Fishing Report: ‘Icing on the cake’ in NZ
It has been a truly memorable game fishing season in New Zealand.
Our ban on commercial fishing for Marlin, seems to be paying real dividends.
As previously reported, the numbers of Striped Marlin on the coast have been the best for years, with repeated stories of pack attacks and some very big specimens amongst them.
I have received two reliable reports of Striped Marlin seen or hooked in only 30 metres of water and two further reliable reports of huge schools of Stripeys, both around fifty in number (but in different locations) herding up baitfish.
In the last instance, the intensity of feeding on Saury made the fish completely disinterested in lures or live Skipjack Tuna. These were the visions of the Three Kings at its peak and the Wanganellas…not to be expected close to the coast.
The Three Kings has returned to the best fishing in over 15 years, with one boat releasing no less then 18 Marlin in one afternoon! Green water has come in over the King Bank at the moment but we can expect a return to some spectacular fishing before the season ends…which could well go into June, this far north.
Rumours of sightings of a large Black Marlin close to the rocks at the Bay of Islands led to a local angler loading his heaviest tackle (50lb class stand-up) into his tiny 14ft dinghy when venturing out for a day, targeting the local Yellowtail Kingfish population. When the live bait was taken, the suspected likely culprit of a Mako or large Kingfish was soon dismissed when the head & shoulders of a large Black emerged, thrashing its head from side to side & showering the tiny boat & lone occupant with spray. What follows is the similar story of what seems to happen every year. Assistance arrived, boat is towed for miles, five hours of extreme grunt & the fish of a lifetime is eventually lost. Estimated at over 650lbs, this isn’t as massive as some of the few Blacks encountered each season but each time it seems to be small boats, inexperienced crew & tackle too light to give a fighting chance of success.
But the ‘icing on the cake’ for this truly memorable season has been three exceptional captures and pending NZ and/or world record claims.
Two remarkable light tackle captures have been made & are current world record claims. A superb Striped Marlin of nearly 370lbs was taken on 6kg line and, maybe even more remarkably, a 300lbs Broadbill was eventually pulled through the transom doors after a tremendous battle on 8kg line!
A very large Broadbill taken on 15kg line, would have resulted in another world record claim if a sneaky Mako hadn’t taken a big bite out of the sword’s tail, right at the end of the fight.
Signs look very promising for some very good Broadbill fishing, if the changeable weather allows the pursuit of these truly awesome billfish.
We’ve had a few sightings/losses of XL Blue Marlin this season and all this promise finally came to fruition yesterday when a pending NZ record fish thumped the scales down at Houhoura weigh-station to a massive 1,062.6lbs!
Quite late in the season for Blues and, with the continued presence of Mahimahi, we hope for another 6 weeks or so of action from the Stripeys & more surprises to come!
John Kimberley http://www.fishingpro.co.nz
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