By Clare Crockford White Island: The kingfish-hunting mecca. But why would a seemingly-sensible girl think she could take on a monster kingfish hunt from a kayak - and a sea kayak at that - when she’d never even caught a 10lb snapper? Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time…
I’d been kayak fishing for almost a year. I started out with Canoe and Kayak North Shore in sit-on-tops (SOT) like the Cobra Tourer and the Marauder, but after ten years of off-and-on white-water kayaking, and more recently multisport kayaking, I didn’t like them. They were unwieldy, heavy and slow. I was the slowest one out to the fishing sites and normally the last one in. And the fact that I was only hiring my SOT made the whole experience expensive - even before you add in a rod, reel and something of a tackle/softbait acquisition habit! When I started trying to work out how to fit a rod holder to an Intrigue multisport boat it was clearly time for some action. I got a great trade-in on a Barracuda Beachcomber and once it was fitted with an anchor running rig and a large drogue, I was in business. Now I could stay more easily with the others, and the Beachcomber was more manoeuvrable, too. And, at a weight of 18kg, it also meant that I was now completely independent! No more need of assistance to get my kayak back on my car at the end of the day. About this time I also got onto the Kayakfishing NZ forum (www.kayakfishingnz.com) who organised a trip out to Great Barrier Island. This time, I took a SOT because I was told the fish were big and I would find it easier. I had a great time, but have to admit to being a bit frustrated by the kayak. Trips to go kingfish hunting kept being mentioned, but the thought of the power of these fish caused some nervousness so the trips didn’t include me. I had a second trip to Barrier in early January 2010, this time in the Beachcomber, and had a great time. I was feeling really stable and having fun. I was also getting used to being the only fishing-girl on many a trip; also the only one in a sea kayak. In March, following in the footsteps of some fellow yakkers, a trip to White Island to hunt big kingfish from our kayaks was proposed. Despite having never caught a kingfish before, or even watched someone catch one, I thought another trip away sounded like a good idea. The Plan Catch the Nimble II from Tauranga on Thursday night. Travel out to White Island, catch live bait that night, then hunt kingies with livies under balloons. Stories of ‘Nantucket Sleigh Rides’ - being towed at top speeds behind an annoyed kingfish - started sounding like fun. The other guys were all also planning on hapuka rigs and fishing for other species, but these fish were all to be brought up from deep water i.e. from more than 100m, and it was suggested that I might find this, well … “difficult”. Okay, but if the kingfish with a livie got awkward, then taking photos of the others and simply having a nice time bobbing about on the blue water sounded good. I was in. Then came the Trip Preparation…… I didn’t have a rod or reel suitable for kingfish and didn’t have the money to splash out, either. Fortunately though, I do have some nice friends who did not want to see me go under-gunned. Andy loaned me a Silstar Powertip rod. At 1.8m, it was rated for 12kg and had caught kingies from a kayak before. Al loaned me a TLD-25 reel with 80lb braid. Although the reel wasn’t full, I was told it should be enough for livie fishing under a balloon. Al at Smart Marine in Westhaven recommended Black Magic live bait 9/0 rigs and put together the initial rig, so I was set. It was recommended that I take a SOT for the trip, but I decided my trusty Beachcomber would be more fun, believing that I would be doing more paddling than fishing anyway. Making sure I had plenty of memory and battery for my waterproof Canon D10 was more important. Unfortunately, due to bad weather, the trip got postponed for six months. Fortunately though, Al and Andy didn’t need their gear and said for me to hang on to it. By the time the trip had been re-scheduled I’d also had a RailBlazer Starport rod-holder fitted and had been to a pool session to practice wet exits and rescues and to practice rolling (though I still can’t roll my Beachcomber, but I’m working on it!!). The Trip… Met up with the guys in Tauranga to catch Nimble at 4pm on the Friday and we loaded the boat and got underway. Live baits were caught overnight at White Island, but next morning we headed to the Rangatira Reef where kingfish were more likely to be found. Unfortunately, they were only to be found deep. I learned that we would be fishing at about 120m deep and would need to use 27oz (more than 750g) weights to get that far down. These I didn’t have. Fortunately, this is one advantage of chartering a ‘mother-ship’: Nimble II had the weights, and one of other yakkers, Stephen, kindly put a new rig together for me. The weights went on a ‘breakaway’ trace – a 20lb leader off the bottom of the