After topping up with fuel and briefing our guests, we made final preperations and sailed from Whangaroa harbour at 1630hrs on the 13th January 2004. The 350nm leg would take approximately 27hrs steaming.
Log Book entries
Wednesday 14th
We arrived at the Reinga Ridge about midday with glassy calm conditions and decided to “tune” our programe up, so we slowed down and set up for fishing. We ran the guests through our progame, which is, three lures with hooks and one lure without, controlled via electric reel in the tower by me. Instructing the guests that if we get a chance we switch the fish on to a bait. The water was beautiful, so it wasn’t that much of a surprize when we hooked up! However we pulled the hooks on this first fish at the boat.
2200hrs-we arrived in still glassy conditions at the banks, shut the engines down and drifted for the night.
Thursday 15th
We drifted 8 miles in the night mainly due to the strong current, so we didn’t reach the bank until 0800hrs but as usual had the first bite as we came up in to the shallows. This was a lazy bite on a lure and promptly fell off. We then endured another 2 hours of nothing, wondering, maybe we had struck it lucky last time? Maybe January wasn’t a good time to fish the area? Then all hell broke loose-our first pack attack, we had gotten use to them last June, however this caught us completely by surprize. We had 4 fish on. After tagging 2 of those fish, we continued on , mostly with single and double hook ups. The fish were biting poorly and we lost count of our bites. When we shut down at 2100hrs with 10 releases for the day, we were still pretty happy.
Friday 16th
Cloudy conditions and a 15knt sou'easter greeted us this morning, with more bad weather forecasted. This wasn’t what I wanted to here on our second day, however I couldn’t see, from my sat picts where it was coming from, however, I wasn’t going to ignore it. The water temp was down a little and the bait a little scarcer, things were slow this morning with only 2 fished released. The afternoon provided more bites and the fish proved to be more aggressive. The twilight boite was impressive with fish piling on in ones and twos as fast as a hook could be placed in the water. 13 fish released for the day. Deployed sea anchor at 2200hrs. Big day!
Saturday 17th
Fine day, SE 12knts with NW 25knts forecasted. On the bank at 0800hrs. We had another quiet morning, I think we have to get up earlier to catch the early morning bite!! We still managed 13 fish today, with one almost joining the boys in the cockpit. It jumped and flipped numerous time on the leader, putting on a spectacular display and I must say much to my amusement in the safety of the tower.
Sunday 18th
Beautiful day today, 5knts of northerly and very warm. We travelled north this morning, exploring and trying to find a better morning bite, but again lucked out with only 2 bites. With 1 of our fish nearing the boat, Jerry pointed out a large object in the water, asking if it was another marlin?
Just off the port quarter swam the largest shark I have ever seen, and the first white pointer I have ever seen. Easily over 1000lbs it was spectacular to view such an awesome predator and was one of my highlights for the trip. After lunch we came across a floating crate and managed to jig up a couple of mahimahi for dinner. What was interesting was there was a large school of juvenile King fish also taking refuge under the crate. 12 fish today.
Monday 19th
The wind never came last night, however by mid morning we had 35knts of SE, so we steamed off to the NW and deployed our sea anchor. A little lumpy, but very comfortable considering the conditions.
Tuesday 20th
30knts from the South and a swell of about 5 to 6 meters, so we prepared tackle and watched dvds for most of the morning. By 1300hrs the wind had subsided to a pleasant 20knts so we headed back to the grounds for the night.
Wednesday 21st
It was very chilly in the tower this morning, felt like it was june not January! We released 2 fish this morning and lost another 2. One fish we busted the leader on, and another just got around in front of the boat before I could do anything. Bugger! The afternoon was also very quiet, but from 1800hrs to 2100hrs we released 8 fish, not bad for an evenings fishing. 10 fish today.
Thursday 22nd
The sky was still over cast, and the wind still a cold south wester but only 5 knts. Again 2 fish early on and with this being our last day we had set a goal at 70 marlin. At 2050hrs we sat on 69 fish for the trip………we had to get another bite, then a double. As the first fish neared the boat, the hooks pulled. So the there was a little tension felt by angler and crew on the remaining fish and at 2100hrs we tagged number 70.
Catching 70 marlin in 6 days fishing is nothing short of incredible, and with so many catches, it was impossible to mention every one. 2 weeks after we got back we headed for the kings and released 20 fish in just 3 days! Maybe we didn’t have to go all that way?
Tom Francis
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