Back to the office for a rest

Have to admit to some pain today. Bruises on abdomen and under arm from rod butt. Scraped skin on fingers from reaching into the mouths of kingfish to remove hooks, tired from the 5 am start and standing in scorching sun fighting fish after fish. With a weather window for Sunday Andy had called it early enough (Thursday) for me to change a few things around; the plan was to head out off the West Coast and chase kingfish on a couple of offshore reef systems. The third member of our crew was Eddie, he’d be stick baiting while Andy and I would drop jigs and fish the fly. I got to Raglan after a cruisey drive; still in holiday mode I forgave the traffic transgressions (one of which damn near derailed me) – obviously busy people who need to be places fast. Andy and Krista are renovating their house before their first child is born and they had a number of guests over for a barbecue on their deck overlooking the harbour. Great spot. We hit the road at 5.15 and were first at the ramp at Manu Bay, so we launched and as we set off past the breaker zone (was flat) another boat was launching. It’s roughly 20km to the first reef and the other boat beat us there marginally.

Andy taking us out, pretty smooth for the West Coast

I’d rigged my custom built CTS #12m while the other lads set up their gear. I think Andy hit the first fish within a couple of minutes and that set the tone for a big day. Fish were smashing the jig and given that at that stage they were low in the water column than I could reach with my fly, I rigged a jigging rod and heaved a 200gr over – fish on! After a few bruising battles Eddie began to move fish on the surface.




Eddie reaches for a rat

 I changed my fly rig by looping on a 900 grain head to get more depth (at the expense of graceful casting!) and began to hook up. Soon it was a three way party with all of us hooked up at various stages. One time as my squid fly hit the surface it was scooped in a splashy rise but I missed the strike.

By now more boats were showing up and some pretty discourteous boat handling was on display with guys setting inside other’s drifts. After a couple of hours we decided to head for another patch of foul and on arrival struggled to find the exact feature that would hold fish; some guys on another boat put us on the spot and we again began to hook up. I was jigging again by now, looking for fish and finally hit one big enough to stay out of my control. Inexorably he took line and found the reef… ping! The action was cooler here so we decided to head back to the original spot before departing for home. I grabbed the fly rod again. It was madness there… one final drift became another as fish were smashing everything in sight.

Often as the stick bait hit the water it was pounced on by packs of kingfish. I hit fish after fish and landed most – I think I was busted off only once all day when my running line snarled badly and despite turning to rod upside down (guides up) which often allows snarls to flow through the guides, it was a full on jam that saw my leader knot give. On our third final drift my fly was all but destroyed by the hard plates in the kingis mouth, so I took the rod down and sat back.

Off the water we were surveyed by a NIWA bloke, turns out we were first boat out and first back. Back to Andy’s to clean up and have a shower, as I departed for home he and Eddie were discussing the merits of nana naps in the afternoon. I was sun-baked despite lathering myself in sunscreen, wearing long shirt and pants and a peaked cap. It’s definitely summer.