Amberjack, Mao Mao, Terakihi, Kings

[recurve]

Done a lot of fishing lately. Spent a week in NZ and did two charters. Just the old tug boat types for tourist but still fun. One was from Tauranga for Terakihi (Beautiful fish) and the other from The Coromandel. Caught three Terakihi from Tauranga and a 73cm King which was undersized. Caught it using tiny hooks on a ledger rig.....different scene for Kings over there, they are by catch lol.

On the Coromandel trip which my very sweet Mother n Law booked for me and my Bro in Law who does serious fishing and has won comps etc. We get on the boat and captain announces we are going to have a great day chasing Mao Mao..........errmmmm excuse me captain....is Mao Mao the same as what the Aussies call Sweep? YES he says...thought we would be going for Snapper. We didn't want a bar of Sweep as we had 3 good sized Terakihi and a massive slab of Bro n laws latest 25KG King he caught on an overnight charter up on the Three Kings. So we used slow jigs. Everyone (Tourists) was catching Sweep and having a great time and we were getting nothing so I decided to jig the Inchiku, what the hell, pull, pull, pull whack!! Straight away I knew I had a King. I was only using a very light rod and this thing went for it. I think it managed to catch about 5 lines. I never saw it it was pulled up by a very excited German on the other side who was gutted it was not actually their catch. I did not go over there as I was aware of the complete carnage I had created by hooking this thing. What a tangle. I got my lure back and my braid slid out of the mass tangle or nylon so I was fishing straight away. Decky emerged some time later after picking it all apart and said it was about 60cm. After that i refrained from doing the Kingy Jig, I wanted to keep a low profile. Captain moved us to a deeper reef for our sake and we caught some Nannygai which were a good size. Was a great day and just so beautiful. Good day with the Brother n Law. 

Then back home on Sunday we launched from Bellambi with a game plan to catch snapper. We were surrounded by, Yellow Tails, Slimies, Sweep, Baby Kings and for a solid hour we had massive work ups (Feeding Frenzy) all around us. Strangely we really struggled to catch any snapper, only two, one at 45cm and one at 56cm. But we did catch 5 Amberjacks of around 40 - 45cm. And we were desperately trying to avoid the rat kings all around us. Never had a session where Amberjacks were on like that. 

My first mate got very sick by 9am so swapped him for a more robust crewman and tried way up North for Flathead but his never fail garanteed spot was a fizzle. So we went to his other never fail flatty spot,.....fizzzzzzle. Then I had an idea and took us to a 40m Snapper Drift and Bang Bang we had two snapper going around 47cm. By that time I had been on the water for 8 hours and was over it. 

Been a great week for fishing.

Edited January 24, 2017 by recurve
Title

[Raymondo]

Lifes good, would love to do a few trips around the Coromandel . Been there but never fished, beautiful part of the world. Was it bumpy on Sunday out of Bellambi?

[wizza]

Choice,Bro and great geographical diversity!

 

[recurve]

10 hours ago, Raymondo said:

Lifes good, would love to do a few trips around the Coromandel . Been there but never fished, beautiful part of the world. Was it bumpy on Sunday out of Bellambi?

Thanks guys. Was not bumpy but very long set walls of water coming in. Up and down and up and down. I think that is worse for the sea sick prone. We were fishing in only 12m so would have made it worse. 

[big Neil]

Great report (Recurve) of your jet set travels AND fishing exploits. What a life,eh? BN

[recurve]

On 1/26/2017 at 5:12 AM, big Neil said:

Great report (Recurve) of your jet set travels AND fishing exploits. What a life,eh? BN

Thanks Big Neil, wish I was more of a Jet Setter and global fisherman. If I can squeeze in a few fishing trips on holidays I am all over it.