In Pursuit Far North Autumn Wrap-up – 2014 Have finally returned to Whakatane and Bay of Plenty waters after our annual three month northern sojourn. While we really enjoy our time up there it’s always nice to return as well. As per normal, we had a lot of eventful happenings there which we’ll endeavour to relay to you via this newsletter. The weather, overall, was phenomenal! We enjoyed the most prolonged Indian summer I can ever remember with high temperatures, both air and water, well into May. The patterns were settled, week after week, and never looked like forcing a cancelled trip unlike last season which saw three aborted. We had a few trips which experienced one lousy day of weather, but they were in isolation every time and yielded to great conditions immediately thereafter. While we would have enjoyed having more billfish action (we say this every time cause it’s true!) the rest of our fishing went just fine, often exceeding expectations. Let’s get into more detail: Marlin While we pride ourselves with the diversity of our northern fisheries, many groups come with billfish in mind – some specifically! Although there was huge potential at the outset of our time there and this continued right up until we departed in late May, our catches were mainly underwhelming, by our standards anyway. Things started out with a bang in more than one way. First we arrived just as Cyclone Luci did, so sheltering in Whangaroa Harbour was the call – a good one too! Thinking that all the strong northerly winds that were generated with the storm would only increase the existing water quality and enhance our chances of game fish immediately thereafter got us quite excited about our prospects – wrong! In a real anomaly, the water was cold for a long way offshore and right after Lucy departed. After studying all available sea surface temperature charts, we decided we had to go offshore to find some decent water – well offshore! So, on our first day in the Far North we found ourselves heading due north. After 30 miles there was no change – cold off-colour water with nary a skippy in sight! 40 miles, still no change! 50 miles, a little better but still not what we were looking for. At 58 nautical miles offshore the water suddenly changed – blue and warm with small skipjack jumping everywhere. Within a mile of this welcome revelation we had a brief strike but no solid hook up. Seconds later we saw a solid shape reappear behind the lure but this time making no mistake at nailing the relatively small offering. A series of wild jumps ensued which left us in no doubt we were attached to a blue marlin of decent proportion – yeehaa! Christchurch angler Lance Tuhi took the strike with some trepidation. Not only had he never seen a marlin, let alone been hooked up to one, but he shouldn’t have even been there in the first place! His boss, who was originally booked on the trip for nearly a year had something come up, hence he sent Lance in his place! Despite all this Lance took his turn and did a brilliant job on a lovely fish. Saving a lot of its venom for the end, the estimated 220 kg blue gave us plenty of grief at boat side! After the successful tag and release all on board had a lot to celebrate on our first day in the Far North!! Thereafter we could never quite match our brilliant start although there were flashes of brilliance. We caught striped marlin on the majority of our trips and our landing rate to strikes was pleasingly high, sitting at just under 80% for the season. Our regret was not getting more opportunities to take advantage of this strike rate! We also tagged and released far more (63%) than we kept in another pleasing pattern. Still another strange occurrence saw us release virtually every marlin we landed until late April but from then on we became “blood thirsty”! We never begrudge anyone or group in taking a fish for the smoker and that’s just the way it panned out this season. Also, we really enjoy despatching marlin virgins and we did so with a number of our anglers again this season. Landing their first billfish were Lance Tuhi, Viv Nichols, Darcy Bishop, Ray Ransom, Ken Killian, Jim Morton and Brent Marks. Landing their largest to date were Paul Hammett, Aaron McDonald and Ian Galley. Well done to all the above. Broadbill Swordfish Due to the described great weather we had this autumn it was no hardship staying out at sea overnight in an attempt to catch swordfish. Most nights were so calm that there was little difference between being 30 miles offshore or tied to the wharf! Depending upon how one looks at it, we had very good or very bad luck in our endeavours there! Our strike rate was brilliant at the start with anywhere between one and three strikes most nights – that’s the good news. On the downside was our landing rate – pathetic at nil!! Didn’t seem to matter what type of rig, size or number of hooks or bait we utilised, the end result was the same – pulled hook after 5 to 20 minutes in each instance! Frustrating? You have no idea!! Finally we struck pay dirt with a 167 kg fish landed by Keith Vallabh one evening. As it turned out we even pulled the hook on this fish as well except it relocated and ended up coming in sideways! Well done Keith, you helped us ease the previous pain significantly!! Mahimahi It’s not every year we have currents push water warm enough to have good numbers