Four Days of Fishing and Diving Fun for Frank Shane Bob and John

It is not often that I get a 4 day trip request where “we don’t want to chase any kingfish” is part of the brief, but that was the request for this trip (and to be honest I was quite looking forward to it!) Sometimes it is quite nice just to go hunt some good food for the table. Frank, John, Shane and Bob have been doing an annual fishing trip for the last 20 years, and this was their 7th trip to New Zealand. The boys were after a good relaxing week away in Tairua, and to fill a fish box each of good healthy food for the family back home.

On meeting the boys when they arrived, for a drink at Tairua Beach Club, I discovered Shane was an ex-PADI instructor and was very keen to check out the diving here, and hopefully get some crayfish to take home, so that formed part of the plan for day one. The vis was epic, we dived a very cool spot close to home called the Twin Bommies, and it was fizzing with marine life, what a cool dive, with some good sized crayfish the bonus, plus another dive at Sailors Grave which produced a few more nice crayfish for the bin.

We spent the first two days out around the 100m line at the Aldies, bottom fishing for all sorts of tasty species, and the boys kept pulling up some good tucker.

I’m just loving the Okuma Metalloid 5N, on the spiral wrap Tournament Concept 50-150gm rod, it is super light to fish with all day, easy on clients, and they seem to be loving them too.

One of the things the guys had never done before is strayline for snapper. And they were keen to give it a nudge. So we spent a nice day at the Aldermen Islands, I hopped in first and got a big bag of kina which we burleyed up, and pretty soon the Okuma Coronado was howling for Frank on a nice line of very respectable snapper. Just loving these baitrunner style reels, they really work well and pack some good drag on the fish in fight mode.

We managed to feast pretty well while we were on the water, the kina are really in amazing condition, and I managed to find the odd nice sized paua for the boys to tuck in to.

Our last day, Friday, was planned as a go wide day, with a good forecast, and so we packed the big gear, Okuma SLX reels and Makaira 50W and headed for the deep. The Furuno TZ Touch was showing some good bottom sign in 350m and we managed to cap an awesome week off with hapuku and double headers of bluenose.

All the fish was vaccum packed up for the boys, and chilled or frozen down in super fresh condition. They will be enjoying it with their loved ones on return to Australia. Cheers for some good times and laughs boys, and see you when you bring the wives back to the Coro!