Australia & New Zealand Fishing Thread, Bass and YT kingfish Three kings NZ in Fishing Reports; The plans were to do a quick trip to the Three kings exploring for Marlin, Bass and Kingfish . I ...
The plans were to do a quick trip to the Three kings exploring for Marlin, Bass and Kingfish . I arrived in Maunganui and got set up aboard Pursuit then first order of business down to the chip shop for Bluenose and chips. Just delicious it was and with a full puku we set about catching some livie,s to supplement our live bait supplies. 40 Jack Macs later it was off to bed for an early start on Monday. Breakfast over the boat fired up and we were on our way optimistically putting out a spread of marlin lures that despite changes were to remain untouched for the whole 4 days. Water temps hovered in the 17deg range till we were past Mt Camel heading north never getting above 19.5 deg. We arrived in NW bay at the kings at about 6pm that night and settled in for an early start the next morning
This soon had the boys in Bait catching mode while some crafty sod slid down an SP or two with interesting results as “someone” thought that there were no snapper at the kings. Very nice condition they were and the trevs were a good size. Trolled out onto the banks with the water temps as low as 15.4 and as high as 17.5, so marlin were going to be hard. With that in mind the plan was to fish for Bass and Kingfish. I elected to go on a Bass bash and was rewarded with a spectacular days fishing. Tooling up with my 50wide Avet and 130lb braid on the big rod I strapped on a ledger rig I had built using Owner #12 super mutu hooks. Very brutal hooks those and I hardly dropped a fish all day. Straight into it the fish just got better and better with me soon reaching my PB of about 30kg
Then the fun started and the deckie,s had a competition as to who could put the biggest most outrageous bait on my line to see if they could crack the boulder. By now it was a complete fillet off one side of a skippie on one hook and the rest whole straight on the other hook. When the rod loaded up I puffed and wound like a steam train sliding into low gear at times till these two popped With one at 29kg and the other at 34kg that was 63kg of Bass on one drop. Since we were only fishing in app150-180m of water these big buggers with there paddle tails can make huge runs to get back to the bottom and you need some massive stopping power to put that out of their mind.
Next up was a double of a kingy of 26kg as well as a bass of 30kg plus. With the crew still playing with me I elected for a single hook rig as the pile of fillets was growing and I was tiring slightly. Whole skippies were now the order of the day simply hooked through the nose and sent down on a 16oz sinker The next two were 47kg (over 100lb) and one just slightly smaller, Then the crew waved a fairly big live Trev under my nose and hooked it on and I sent it on its way. This Trev would have easily gone 5lb and the crew were giggling like schoolgirls as they waited for me to get smashed. And smashed I was ripped to the back of the boat and pinned to the rail it became a see saw of line in line out and much puffing and blowing on my part. I would like to say it was not heavy but this pic would tell the truth Finally this beast popped up and I was stunned On the scales at 56kg it is clearly my personal best and a huge fillet or two resulted Others on the trip landed some nice kings at the 25-35 kg mark Day three was restricted to fishing around the princess group of North Cape came and went as we swung wide on a circle trip to the kings Island with mixed results as big kings in 30m of water have the odds stacked well and truly in their favor That part of the Islands are very knarly and I saw some fantastic places for wash fishing but backing a 55ft boat up to that is not for the fainthearted and Rick is a very careful skipper. With 25-30kn wind the bash back to Tom Bowling bay that night was interesting to say the least. Day Four saw us underway early heading home and we had barely set the gear when the skippies turned up with the crew running Bungie lines to make bait I saw my chance and lobbed in a SP on my sp rod for some great hookups and had a lot of fun till time made us press on. Back in Maunganui 5 tired boys packed our kit and headed for home as happy as sand boys with bins full of huge bass fillets. It was a slow trip as I wandered down leaving bags of fish with my Daughters and some people from this site. Would I do it all again???????? In a bloody heartbeat
Last edited by Johnnyfish; May-12-2007 at 10:24 AM.
Reason: resize photos
Re: Bass and YT kingfish Three kings NZ 
For those outside of NZ this is typical for fishing the three kings this time of year
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