of these exotic game fish coming to New Zealand waters, probably one in three on average. This season saw good quantities of the rainbow warriors come through with many larger ones among them. Anything over eight kgs is decent size for here and over 10 outstanding which made this year exceptional. We do our best to arm ourselves with light tackle and a bait tank full of small mackerel for any would-be encounters and we had plenty of occasion to use them this time around! One strange occurrence was finding most “out of the blue” and not associated with flotsam as per normal. Being ready to deploy our mini macs shortly after a strike (often multiples) produced some fun times for our alert anglers with many fine fish between 10 – 12 kilos taken. Plenty of acrobatic jumps, circling runs followed by succulent fillets – good rewards all around. Anglers who landed fish over 10 kg are as follows: Mike Ziesler Murray Anderson Craig Hale Mike Farrimond Lance Tuhi Bill Hight Andy Taylor Daniel Leigh Kenneth Fife Paddy Lowry Indeed, we landed our last one in green 18° water in late May – they didn’t want to leave! Yellowtail Good old kingi; the ever reliable warrior remains the stalwart of this operation on an annual basis. While we target them alot, they also ably fill in as day, or even trip, savers at times. While White Island and Ranfurly have incredibly robust numbers of large kingfish available all year, the Far North and Three Kings take a back seat to nowhere else. Typically the kingis, both size and numbers, only increased in time with May infinitely better than April – although there wasn’t much wrong with that earlier month either! While we never breached the 40 kg mark, we came agonisingly close on several occasions. At times the fish showed a preference to dead bait over livies or jigs – so much so that we were throwing perfectly great livies onto the deck to ensure death prior to pinning them on the hooks! Other times only a “hot” livebait would excite them with still other day’s jigs eliciting aggressive strikes from the largest fish. Such was the fickle appetite of our main quarry. Keeps us on our toes and thinking outside the square – of necessity!! Always great to tag and released these great game fish – also good to get recaptures of which we had quite a few this season. Shirts for both tagger and recapture angler is personalised icing on the cake for the scientific research that is garnered with each recapture. Here is the usual list of anglers who could boast their personal-best or bested fish over 25 kg: Craig Hale (x3) (33) Tony Bergman Paul Hammett Lance Tuhi Simon Browne (x2) Daniel Leigh Andy Taylor John Terrell Shane Defaur Paul Apatu John Fox (31) Gerrald Beattie (37) Mark Nichols Viv Nicols Graeme Cox (39) Aaron Styles Simon Barnett Bryce Casey Rob Murphy Aaron McDonald (31) Ian Galley Harish Giri Ray Ransom (36) Daniel Helms Trevor Helms Craig Barlow Chris Honere Keith Vallabh (x2) Jim Morton Shanel Morton Wayne King Gordon Reardon Graham Kristiffor David Howes Neil Welham (x3) Mark Schriber John Engelberger Roger Gibbs (39) Hamish Gibbs Dean Sorrensen (36) Graeme Worthington Rose Krooneman Heath Kamins Sterling Pollock (31) Well done to you all! Bottomfish Last northern season we really struggled with our bottomfish during our first few trips – found them very uncooperative and on the small side. As the season progressed, they just became more numerous and larger with early May and beyond being very remunerative. This year was a complete flip-flop with great fishing straight away but slowly falling off as the season progressed – go figure?! As they say, “that’s fishing”! Indeed, our largest bass came on our first two trips and it was unfortunately downhill after that on large specimens. Christchurch engineer Paul Johnson bagged a beauty at an even 60 kg one evening followed closely by Lee Snell on the very next trip. After that we had plenty of good eating smaller bass and hapuka fillets on most trips augmented nicely by bluenose. Here’s a list of anglers who landed PB’s or bass over 25 kg: Wade Massey Craig Hale Paul Johnson Daniel Leigh Lee Snell Andy Taylor John Terell Simon Browne Dave Joy (x2) Mark Jorey Guy Lowry Paddy Lowry Brian Turner Gerald Beattie Mark Nichols Viv Nicols Cambell Carter Jarrod Fisher Simon Barnett Luke Farmer Graeme Cox Gordon Reardon Madison Johns Niko Smit Graeme Worthington Mark Schrider And Hapuka: Bill Hight Lloyd Stol Guy Lowry Brian Turner Gerald Beattie (40) Jordan Downes (33) Neil Gray John Corbett Robert Bax (36) Cambell Carter Ron Murray (33) Shantel Morton Graham Kristiffor Heath Kamins Mark Collins Well done to all successful anglers, surely your real reward was on the dinner table! And finally Bluenose We often catch bluenose up north, sometimes as a bycatch but usually as a target species on the last day of fishing. We always like to send our anglers home with a good portion of fresh fillets and the later the fish are landed then obviously the fresher they will be upon arrival. Weather permitting, we’ll get an early start on the last day of our trip to utilise the few hours of fishing time prior to heading homeward bound. Fishing at the productive reef system known as the Garden Patch is usually a good way to supplement our catch with succulent bluenose fillets being the reward. Sometimes Killer Whales make our task impossible by