Friday morning we were up before light and heading out of the Tauranga Harbour in search of some big game fish. The day started productively with a number of skipjack tuna and a couple of Albacore Tuna on board within a few hours of trolling. We reached Mayor Island where we had a quick jig for some kingi's and anchored up in a bay for a few ours so a couple of the lads could find there feet after coming across some rough seas or the after effects of a few too many the night before. The water was relatively warm so we all ended up performing a manu as we jumped in the water for a swim. After an unsuccessful soft bait and a bite to eat we continued on out the back of Mayor island for a few more hours. There was plenty of sign of bait fish so we new the big ones wouldnt be to far away. By the end of the day we hadnt had much more luck and anchor up at one of our skippers favourite snapper spots so we could catch some fresh fish. We fished late into the evening and with a good feed on board called it a night.
Saturday morning we made a big call to head back down the coast to the Rangatira's. Nearly every other boat in the competition were headed north where marlin were being caught and there had been reports of a couple of free jumpers. After a couple of hours into our 4 hour trip to the Rangatira's we were passing over an area known as the Mayor Knolls when one of the game reels went off. A quick look at the time and it was my timeslot in the chair. We managed to land what was a nice 12.5kg Mahimahi which happened to be one of the prize categories in the tournament. There were hand shakes all round as we were rapt to land the fish and knew we were in the running for something at prizegiving on Sunday.
We continued on to the Rangatira's and within half an hour of reaching or destination we were hit again. This time the game reel screamed off and we managed to land a 14kg Short Bill spear fish. Angler Paul Hopkins did a fantastic job of bringing it into the boat where we had the task of keeping it on ice for a couple more days for when we went back in for weigh in.
On our way back to Mayor where we had planned on spending the night we saw a couple of Marlin free jumping at the Mayor Knolls. We hang around for a while in an attempt to hook one but that would have to wait for the next day as light was running out.
That evening we all put our snorkelling gear on and went for a dive in the warm water.
Sunday morning we decided to head back in the direction where we saw the marlin jumping. Two hours into it we heard the sound of our rubber band snapping on one of our outriggers. Jeremy, Paul and myself all stood up to check what had happend and then all hell broke loose as the game reel went nuts. A marlin had taken our lure on its second attempt and was peeling line off like to tomorrow. Paul and Jeremy shot down to deal to the rods in the water while our skipper was stuck on the dunny thinking we were playing a prank on him.
By the time all the other lines were in, the Marlin had taken off towards the side of the boat where it was jumping and had taken 2/3rds of the line. Jeremy was very quickly getting spooled. In order to stop this the drag level was put up and moments later the line went slack. The line had snapped. It was a gut wrenching moment. We knew we had just lost a decent size marlin capable of taking out the biggest Marlin for the tournament.
The rest of the day was pretty quite and we headed in for weigh in and prizegiving where we won heaviest Mahimahi. Paul and I also picked up clubpins for the heaviest fish in our line category so far this season.
Special thanks to Neil Dalton for lending us his 50ft Launch for the weekend. And thanks to our chef P-Hop for the great meals, to Matt for putting us onto the fish and Jeremy for the celebrational cigars :)
Official results from prizegiving: http://www.tgfc.co.nz/tournaments_10tuna.htm
Photos of our catch below.
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