Day 2 wake up at around 6am and Lance says the Low is approaching, but we will have 7-8hrs before it really gets miserable, if not downright ugly. OK it’ a GO, a 2hr run to the Middlesex Bank where we will have 3, max 4hrs before having to run back for shelter.
To cut a long story short, we all Jigged HARD for just over 3 hours on Middlesex Bank and the action was thick and fast – in a big sea, rain squalls, cold....wet, but Boy oh Boy were the Kingies jumping on Jigs!
Again a full house of Kingies with us pretty much all on fish with every drift. Chris kept tally – 120+ Kingies in around 4 hours before we headed back for shelter at Main Island. We were all EXHAUSTED from boxing ‘tail in 120-160m – with many big fish well over the 30Kg mark. Brad had an EPIC session with his 44Kg muscle-bound, BRUTE of a Kingie!!!! Brad keeps doing this stuff.... as everyone grins about PB’s, he goes balls to the wall and humbles everyone. Great stuff from a Great guy!!!
Apart from the 2 or 3 Kingies that were Sharked, all the others swam away to fight another day. Of the Sharked fish, Chris had one notable – his fish was sharked at the boat.... from quite far behind the Pecs a hungry Mako munched off the back 1/3rd of his Kingie. We weighed the front 2/3rds left, and on the scale it registered 25Kg – the fish would have pushed 40Kg and some change was the ‘guesstimate’....... pity as it would have been approaching Chris’ PB!!!!
We didn’t get too many pics because EVERYONE was on fish, and Lance and Steve were so busy helping with Releases there was nobody available to grab a camera!
Anyway, this action was followed by a very uncomfortable run back for shelter, and a sleepless night at anchor.
Day 3 – we didn’t have to wake up because nobody slept! Rough sea and Jason’s flatulence put paid to that. Enchanter smelt like a Methane factory...... and the wind was howling and the sea was on it’s head. We gave it a shot throwing poppers and stickbaits into the white water around the Princess Group islands but Nada! The fish were also holding for cover. A bit miffed, Lance set course back for shelter....into BIG SEA! A nasty ride back to Main Island, but when we got there and set anchor..... the bay was protecting us from the ugly sea.
We then played with some Livies and small jigs at anchor on the light JM 100g and Jigstar 150g rods and had wonderful sport on little 12-15Kg Rat Kingies that were feeding like crazy. Great sport on light gear!!! Even though they took us into the structure most of the time, we still managed to boat 1 out of every 3 or 4 hook-ups. Was even worth all the jigs we lost.
A few cold beverages followed by warming (and inebriating Makers Mark Bourbon, very yummy) and everyone slept like Angels...... nobody even complained about the methane-like odours emanating from up front!
Day 4 started off perfectly. The Low had moved away and even though the sea was still big and lumpy, the weather was perfect and we were heading back to the Kings Bank about a 2hr steam away. The target today was Bass. BIG Bass! We got there around 7:30am and started Jigging and for about 2 hours, drift after drift.... we caught........NOTHING!!! This was our last full day at the Kings and the words WTF were no longer just thoughts.... we were verbalising them! Mumblings about travelling half way around the world and no Bass?
All of a sudden I went on at about 180m and after a strong tussle boated a nice Bluenose – a New Species for me, and as I was boating the fish so were Jason and Coxy. 3 very nice Bluenose that went into the fish box – these fish are amazing eating!
Then we went deep....very deep into the lair of Bass. Bass are very slow growing and Lance is very strict about numbers of fish caught. They do not release well, and the objective was to catch a few Bass to take home for the pan. Lance limited us to 2 hours of Bass Jigging, and then we were heading back for North Island – mainland NZ.
We all got our Bass, Linda getting her 1[suP]st[/suP] ever Bass of around 15Kg in about 230m depth. This is HARD work! Coxy and I managed excellent Bass of 45Kg. Chris was running “Interference†for us and catching Kingie after Kingie before his jigs could get down into the Bass territory. His Jigstar 250 was permanently bent on good Kingies, but he also finally managed a passable Bass. (Tee hee hee Chris – you had the mutters as I recall)
Then it was time to head home, and Lance called Last Drift.
Brad and Coxy were the only guys to drop a jig in 280m, and Brad jigged it up about 50m or so and then stopped to take a breather (470g Jigs are hard work). As the jig was stationary, BANG – the Jigstar Acid 350 almost got wrenched out of his hands. An amazing battle then took place, and 30 minutes later we saw this huge fish break the surface about 40m or so from Enchanter. A HUGE BEAST!
She weighed in at 81Kg, and according to Lance (who holds the World Record for Bass on Enchanter at 86Kg) this fish was the 2[suP]nd[/suP] largest Bass recorded in New Zealand, and the Largest EVER on Jig!
Congrats Brad on a superb achievement.
This brought our 3 Kings adventure into the closing stages, and we headed back for the North Cape for overnight anchorage and then on the 5[suP]th[/suP] day a 6 hr steam back to Mangonui. Thank you again to all of our Kiwi and Aussie mates, and to New Zealand for having us. A wonderful place with wonderful people – I can’t wait until my return in November for the Ranfurly Banks!
