3 Kings islands adventure

[mozza]

Well im Bored at work......5 days till christmas.......cant go fishing so time to look at old fishing pics and here is a report I found that I wrote after our trip to the 3 kings this year... enjoy

I have just returned from another amazing fishing trip. it seems that this year each trip I go on seems to better the last trip in terms of size of fish and the sheer enjoyment of going to far out places.

This was to be my 3rd trip to the 3 Kings islands but my previous two trips I had been a deckhand and didnt fish. This was our second attempt at the 3 kings for the year. our first attempt had a horrible ending when the boat ended up on the rocks on the first night which you can read about here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/sto...ectid=10504982

Anyway...... this time we made it to the Kings and had some pretty comfortable weather this time. the fish were there and in force

First drop of the jig on a brand new acid wraped 250gm rod delivered this fish of 25kg


This was followed by many more similar sized fish for the morning caught on both livebaits and jig's till My fishing Buddy and good mate Boulder hooked a real horse(also on a new jig rod) and proceeded to get stuck into a battle of epic proportions. with no gimble belt he was still putting serious hurt on the fish with 20+kg of drag over the whole fight. Eventually the fish came to the surface and it was clearly a PB for the ecstatic Boulder, He decided to gaff the fish and bring it onboard to weigh for his fishing club.

This horse pulled the scales down to 35kg


Not long after I hooked into another big fish on a jig and got stuck into a great fight again on the new jig stick.
this one is my biggest for the year on a jig and was estimated at 28kg


Meanwhile andy and boulder had both hooked up once again were getting stuck into some good scraps.



instead of Kingis this time two XOS bass popped up


With aching arms and smiles a mile wide we made our way back to the islands for the night.

The fishing action hadnt stopped however and I got into some great light tackle action with some solid trevally coming on board


Day two
Todays target was to be Bass and with everyone geared up with top of the line Avets and Tiagra LRS' capable of putting out up to 70lb of drag we sent down some monster live and dead baits up to the size of 4lb trevally.
Daz hooked up on a real horse which beat him around for a while but he eventually subdued the fish and got it to the boat.......
At 58kg this would be the biggest bass of the trip


Several more good bass in the 30-40 kg range came aboard over the next few hours and I was able to manage my PB bass of 37kg which put a massive smile on my face


shortly follwed by a 30kg king[bh]


We were well and truely shattered heading back to the islands this day so as we sat back and enjoyed a few quiet ones the deckie Zane filleted down the fish for us and played around a wee bit


Day3
today was spent trying to find Kingfish around the Princess group islands but they proved hard to find and even harder to get to bite. So for lunch we decided to anchor up and try for a snapper or two..... The snapper werent in residence but the Kingfish were with 5 very respectable kings coming boatside including a very good capute of a 25kg king on a 150g Jigging master jig rod/noodle stick.

With the weather deteriorating we opted to make our way back down the coast for a snapper fish but the weather got worse and worse on sunday so we were unable to access any of the really good snapper spots. With sore arms and a full fish hold we headed for home.

What a trip!!!!!!!

[bigfish4me]

Looks like one hell of a time, got some real bruisers there.

[WAHOONBOX]

UNREAL PICTURES! TELL US MORE ABOUT THE "KING" PICS....THESE KINGS ARE DIFFERENT THAN OUR EAST COAST KINGS


IS THAT A TAG I SEE IN ONES BACK?

[SeaBiscuit]

The picture of the mate wearing the fish head is priceless!
Outstanding fishing. Live baiting those bass (groupers on this side of the world) had to be pretty intense. How deep were you fishing for them?

I think that using 250 gm jigging tackle for 30 Kg class kings is as close as anyone can get to maxing out their tackle without catastrophic failure !

These king fish are pacific yellowtail a first cousin of our very own amberjack. Very game and one of the best eating jacks by far.

[mozza]

Box those are tags we put in the fish before releasing them. allot of yellowtail kingfish are tagged by anglers over here. in fact we tag pretty much anything if we done put the gaffs in like sharks, billfish and Tuna.

Sea biscut.
We were fishing for them in about 80-120m off the side of the king bank. It's normally alive with marlin during the season but our first trip didn't make it up in peak season!!!

I bettered that 30 with a 36kg at white island on a saltiga 20 and the same 250g rod it hurt bad!

[Wetspotnz]

Wicked report mate, Ive only ever made it up there once and then had to come straight back with no fishing.

Great report and that NZ Herald story and what I remember of that Sunday night as we awaitied news on the incident at North Cape still sends shivers down my back

[WAHOONBOX]

THANKS FOR THE EXPLANATION GUYS

[hotshot1]

I want to see Marty with a bft head on next week. And also thanks for sharing your fish they look like fun catches.