taking, or at least “tenderising”, every fish we hook – great visuals but not helpful for feeding the family! This season in particular we had very consistent bluenose fishing, sometimes bordering on excellent. As long as we beat the orcas we generally had it made. Not only were the fish plentiful (doubleheaders were commonplace) but their average size was up – some days well up! This was evidenced patiently on one of our last trips in May. The day started out very well with numerous average sized (12 – 14 kg) bluenose and one at a credible 25kgs. The fishing continued to go well, so well in fact we were winding up early with ample prime fish on the deck. With only one drift remaining Stu Webb hooked something substantial. It took copious amounts of line and was exceedingly stubborn thereafter. The longer it was on, the more it acted like a decent bass, a welcome but infrequent bycatch when targeting bluenose. After a full 20 minutes the battle raged on with the fish hanging tough in spite of being quite high in the water column – not blown at all. Another few minutes and we could make it out in the clear water below – a huge bluenose! Can’t think of taking the back door out for a bluenose before – all 42 kg of her!! Previous to that the largest I’d seen was 39 – and that was well over 20 years ago! Congratulations to you Stu! Below are those deepwater anglers who got personal bests or fish over 20 kg: Craig Barlow Daniel Helms Trevor Helms Shantel Morton Wayne King Gordon Reardon Brent Sample Mark Johns Brent Marks Stu Webb Graham Kristiffor David Howes Niko Smit Tony Coomer Snapper We generally don’t put in a lot of effort into this species unless its weather related. While few would come to the Far North to chase the crimsons, most won’t turn down a decent session on everybody’s favourite! We had some excellent fishing for them in a variety of places but notably at the Three Kings – a subject we’ll cover in great depth in “short stories”. While we never quite a bested the 20 pound mark, we had many fine fish over 15 and numerous over 10 Here are anglers who did just that: Murray Anderson Mike Farrimond Phil Appleyard Lance Tuhi Tony Bergman Daniel Leigh Trevor Helms Daniel Helms Russell Bennett Bruce Cox Billy Benn Heath Kamins Short Stories Stuck!! As previously mentioned, we had a few nasty days of weather during our Three Kings trips – precious few really. On those days we either couldn’t or elected not to go the 20 odd miles out to the banks. While one needs to lower their sights (no marlin, no huge bass), we find it is usually no hardship sticking around the Princes Group and Great Island. Aside from stunning scenery there are a myriad of fish to be caught – plenty of them and via numerous techniques. Usually proceedings start out quite tame with some light tackle fishing for reef fish such as blue cod, tarakihi and snapper. We get the occasional surprise like a spotted groper or nuisance such as tope but usually it’s a lot of light tackle fun with some great eating as a result. More often than not (especially this year) the anti goes up as the day wears on, sometimes exponentially! Sometimes it starts out with the occasional trevally or kingfish but soon builds on the modest beginnings. The trevally are good sized to huge – read that from four to over eight kg! The big silversided slabs are a handful, often beating anglers with tackle anything less than 15 kilo! Similarly, exceedingly torrid kingi sessions start with but a single “accidental” catch. After this we usually get more serious with our efforts and end up with great results. These sessions often last in excess of two hours or when our anglers have had enough – usually we pull the anchor and depart, leaving the hungry obliging fish behind! Having two or three kingis going at all times at different parts of the boat is quite exhilarating, and exhausting! Seems like hooked kingis invariably find their way to the bow and a taut anchor rope! Frantic manoeuvring sometimes has to happen within a split second to save the hook up – all exciting stuff which usually ends up back on the stern for the end game. As previously mentioned, we also had some outstanding sessions on snapper with most of them in 20 metres of water leading into darkness. One evening we had a number of doubleheaders on fish of 8-15 pounds! While that was evidence of the numbers of hungry fish we had below us, it was only part of the story. One man, who scored four consecutive doubles, did so with an old puka rig using 200 pound trace, 15/ 0 circle hooks and big lumps of skipjack! So staying close quarters around the islands can be, and often is, a very satisfying and productive experience. Oh, did I mention all the caves, archways, blowholes, boilers, craggy overhangs and bottlenose dolphin? Photographic opportunities abound! The Feminine Side We seem to be getting more women on our trips all the while in what has been a male dominated sport. Although most of them appear on our shorter trips, it’s always great to welcome them on board. Sometimes there will be dedicated “couples” trips (always a lot of fun) while others will see one or two women among the men. This northern season the deck of “PURSUIT” was graced by only one woman, Shanel Morgan of Tauranga. While Shanel is a veteran of inshore fishing, she had never ventured far in her angling pursuits and was very