Still some big fish up there!  Just spent the last week up in the area but the weather only let up enough to hit the rocks on Tues and Wed. Fished the harbour on Monday and Thursday but only rats showed. Tuesday saw some mega KY and Trevs off Rod Holders but no Kingi's.

Wednesday I went a bit further around to Bucks.  Knew there were some big Kings around when a tinny with 3 guys came past with one trying to hold up a Kingi to show me, the size of which left my chin dropping onto the rocks in amazement.  Not sure what it would have weighed but it was biggest I'd seen.

At 3pm I changed the live bait for a more lively version, threw it out then wondered why it wasn't settling down.  Instead it was zipping around like its life depended on it - which it was.  A huge hole in the water appeared by the balloon then I saw the dorsal and tail fins of a Kingfish.  Going by the distance between the 2 fins I knew it was big bugger.  The splashing and frantic zipping around continued for a full 5 minutes until the Kahawai bait used its brains and headed into the weed.  Bugger!  pulled him in and threw him back out into clear water again.  Once again the splashing and zipping started up again, I actually sat down wondering how the Kingi ever caught anything to eat.

Then the balloon broke off and the reel started to let out line.  Let it run for awhile, flicked on the drag and the pain started.  3/4 hour struggling to hold the rod against the drag while stumbling back around the rocks following it.  I was cursing that I had looked but decided not to buy a fighting belt when I got the new reel.  But managed to wear it out before I did and led it up a gut in the rocks.  My scales bottomed out at 22kg and since there was still a good third to lift off the rocks I estimate the Kingi to be between 25 & 30kg.  Hard to get a comparison pic when solo but that is a TLD 25 reel by its head.

Its back out there waiting for my return next year.

good stuff, thought you might get into a few this time of year, nice pic and even nicer you let her go for next time, now that right there is what its all about mate, bloody well done.

Hey mate thats awesome!  Top stuff on the catch n release and you did a great job on the solo piccie too.  Did you see any Spearo's hanging around??  Those guys have been hitting spirits HARD in the past month or so (I counted six in the water the other week)  Those pair-trawlers were back a couple of weekends ago too, watched them do a four hour shot from taput's to just in front of hoopers and with a seriously bulging trawl-net they dissapeared round n.cape. 

Had to release him anyway - no way I could chew through that much fish flesh especially without any refrigeration!

Have a personal policy of only taking as much fish as I can eat in a couple of meals, prefer fresh over frozen so its no use stocking up the freezer when I can just zip out the following weekend and get some more.  If a fish doesn't revive enough to release and I already have enough to eat then I'll give it away.

FarNorfOwnage:  No spearo's there, in fact very few fishers at all.  One large family group had taken up the area to the left of the road who were fishing but mostly off the island.  Pity about the trailers, I was brought up in Whitianga and during the late 70's and the pair trailers used to come right into Buffalo Beach to strip it.  Used to get good snapper off the beach before then but it took another 10yrs before the beach fishing improved again.  Hate to see that happen up north.

When I was fishing of Paua, some MAF inspectors turned up.  First time I have ever come across them.  After a chat about fishing, the area etc they disappeared.  A few hours later a chiller truck turned up to load from a barge.  I was packing up and leaving at that time but when driving out the inspectors flagged me down from a hidden spot and asked about the barge.  Not sure of the outcome or if anything illegal was happening but it was good to see them working in such an isolated area.

bloody brilliant mate... that's a brute king there, big ups for the release..

well done

awesome effort doing it solo!! must have been interesting getting it out of the water and onto the bricks.

Shot!

Awesome fish there IP been trying for ages to get a fish like that off the bricks! Much respect for the release would of been a hard haul to take it home anyway

Mean as kingi IslandPaddler! Spirits and Cape Maria Van Dieman are my top two fishing things before i kark it wishes...you're a lucky man.