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Kingfishing in the Bay of Islands, NZ

yoyo

By yoyo
in Saltwater

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yoyo Newbie

yoyo

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Sportsfans,

Apologies for the delay, but here is my report from a day spent Kingfishing over in New Zealand, in the Bay of Islands region.

After doing some research online, i decided to go with Earl Grey Fishing Charters

http://www.earlgreyfishing.co.nz/

Good news for fishos is that there is no commercial fishing in the Bay of Islands area, not counting the BIG boats way-waaayyy offshore scooping up the deepwater species', this means there's always fish on the bite and action to be gotten into! :woohoo:

The vast majority of charters over there are small groups of 4-6 people fishing, none of this 10+ fishing rubbish. There is even a good selection of small sportfishing boats available for charter for 1 or 2 people, including saltwater flyfishing charters as well.

There are two types of fish to catch - Snapper and Kingfish. Anything else is bait basically.... ;):lol:

We started off jigging for livies, but don't call them Yakkas ! No such thing as a Yakka these Kiwis tell me, they hate us Aussies hanging this misnomer on their precious Horse Mackeral/Jack Mackeral ! :lol:

Bait was plentiful and the biggest problem we seemed to have, so Skipper Steve told me, was that the Yakkas (err..sorry, Horse Macks...) were, umm...Horses ! Too big !

I suggested that maybe if we jigged for some Yakkas instead we might find something sized more suitably........... :whistle:

So after i swam back to the boat..................................... :P

Time to head out and go fishing !!

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There were some solid shows and structure to be seen on the sounder!

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Then it was Kingie time !

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Cameo appearance by an Angry Shark

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More Kingies!

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The pictures don't really show it, but the swell was actually up a bit

and the wind picking up all day.

We saw several sensational shows in some of steves usual Kingie spots, but

there was also some wicked current ripping through that was making holding

the spots extremely difficult :angry:

We still got onto some great Kingfish, even though at this size they

are considered pretty average for the BOI region, anything under 20kgs

doesnt really raise an eyebrow over there ! :huh:

We also deadbaited for an hour or so and picked up some snapper around

55-60cm and a pretty sizeable John Dory that met his maker rapidly after

coming on deck.

Skipper Steve filleted up all the fish and on the way back to the hotel

we dropped it into a local restaurant and they cooked it up for dinner

for us that evening :woohoo:

We had Kingie and Dory about 4 or 5 different ways, including Kingfish

sashimi which was just awesome having just been caught maybe 4 hrs prior

It was a great day and if anyone is heading over there and has a day to do

some fishing then i highly recommend Steve at Earl Grey Charters.

thanks for reading.

YoYo

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Keen-as-fisho Newbie

Keen-as-fisho

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What a spot to go fishing half your luck, from what I've herd and seen from the bay of islands its an awesome spot. Apparently there is a rock point the locals fish there that drops to 200m right off the rock, live baiting for big kings, tuna, sharks and the occasional marlin Landbased. If I ever go back to nz I will definitely hit the bay B)

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What a spot to go fishing half your luck, from what I've herd and seen from the bay of islands its an awesome spot. Apparently there is a rock point the locals fish there that drops to 200m right off the rock, live baiting for big kings, tuna, sharks and the occasional marlin Landbased. If I ever go back to nz I will definitely hit the bay B)

We call this the ''Hole in the Rock'' you catch very big fish IE... Kings,Tuna,Trev,Snap and so on.....The water is crystal clear, the Bay of Islands is a great fishing place, its nice and warm in summer. I have fish this place 18+ times and love it. :)

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Yeah the skipper decided not to go down to Hole in the Rock on our day, due to the direction the wind and swell was coming in. We went around up to the North instead.

Magical Place as your prob aware,and the people are very nice.

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Mate that is an awesome report! I was gonna say "once in a lifetime" but "once in a season" is probably more accurate, because by the looks of that you'll be heading back there!

Cheers - Jono

Its a must for anyone who loves catching BIG FISH :)

You will love it ;)

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