Captain Andrew and the first mate setting off in dingy the morning of the big hunt for Kingfish (Yellowtail Amberjack). Dang that dingy looks small, I'd sink it for sure. And they only had one paddle, they skulled their way to the big boat.
We waited on shore and found this cute little crab. Wildlife abounds in New Zealand. The waters are crystal clear, and everywhere you look there's life. The day before we followed the birds, that showed us the baitfish, where we even seen Dolphin seemingly at play. We could not wait to see what this new day had in store for us.
We slept on Great Barrier Island. Right nearby lies Little Barrier Island which is a Nature Conservatory and holds many exotic and protected species of wildlife including the Kiwi Bird. The public is not allowed on this island and only a few Rangers stay there to watch and study its inhabitants.
Captain Andrew was proud to wear his new Crappie.com hat.
Seems crazy to fish with a jig that looks like this weighing about 3/4 of a pound with only one hook on it. I'd put big treble hooks on both sides, but that's just me.
OMG, did you check out that video, this is a violent style of fishing. It's hard work. I tried it for a bit and gave up. I think that's partly why I'm a Crappie fisherman and not a Bass fisherman. Too much work! Besides the fact that Crappie taste better! lol
And who is the one that catches the first Kingfish, the birthday boy, how appropriate. I can not get over it, I give up because it's to much work to fish this way, and "dad" stays at it, and hit the big one. The problem was, dad spent so much effort just jigging for the fish to catch it, he ran out of juice. He hooked it, and started to reel it in, but gave up. He kept calling out to his sons. Finally William stepped in and pulled the fish in for his dad. Teamwork, got to love that. Good job guys, the first Kingfish is on board.
What a nice fish. It put up a heck of a fight. And it's was of legal size, so in the ice chest it went.
We used live bait on a couple rods for the Kingfish also. We got a BIG hit on one of those rods but we will never know what it was. Although the fish fought for roughly 10 good minutes, it spit the hook, bait and all. It was the craziest thing cause it was a hard fight, and then all the sudden nothing. The bait came up with the hook and it had looked like it was completely swallowed with no real marks on it. The line above the bait had some wear on it though. So a big fish, took in "hook, line and sinker", played with us a little, and just spit it all out. The baitfish we used was stunned, but it actually came back to life and was used again. Dang, I just want to know what kind of fish it was. I think that is so cool, and strange.
We moved often to continue chasing Kingfish but only ended up getting one other Kingfish into the boat. It was just under the legal length so back into the water it went. We then switch back and forth fishing for Kingfish, and when we tired, we bottom fished for Snapper and other species.
This is probably the nicest Snapper we caught that day. When they get this large they are tremendous fighters.
The Kahawai were big fighters too. We caught a few of these too. They seemed to be higher in the water column than the Snapper which were pretty much always caught right on the bottom.
Yes, even I caught fish, and a nice Kahawai at that. Reminded me of Lake Michigan Steelhead.
Check out the mouth and teeth on the fish pictured above, what they called a Pig Fish! I always thought this was a pigfish, but I guess I was wrong:
More weird fish. I'm sure they all have names, but whatever they were I had to think they;d be cool in my aquarium, right!
If you look close, you'll see a Road Runner and a Shinee Hinee tied on one of those lines. I made up a Slab Rig to try out the day before. You see, when we were cleaning fish on the house boat the night before, we were supposed to also be fishing for bait fish. And I did catch something on this Crappie rig, but I'll never know what it was. It was so strange, I felt weight splashing when I would pull in the crappie rig in the dark of the night, but every time I pulled it out of the water, what ever it was splashed back into the water. I did not understand it. All I could think of was that maybe they were Jellyfish on the line, and picking them out of the water they just broke off. Who knows. Another mystery of the deep!
And another weird thing was, when the jigs would hit the water in the dark, you'd see sparkles in the water. Little green lights would shimmer in the splash. William told me that it was the krill in the water. After hearing that I was waiting for the splash of a Humpback Whale next! lol
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