live bait rig. This meant that if the sinker fouled, there was a much better chance of breaking the line without losing a lot of braid. Paul also helped me set the drag and taught me how to use the TLD-25. The ‘strike’ drag was set to about 4kg and ‘full’ drag was about 7kg. For logistical reasons, I was the first kayaker on the water. There was still a bit of a swell and a two foot drop from Nimble II into the kayaks. This is where my kayaking background helped, as it was not the first time I have had to get into a boat from a drop. Now that I was in my kayak, the seasickness eased, as you don’t roll as much. Once we were all on the water the skipper, Wayne and Lindsey the deckie found our rigs, and baited us up with live baits. Okay, I have to admit that this was really appreciated, as, while I have no qualms about using dead bait, this was my first time with live ones and I was not looking forward to trying to put a big hook through the back of a wiggling fish without getting the hook in my fingers or dropping the fish overboard! The current was strong and it took some practice (and one false start) to get the line flowing smoothly down to the bottom. Nimble II used her fishfinder and gave us good instructions over the radio as to where we should be setting our drifts. The drogue was useless as there was no wind and the current was too strong. This meant that I seemed to spend a l-o-n-g time winding up the braid to move locations, with the added awkwardness of trolling a protesting jack mackerel at 120m attached to nearly a kilo of lead – hard work either way. At one point I thought I had snagged ‘Maui’ and started cursing……but one of the other guys then stated that either I had a fish on and didn’t realize it or he was drifting backwards….ooops! It was a fish - and I lost it and the bait! Back we went to Nimble II and got another bait on and deployed to the bottom. Wayne and Lyndsey kept a keen eye on the fishfinder and pointed us in the best direction for finding fish. I then watched Bryce being taken for a very fast sleigh ride behind something powerful. Apparently his GPS clocked him at about 20km/h!!! Taking care to keep the sinker off the bottom, this time it didn’t take too long to realize there was a fish on…GAME ON!!! I have never played a fish on so much line before and didn’t really know what was happening. Some of the line peeled off the reel, so I cautiously increased the drag and started lifting the rod and winding in. Now I started regretting not starting a push-up regime because this was heavy! The prayers and curses soon started to flow: …“Please don’t bust the line …. Please let this be legal …. Please let this be edible…” Rests were mandatory as I tried to bring this beast in; my forearms were burning. Luckily, Stephen hung around and gave advice and encouragement, such as “Loosen off the drag…it will probably make a break for it when it sees the kayak.” I lost track of time bringing up the fish. It seemed to take forever … but probably only about 15min. Finally we could see colour … and it didn’t want to make the break that I had been warned about. Stephen offered to gaff and land it on his kayak, which I puffingly accepted. It was an ugly fish with bulging eyes; I had to ask what it was. “It’s a hapuka.” The fish I had been told that I didn’t want to catch because it would be so hard to land! Woo-hoo!! I had even heard that it was tasty!! Completed elated, I charged back to Nimble II with Stephen to drop off the ‘puka and get more bait. Being told that it was a ‘good size’ made me feel even better. I felt ready to take on a kingfish. Bait out and waiting … HOOK UP! The line started whipping off the reel. Looking up, I saw KK away out in front. Being barely able to keep the rod out of the water, I pushed the drag up to maximum - to no apparent effect. Uh oh … this is a BIG fish! The line is now down to mono and still whipping away…we are traveling faster than I can paddle and it is showing no signs of slowing down … KK is now metres away. I try slowing the line down with my thumb … the reel is getting warm. Suddenly, the pressure drops….bust off. DAMN…..that was disappointing. KK and I chatted for a moment, then he hooked up into a BIG fish. I watched him fight and strain and fight some more. At long last he won, but the fish was too big to land on his yak. Nimble II came over and he landed his supersized kingfish on her instead. Okay – the kingies around here are monsters and too much for this exhausted gal, I decided. I spent the rest of the morning bobbing around happily. Back on board and heading back to Tauranga, we did a tally-up. Of the ten of us fishos, five are returning with fish. The others all have kingfish. I’m very happy with my fish, which is actually a bass. Apparently not many can say they have caught a hapuka/bass from a kayak. Fishing from a kayak near White Island was one amazing experience that I would recommend to anyone. Even a gal can get along fine on a ‘hardcore boys’ trip’.
