Magic Tuesdays

Ever heard 30lb mono snap on a strike? It sounds like a rifle going off…. Yesterday I arranged for Tim to join me on what is becoming my weekly Tuesday evening expedition. I got away from work a bit earlier than usual, headed home, loaded the boat and set off for Narrowneck. The launch was a bit more exciting than I’d expected, weather chart showed no wind whatsoever, yet a snotty little NE had waves rolling in, short little 1 and a half footers. Shipped a bit of water as the boat went in, but pulled her nose around and anchored her off while I went and parked the truck. The beauty of a small boat… ramp launches not required. I was supposed to meet Tim at 5.30 and found myself with half an hour to kill, so rigged up the 11 weight with a 30lb leader and a big purple over black Mega Mushy.


Black over purple, classic marlin lure colour. Turns out kingis like it too!

Rolled up to spot 1 and got a good drift, nice amount of outgoing current against the NE gave me plenty of casting opportunities, first cast elicited the usual splashy chase but no hook-up, and as usual the fish went down straight away. So I moved over to a channel marker and set for a long drift. Third cast was perfect, fly would be pulling up against the current, the wind was holding me in place, what happened next was explosive to say the least. A relative monster kingi (a Rangi monster is 8kg+ in my books) shot out and hit the fly like a guided missile, I hit him and the leader absolutely cracked like a rifle going off. I’ve never busted a Perfection Loop before… just one more knot to avoid now…. I’ve already ditched Lefty’s Loop (Rapala knot) as being unreliable in big hit situations. While the adrenaline was pumping I also felt a bit deflated. Every sizable fish I’ve hit out there had eluded me, either tearing me to shreds and now knot failure. I almost packed it in, but decided I had enough time to re-rig for another shot. The new fly got hit immediately and after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing involving starting the motor and dragging him off the marker (with an audience of gin palace patrons) I got the net under him.

New purple over white version of Mega Mushy - gets bitten!

Fishing single handed for marker kings is quite exciting at times, and downright dangerous at others (imagine rolling sea, wind pushing, big sea running, bearing down on collision course with the channel marker... no wonder there are dents in some of them). Got the fish back in the water after a photo, broke down the rod and scooted across the harbour to grab Tim. The wind had dropped to nothing and the ocean resembled a pancake. We headed down to Sargeants and on the way I asked Tim if he minded if I cast at various structures, glad he said “do it” because we hit the kingis big time. We had a solid session, during which the big ones on the sounder were noticeable for staying deep (I’m hatching a plan…), and during which Tim landed his first kings on fly.

Maintaining a deep smooth bend

As the session went on, I asked Tim to throw his Nuke Chicken in – it was completely ignored, the kings wanted nothing of it, yet ate the fly every time.

We moved over to see if we could snag a snap…. No bottom sign whatsoever and tide was almost at low ebb. There was a small breeze so with wind against tide we were almost stationary. Out with the drogue and we crabbed across the channel, not cool. We moved a few times before I hit a fish mid water with the inkichu and brought up a decent snap. Little did I know that that would be it.

Our run back to Okahu was in perfect sea conditions, absolutely flat sea against the setting sun.



Waitemata perfection

 I dropped Tim off and set my nav light before heading across the harbour. On the way back, well I couldn’t help but chuck a fly at spot 1 again now could I? A 4kg king chased the fly out without biting. With perfect casting conditions I was able to drop the fly right into and under the marker; I’d barely stripped when a rat hit the fly under the marker. I dragged his runty rat bum out and set about smacking it… in my dreams. What really happened was that with almost no drift on I couldn’t drag him away, he turned and charged around the chain. 2 new flies down for the day, not a bad return for 8 or 9 fish landed. Magic, and to think I used to hate Tuesdays.

A  gobfull