Small Boats tournament 24-25 Jan

[mozza]

With a mint forecast I hooked up Kingtin on Friday morning and headed north to Whangaroa.


Had a fish that afternoon with Sam but only managed one small king then it was off to registration for the small boats comp.
Caught up with lots of good buggers and drank way too much beer

anyway day 1
got on the water at 6 and had livies in no time and headed south to where we have been fishing out of the bay and put the gear in about 120. a few sunfish and some nice water but didnt see much down there so headed north. at about 2pm we saw a free jumper up at the clayworks and not long hotspot saw one in a similar area.12 hours trolling and we got back in late and I missed out on a big chilly bin spot prize.
Saw this random white thing in the water. 2m long cylinder?


day 2
Up super early and had the livie tank full of lollypop sized mackeral in no time. We shot out to the Teapot in silky seas and towed baits for almost an hour for a Kingfish but couldnt get a bite......... oh well lets go wide. We soon saw a few familiar boats down there and continued south. We saw alot of sunfish and the water temp continued to rise. about 11 we hit a really nice bit of water and saw a tailer alongside saltiga and they hooked up shortly after.
We saw a small Mahimahi under some kelp and everything was looking really good with water up to 23.7*
At about 11:40 Danger sees a fish about 20m in front of us and we pass along side and the fish came in lit up hard on the African queen and just sat there eyeballing it, and droppped back off the long rigger and onto the Unicorn on the shotygun again and just smashed it ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ danger got it down from the rocket launcher quick smart and set the hook and we cleared the other 2 rods. It put on a great show greyhounding off before going down about 50m and staying there. Danger did a mean job on the winding an kept us tight.


after 45 mins we saw the windon and it wasnt long before we got a wrap and got the fish boatside and in the boat in no time.
firstfor Danger and for the boat

with McMassive was on the gaff

After we had relaxed with a few beers we pointed the boat for the 40 mile run back. 5 mins later we saw 2 fish up on the water both lit up. I scooped 5 baits out of the tank and threw it in the water before hooking one. as soon as they went in it was ****ing smash bash boom! bills and purple fins coming out of the water......... The bait was pitched and the fish came up behind it but it it wasnt our day for a 2nd fish. We caught up with Saltiga at Peach island and made our way in after a few congratulations

Pretty obvious theirs was a horse!

Ours went 110kg and theirs 151.8 so we came home with a second and had a huge night.

[reelfishin]

Now that is some great fishing, thanks for the pictures too, Glad you had a great tournament.

[SeaBiscuit]

Another great report from our NZ brothers. Outstanding commentary and some big, fat stripes. Congrats on the strong tournament showing.
Y'all smoke your marlin meat correct?
SeaBiscuit

PS. that Tshirt weather of yours is making us very envious. This one is a cold Atlantic season!

[mozza]

Yeh mate we smoke it and also cook up a bit of fresh meat.

The next will be tagged as there will be more than enough in the freezer for the rest of summer unless its going to win us some healthy prizes

The winning boat Saltiga is actually my flatmate so it was a large night last night for us back home

[Sea Draggin]

I had been wondering how summer was treating you over the past few weeks. Thanks for the update!!!