Fishing the Three Kings in May
Fishing the Three Kings in May - Exert from a past charter adventure aboard Reel Awesome
This 6x day Three Kings charter comprised of 3x seasoned anglers intent on bringing home a feed of quality eating fish but also having a shot at beaky’s. 2x anglers hadn’t caught a marlin before so the challenge was on to initiate them into the beaky club. Crew consisted of myself as Captain and VERY experienced 2nd skipper, Drew Edwards. Drew had been skipper for the Kingfish Lodge charter boat Serendipity as well as other reknown NZ charter boats and it was a breath of fresh air to have Drew onboard with his exceptional service and people skills as well as gamefishing experience. Professional 2nd skippers are very hard to come by in Whangaroa as well as the Bay of Islands so we are very fortunate to have Drew on board.
No marlin had been caught at the Three Kings in the last 3x weeks but that didn’t deter me one bit. I at no stage felt unconfident of success and the charter guests new this. Hence the power of positive thought!!!
The first day was spent motoring to North Cape under the cloud of a front about to break the next morning bringing winds to 35 knots NW. It eventuated so we bided our time snapper fishing North Cape for all of the 2nd day. Finally in the evening we hit pay dirt on the bigger snapper with every bait a good sized snapper. Our first quenched on the snapper front somewhat we planned our escape of NZ to the Three Kings with a very early getaway the next day of around 3:00am which should have us on the King’s bank at around 11:00am.
Arriving at the King bank in calm conditions, the water temperatures where OK at 19.4 Degrees and where immediately confronted with a Stripey hitting the long Right outrigger lure, pulling off a couple of hundred meters, doing a head shake on the surface and spitting the lure. They are here we cheered and with the knowledge relaxed a bit knowing that Marlin would be on the menu sooner or later. Armed with this knowledge we decided we would test out the Hapuka stakes (literally). A bottom bounce in shallow water quickly resulted in 4x Bass Hapuka lying on the decks. In seeing how easy it was to get Hapuka, we changed our mind about putting anymore Hapuka in the fridge as we wanted to keep this closer to the end of the trip so as to ensure the fish was fresh when we arrived back in port. We headed back to the King’s Islands while dealing to the Hapuka we had caught. No sooner had we filleted the Hapuka when we placed a couple of Hapuka wings into the Convection Microwave oven and roasted them while trolling back. The taste was to die for.
The 4th day of our trip saw us back on the King Bank at around 8:00am after an early start of 5:00am. Without a word of a lie, no sooner had we arrived at the King Bank (at our favourite little spot I might add) when we where PACK ATTACKED by a group of Striped Marlin. We had 2x rods going off with Striped Marlin attached when I saw a 3rd stripey tailing up behind the long left outrigger lure frantically. I instructed the crew not to pull the outrigger lure in as I knew the Marlin would take it and I wanted a big multiple hookup. Sure enough, the marlin didn’t hesitate and smacked the lure with intent. Off went the 3rd lure. At this stage the 2nd Marlin had dropped its lure so we where firmly stuck onto 2x Marlin. I watched as both started jumping directly out the back of the boat and went WHEW as I saw the last marlin that hooked up jump underneath the line of the first Marlin, that was close. He sort of grey-hounded underneath the other line which was fortunate. The result was both marlin going to opposite quarters and staying there, just perfect. We tagged Grants first ever marlin estimated at around 100Kg’s then Brent brought the 2nd marlin to the boat slightly worse for wear unfortunately. It may have had a heart attack at the back of the boat which can happen even with Stripey’s. Drew tried to revive him as can be seen with Drew lying down on the cockpit floor holding the Marlin's bill in the air-rated water for 10 minutes but to no effect. The decision was made to land him rather than let the sharks have him. He measured up at 125Kg’s, a very fat stripey as can be seen by the photos. Fortune had favoured us in that we had christened the 2x remaining first time anglers with a marlin each. Smiling from ear to ear Brent had achieved a life time goal as well as Grant and this is what Marlin fishing is all about to us.
After this pack attack we trolled for another 5 minutes and bang, off went another lure off the long right outrigger to a stripey. It fell off but we where not disappointed as we had ticked the box on the Marlin front. We spent the rest of the day Jigging with Zest jigs for Kingfish, an art in itself that the anglers where just learning. We placed some Kingfish to 35 Kg’s on the deck and then headed back to the King’s Islands while packing the stripey away into the freezer and reflecting on the amazing days success. Smiles from everyone ear to ear on a great days fishing.
For the 5th day we had decided to dedicate the day to fishing for Hapuka so trolled on out to the King Bank again and dropped on a spot that was sure going to produce the goods. Well, the baits weren’t on the bottom for more than a few minutes when everyone was hooked up to Big Bass. The result was 10 Hapuka of which 4x where to 45kg’s covering the deck, me thinking all of the time that Drew (our 2nd skipper) would be filleting for hours. Appetites appeased on the Hapuka front with also another 30Kg Kingy added to the catch, we headed back to North Cape for the night then Whangaroa the next day.
All boxes ticked proclaimed the anglers. Cheers guy's. Our 2nd skipper Drew Edwards who would be by far the best 2nd skipper I have had the pleasure of working on Reel Awesome, worked tirelessly and made the trip a pleasure for everyone, me included. Thank you Drew!!