Reel Awesome Fishing Charters
Whangaroa Harbour, North Island, New Zealand
Fishing charters, game fishing, new zealand, boat charter, whangaroa fishing charters, charter boats, whangaroa, three kings islands
(Skippers Catch photo's)
YellowTail Kingfish - 47k/g, the skippers personal best quite a few years ago on the previous boat Awesome Too. This fish was caught at the Three Kings Bank with a 200 gm Lethal lure jig seen on the floor. This one was VERY fat. Fighting your way to the bottom 20-30 metres down through the large schools of KING Trevally can pose a challenge with the inevitable repeated hookup's on KING Trevally weighing in excess of 12Ib's but pateince and a heavy jig help.
Standup 24k/g tackle is considered helpfull in this Jurrasic Park of marine life. Fighting your way through the schools of pelagics to get near the bottom where the much larger Pelagics dwell on light tackle frequently results in cut-off's without even being hooked up.
In summer (February to May) the main target species at the Three Kings would be Marlin, Hapuka & Kingfish.
Mahimahi of 16K/g caught by the skipper. Mahimahi are a warm water pelagic that will frequent our coast every year around February till April (at the warmest part of the season). Expect to regularly hookup on multiple pack-attacks in the 6-10 K/g size. Mahimahi will be seen comming at the lures like a hurd of leaping dolphines. It is an amazing sight to see.
They are widely considered to be one of the most prized table fish in the sea.
Snapper
of 25Ib's caught by the skipper at the Mokohinua's off Great Barrier Island 30
miles from Auckland.
In all parts of the East Coast from Auckland to North Cape, Snapper are in abundance nearly all year round. If you want to target XOS snapper in this category, the best time of the year is from October through to December. North Cape is one of our main stop-over points before making the last run to the Three Kings Islands. The North Cape area in particular offers magnificent Snapper fishing all year round mainly due to the low fishing pressure it experiences because of its remoteness. If the conditions are not favourable to leaving the protection of North Cape for the Three Kings and we are forced to stay at North Cape for a day or two, you will not be dissapointed in the Snapper fishing.
YellowFin Tuna of 48.5K/g caught at Great Barrier Island out from Auckland. YellowFin Tuna like this are usually early season fish (December to February) and frequent the East Coast from Whakatane to Whangaroa. Small Yellowfin Tuna in the 15K/g class start comming through Whangaroa late November with the larger ones in excess of 30K/g comming through from late December. The run will last well into the Marlin season with 15-20 K/g specimens being caught right up to April at least interupted by the odd XOS version at up to 50K/g.
A very Large Striped Marlin. The scales where proved to be wrong the next day reading short by approx 20 kg, the fish proved to be in fact over 156 k/g and won the skippers previous boat "Awesome Too", the Houhora One Base Contest.
We have hooked up on Striped Marlin as early as late November but on average, we expect to be regularly hooking up from February onwards. Seasons have been longer in the last few years and Striped Marlin have been regularly caught in late May and early June. Once the water temperature drops below 18 degree's it is pretty much over for the season and this happens late May, early June on average.
In the early part of the season, Striped marlin have a tendancy to be smaller, averaging 70-95K/g. As the season gets later, the Striped marlin get bigger. Towards the end of the season (April through to late May), expect to weigh-in or tag Striped Marlin in the 120K/g plus category with regular fish being caught at over 135K/g.