much looking forward to the trip for months prior. Accompanied by her father Jim and fiancé Chris, she was in good stead to enjoy her experience and this is exactly what she was determined to do – and succeeded! Landing three personal bests with some lovely fish, witnessing the landing of a broadbill and her father land his first marlin after years of trying were all highlights for this energetic lass. Well done Shanel – look forward to seeing you back onboard again at any time! Hijinks Very often, make that most trips, our groups are there for all the right reasons. Although fishing and landing quality fish is high on the list, having fun is the overriding premise. Some groups achieve this in a wide variety of ways which includes competitions and all kinds of “one upmanships”! David Howes and his stalwarts have been coming out on “PURSUIT’ for quite a few years. While they are serious about their fishing, they are equally serious about their enjoyment! This year they came up with a different concept – the pink dress! It was quite simple really, the “winner” of each day’s most obvious blunder (judged by their peers) had to wear the pink dress the following day - all day! No one on board was immune – not even the skipper so everyone had to be on their toes! Some days the recipient was quite obvious but others made for lively debates, and voting, over tea that evening! All a lot of fun which adds to any trip. Concerns Unfounded Sometimes we get anglers who, for a host of reasons, are uncertain over whether they should be on a trip or not. Sometimes this self-doubt can be inspired by recent illness, injury, financial woes or other personal issues. Usually these concerns are unwarranted with the angler in question enjoying a great trip which lived up to, or exceeded, their expectations. On our last trip we welcomed a group from Taranaki, predominantly farmers. Only one had previously been to the Three Kings and the group was eagerly looking forward to the experience leading up to the trip. Upon their arrival the charter master shed some information with me regarding one of the anglers. Graeme Worthington was super keen to join in but was a little hesitant for a number of reasons – a sentiment his wife shared with concern. We (the crew) were asked to look after him just a little more than our other charges. Fortunately we enjoyed good weather for most of the trip so instability on deck was reduced to a minimum. Everyone’s concern evaporated very smartly after the second day and beyond as not only did Graeme hold his own but excelled! He had our largest kingi and bass midway through the trip but didn’t rest on his laurels by only improving thereafter. Not sure who was more surprised – the group, chartermaster, me or Graeme himself? Maybe his wife! Anyway well done on all your great catches, Graeme – look forward to seeing you again soon! Lucky! There’s an old saying that I learned long ago when my dad told me “it’s better to be lucky than good”. This has stuck with me over the years and I refer to it often in everyday life. On a trip in mid May we welcomed a group who had come out with us to White Island every year. As expected they were ultra keen to expand upon their previous experiences at a prime remote destination like the Kings. When they boarded I was informed of one “lucky” angler among them. As per normal I took this advice on board but with the proverbial grain of salt. It was explained to me how Brent Marks took Lady Luck with him where ever he went. A prime example was the anecdote of he and his wife going camping over the Christmas holidays. In true Coromandel form, the heavens opened up and flooded their tent, saturating everything therein. Later on with everything dried out, a tattered Lotto ticket was found. After almost throwing it out with other water damaged items, it was kept. Days later Brent’s wife subsequently informed him she was pregnant with their first child – yipee!! Later that same day they thought about checking that errant Lotto ticket and you guessed it - they had the winner!! This luck apparently spilled over into other aspects of his life including his angling antics. This soon became apparent with Brent not only landing the most but the largest fish as well. This culminated one afternoon while chasing marlin. We had elected to use slow trolled, bridled live skipjack in our endeavours. After a couple of missed opportunities we were forced to go back to trolling small lures on light tackle to secure more bait. The skippies were not forthcoming which made things more frustrating as the other boats nearby were both hooked up to – you guessed it, striped marlin using live skippies! The trolling continued in earnest for another 20 minutes when we finally got bit, thank goodness. Taking the boat out of gear as per normal we all got a surprise as a stripee commenced jumping all over the horizon! Not knowing if the fish had taken the minuscule skippy lure or eaten the skippy on the lure we backed down hard as line melted off the small reel, thinking it would end at any moment. No one knew what line class was on the reel, only that there was about 300 metres of it – not a lot to play with! The minutes began to mount since the start of our unlikely battle and, as such, our thoughts that we just might be successful were building as was our enthusiasm. With lucky Brent on the