Hi Guys,
Just spent a couple days in the sunny Bay of Islands fishing back in rainy Napier now for 5days before i return home to snowy Scotland. Heres a couple pics of our days, we were staying with a family friend who is caretaker and skipper for Kiri Te Kanawa. We were aboard her smaller boat the Ms Cheif and set out for Bird Rock a short distance from the famous Hole in the wall where many of the tourists flock to see.
The place was
Swarming with small Kingfish and Kahawai all on the surface. Would have been amazing on the fly rod but it was too kindy to we threw out soft plastics on light tackle.
I appologise for the cheesy grins
Earlier in the day we went looking for livebait which took a while meaning we weren't the first boat there but with everyone else speed jigging to no success we threw down some liveys and got a hit every drop. I got a little Kingy, of size but it was returned they put up a good scrap for the size of them. Then i got a big hit on the second drop that really loaded the rod, and i found out what the big ones fight like. There was a pinnacle where the fish were swimming up and taking the bait before goind back down so we had to put the boat in gear and move into deeper water. It didnt help that the gimbel was too big which kept slipping round and i was constantly told to gain more weight but eventually after 15 minutes i managed to get the fish to the boat
We then set out trolling for a tuna just to make dinner complete
got a nice albacore tuna and headed back to dry land. It was all filleted and served sushimi style.
It was a good day
Jay
