-7 inch jerkshads! The fish in the shallow water (less than 8 meters) put up a great fight on light gear. Cheers Damien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bharris Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 Top fish im goin to corramandle in two weeks hope to get fish half as good ill be fishing of the stones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REEF MAGIC CHARTERS Posted May 28, 2010 Author Share Posted May 28, 2010 Here is our report "Short Corner" on the NZ trip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robeebee Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 great report mate awesome fish too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted May 29, 2010 Share Posted May 29, 2010 Hey Kingfisher, The top of Coro is screaming with big kings at the moment.Fletchers and off the top small island called Square top. Incoming tide fish the southern/mercury side and outgoing the northern/Auckland side. Use 3-4lb kahawai with minimum 200lb trace and 10/o gamagatsu hook.Heavy tackle if you want to stop them. There is a shallow reef that runs out to square that has a nice deep channel that fishes well for snaps and kingies. The reefs either side of Fletchers is great but not as productive as square top.There are big bronze whalers over here as well. This outer reef has a heck of a current and fishes best with a tide slowing to either top or bottom. This whole area is also full of good crays. Channel also goes well at times The biggest I got off there was 72lb with the biggest I saw was about 90lb. The trevs are about 10-16lb and respond to mussel berly. They will take jigs. Cheers Rowan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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