Awesome Autumn Action with the Ozzie Boys

I always love hosting groups from Australia.

It is rewarding to see how impressed they are with our beautiful backyard, the islands, coastline and abundance of fish, primarily of kingfish and snapper fisheries.

This trip was Darryl and Anthony's fifth trips to New Zealand and they brought newbies Bruce and Col with them.

The forecast couldn't have been worse with very strong offshore winds, but we were lucky that the best fishing has been coastal at the moment and we were able to get some prime kingfish and snapper fishing in at places like King Rock and Hot Water Beach, largely out of the wind.

While a lot of the fishing we usually go is deep drifting and slow trolling baits, it was quite nice to have some good weed line fishing for a change, anchoring up on the very edge of the weed line which the kingfish cruise with baits being deployed and nabbed by kingfish on a regular basis. The ensuing shallow water fights are always great fun. The bonus being a by catch of tasty John Dory and I also managed to get wet and get the guys a feed of crayfish.

The line share of the kingfish were released, with a few kept for smoking by the local Tairua Butchery fish smoking service.

We also hooked up with the local Marina Bar and Grill for a couple of nights of 'Cook your Catch' where crayfish, snapper, john dory and kingfish were turned in epic meals by the local talented chefs.