NZ Salt Trip Report
- This topic has 18 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated Jun 10, 2010 at 2:10 pm by
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About a week ago I got the opportunity to head out and do some saltwater fishing on an island off the coast of Auckland. It turned out to be one of the best weekends of my life. I essentially got to live in paradise for two days, fish all day, and spend the weekend with great people. I landed my first saltwater fish (on the fly) within the first 5 minutes of fishing, and the day didn’t slow down from there.
Our group consisted of me, my good fly fishing buddy from Auckland, and his friend who we were staying with. His friend is a really keen saltwater fisherman, but not a fly fisherman. He let us have some fun with Kahawai on our fly rods for a while, and then we turned our attention to the big boys. We used the fly-caught Kahawai as live bait to target Kingfish, which are basically the biggest, baddest creatures with fins around NZ (aside from sharks). Throughout the day we caught a ton of snapper, lots of Kahawai on the fly, and I ended up landing a beast of a Kingfish.
Honestly, it was one of the best weekends of my life. Although the kingie didn’t come on fly gear, the “bait” did, so it all started with the fly. Catching the Kahawai on the fly was definitely one of the best parts of the trip. They are a phenomenal sport fish, respond well to a fly, and fight for all they are worth when hooked. Seriously, they are one of the hardest fighting fish I have ever caught. My buddy also got a smaller Kingfish to chase a fly on the next day, but it turned away at the last second. Just the chase was enough to get the adrenaline pumping. My mission now is to land one of these beasts on the fly. I think I might have awoken a sleeping giant in regards to saltwater fishing….this could become a whole new addiction.
Kahawai:
Snapper:
Kingfish:
Obligatory IA food shots:
Rays in the shallows at night:
Scenery:
Tim
Tim! I hope your school work is not suffering.. ‘Cuz your fishing trips sure are not! They keep gettin better and better! Another impressive and fun report … Love all of these .. Thanks and keep them coming.
Dave,
Caught it out of a boat around some structure off an island that you can’t really see in the pictures.
Tim I love the way you represent NZ and Big Sky country all in the same post. Awesome stuff buddy!
Joel
You want one of those Kingies on a fly, get down here next summer.
You know how to find me.
You can judge a man by the size of things which annoy him.
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