job we should have never been in doubt!! After nearly 40 minutes the tired fish was boat side and more than ready for release. Well done to our ever so lucky angler, we look forward to having you back for another encore soon, Brent! Tables Turned As all of you will know, we pride ourselves with our professionalism on-board “PURSUIT”. Aside from a clean boat and helpful, friendly crew we always put in 110% on your behalf. While we don’t always succeed in catching fish to everyone’s expectation (including our own) we put in a supreme effort every day and that means all crew on board. While up North we run three handed; myself and two crewmen. With the longer trips, little downtime and increased workload we find this a far better situation for all on board, passengers and crew alike. Three months of continuous five-day trips with only a night off in between means the added crewmen is somewhere between a bonus and essential necessity! One thing which the crew are not allowed to do during trips is actively fish themselves, at least not without invitation. As a consequence it can sometimes be both tempting and frustrating to stand by and watch as all my crew have been keen anglers themselves – otherwise they wouldn’t be here! At the end of our time up North there will several days which were unspoken for. After a millisecond of consideration I offered them some fishing time – just for them. In even less time they accepted! So we had parts of three days which I fished for them and it was a blast. First up was some purposeful kingi fishing. In a real change we slow trolled livebaits in shallow water with some resultant explosive strikes and exciting hookups. Both boys performed very well with several decent fish succumbing to their talents – in Heath’s case one was a personal-best. Lots of fun but only just the start. Next came some straylining for snapper with light (4 – 6 kg) tackle. Again both got nice fish around the 15 pound mark with Heath’s also a PB – happy lads! Last was a deepwater challenge for hapuka with neither landing a decent one of those previously. After anchoring up in 90 metres of water on not such a nice day both hooked up – the only ones to do so. The relatively light rods were maxed out as they scrambled around the pitching deck, over and under each other on several occasions. Eventually both prevailed after pretty tough battles – who said hapuka don’t fight?!? Matching 25 kilo well conditioned long nose were their rewards – well done to two very deserving guys. Was a pleasure to see both of these hard-working young men enjoy themselves after giving so much over the preceding three months. Old Man and the Sea I am a very lucky man and I know it – for a whole host of reasons which I won’t get into now! One major one is, at my age, to have a father. Not only is he alive at 92 but going strong. He loves New Zealand – must do so as he has come here 26 times over the years! If he’s not at home in Montana, you’ll find here for anywhere between three and four months each year. Usually his visits are over summer but this year fell in late autumn - early winter. We had a spare spot on board “PURSUIT” for the eight day trip from Mangonui back to Whakatane and he jumped on it! We did all the “tourist” scenic stuff enroute such as Hole in the Rock (Bay of Islands), Rikoriko Cave (Poor Knights), Mokohinau, Great Barrier and Curvier Islands as well as fished. Sterling thoroughly enjoyed the experience as evidenced by the vast number of photos he took! He placed little value of the trip on the fishing component but still wet a line on various occasions. His main goal was john dory utilising small livebait and he was successful at this on a number of occasions. Late one afternoon a veritable “horse” grabbed his offering and all but spooled him on the first run, a scant 40 metres remaining on the spool! After a good 20 minutes the battle began to turn with some line slowly but steadily coming back onto the reel. After circumnavigating the boat and a controlled fall in the prevailing sloppy conditions, one very tired kingi came into view. All on board were rapt as the gaff slid into his quarry! At 31 kilos the kingi was quite a capture. Afterwards he made two stoic comments: “Not sure I could have gone another 10 minutes” and “I caught one bigger at White Island”. When questioned just when that might have been he simply deadpanned “33 years ago”!! An inspiration to us all! Well done Dad Au re voir Not long after we finished up North, Heath and his long time girlfriend departed our shores for their big OE with the majority of it to be spent in France. With his keen work ethic, infectious personality and gregarious interaction with all on-board he will be missed. We can only wish them both the very best in their travels and hope to see Heath perhaps back on-board “PURSUIT” again one day in the future. Are your eyes sore?!? If so, you can relax since we’ll finally wrap this epistle up! We’ve got a handful of trips to run, to both White and Ranfurly, before we haul the “girl” out for her annual survey and maintenance period. Will be back in touch via this modem then for our winter finale and promise a much shorter edition then. Hope you are well, look forward to seeing a few of you over the next month. Best regards Rick, Lyn and Mark
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 21:38:22 +0000