This report I will focus on the fishing aspect of the trip as I would have a complete novel for what we got up to on the Island. But if you want to know anything about our trip just ask away. Cheers
The anticipation was high and we were geared up with some serious goods, consisting of around 50 poppers and stickbaits, a JM GT Popp Rod, a JM Surface Assassin, a Synit Lalandi, 4 Stellas, 1 Saltiga, Owner Trebbles, Jobu Hooks, 5 spare spools, 3 spare rolls of 80+ pound braid plus much more misc items. Thanks to Boulder, Millkman, STC10, DEACS (f.net members) for helping us out with some of the gear. So loaded up and headed for Raro for 5 days then on to Aitutaki for 3 days, it was safe to say we were ready, well so we thought...
Day 1
Land in Raro at 1am, up at 8am. Quickly smashed back breakfast, then headed to Avana passage (thanks to DEACS for sending me a map of the island filled with information and spots). We get to the passage and she is blowing 20 knots straight at us.
We had no chance of casting into the wind and out over the reef. We moved ourselves down the passage abit and went to work. We spent around 2 hours casting here with only one strike (we knew this would be the case). So back to the resort and hoping this wind would either change direction or die off.
Day 2
We wake up and jump to the window to see it raining and blowing around 25 knots. This is crazy can it possibly blow this hard for so long and no have any patches of dieing off? Is there such a thing as gusts here or just straight wind? Anyway we worked the tide with it coming in and being 1 hour from low tide. Same deal as Day 1 but without the added strike we had.
My brother in law to be had decided to rock on down on the scooter and join us as he wanted some action on the GTs. Anyway we worked our rear ends off to no success. Anyway back at the Auckland Boat Show, Kelly had pumped into MARLIN QUEEN FISHING CHARTERS and got speaking to Diane and Junior (turns out Diane is a very good family friend of Kelly's family). So Kel got on the hooter and called up Diane. She said yes we will book you in for tomorrow afternoon aye. Sure, thats a great idea as Kelly's dream has been to nab herself a nice Mahi Mahi and mine... well a HORSE GT.
Day 3
We decided to jump on the scooter and go find Marlin Queen (Diane and Junior).
We went down to the harbour, oh nah their "Big" boat is not out, so we shot into town to see them at their hut. We seee Junior and he states... "Oh Diane is down the Harbour hand feeding the BIG GT's". My jaw dropped and my shirt was covered in dribble. I had the scooter fired up and was screaming at Kelly to get on. I had to see these GTs. We shot back to the harbour and here she was making some Sashimi and Ika Mata from a nice Yellow Fin they had just caught and here is the Skipper Willy hand feeding like 30 monster... and i mean MONSTER GTs.
The would smash the head of a 10 + kilo YFT in one go. There was so many cluttered into a small 3m squared area. I was pushing people out of the way to get amongst the action and try and shove the GoPro in the water. These GTs were having head on's with each other, launching out of the water and head butting the Stabi craft. Everyone was amazed at the fish feeding, but one thing was on my mind... Why is no one catching the monsters? So out I blurted the question. Diane responds "well you can catch them but they dont like to as the feeding attracks people and when they do try to catch them only "Special" people get to a chance at it". I replied, its been a long time dream to catch one... (but meaning to catch one on a popper or stick bait). Diane said, do you want to catch one? Before I gave it any thought I had said yes and I was on the deck holding a 50w and game rod. I asked how big are the big boys, 25kilo? Willy laughed, nah mate 60 kilo. Kelly bursts into laughter and said good luck and oh have you written your will recently? Then reality set in, is this just straight up stupid? Can this even be done? Then to make matters worse Willy said okay get on the bow. I think, Bow? We are at anchor mate and these things are well as stated 60 kilo? I prayed that I hooked a baby (20 kilo) that would give me a chance to keep it away from anchor line. I slowly lower the bait. I was around 100mm from hitting the surface and boom my prays were answered a small 20 kega leaps out of the water, smashes the bait and all hell breaks loose. Its game on. I last around 10 second and straight for our anchor line. YIP my thoughts. Busted off. I was almost in tears, literally. Was this my only chance as securing that GT i had come for (as the weather was not looking good for days to come). I pleaded to to have another crack but on the deck as i felt i would have a great chance of slowing these things down from hitting anchor lines. Diane said, yip another go Willy but on the deck... Yes she read my mind. Right it was time to make this one stick. Loaded up, it took around 0.34789 seconds for the bait to be inhaled... S H I T... one of the big boys wanted to play this time. Now I was really packing myself. I kept calm and collected and tried to work some magic. The first minute the big boy did some nice loops under each of the boats, once i got through this 1 minute barrier i thought i may actually have a chance to secure this fish. Could it be possible? The fight went on for 10 minutes or so with Mr GT competing Big Arcs and some nice runs, at one stage i tried thumbing the spool and that made things worse, instant line burn. The fight kept going and then i started to think I don't think he's going to tire. The boom, on the surface sideways is the Horse GT. I couldn't believe it. Willy secured the Fish a few snaps taken and Mr GT returned home.
Diane and Marlin Queen had just made my holiday. I was buzzing for the rest of the holiday and still am.
9pm that night we called Diane to see if the charter for the next day was a go... Nah wind was up to much.
Day 4
This day was my sisters wedding however Diane had said to call her at 9pm this night and we would get the call if wether we could go out for the morning before we flew out to Aitutaki. At the reception a few beers flowing and one of the groomes men and I got talking about catching GTs in the harbour. Ricki had started telling me that he had tried the night before to catch one of these GTs. He described his setup to which consisted of...
Rod with granny knots every 300mm, then 200lb trace of around 5 meters with a HAPUKU hook was attached. The rope was then secured to a moring post just in case he couldnt hold on to one of these monsters (now before you think I told him to go do this, i had never meet the guy nor informed any of his mates about me catching one 24 hours prior). Anyway Ricki said he burlied up a storm for 1 1/2 hours to get nothing. Then a local told him he was in the wrong area and need to move down to a different spot to get them. Sure enough Rick's moved and found the bad boys. Within 5 minutes he said he was hooked up. Then what was to come next, his words, "i hooked up and it instantly F&*k'd off and i couldnt hold on. The line went tight then he was gone". He then pulled his cell phone out and showed me a pciture of the HOOK. It was almost completly straight. It looked like someone had tried to beat this hook dead straight (i am trying to get a picture of the hook so i can post on here). Then this is where i told Ricki i had caught one the same day. He actually didnt believe me until we went back to the unit and showed him footage.
Anyway we rang Diane once again and YIP sure enough, trip cancelled for tomorrow. As each day went on the winds got up by 5 knots.
Day 5
This day we woke and she was blowing almost 40 knots. We were almost blown off our scooter multiple times. We shot into town and went to the Saturday Markets and stopped off to say good bye to Diane and Junior. These two people are just simply amazing. We highly recommend contacting them as they has some damn cheap and wicked packages for accomodation, fishing, diving, golf and sailing all in one.
So we were gutted about not getting a charter on Raro however we were to excited as we were leaving for Aitutaki in a few hours and we were booked in the next day with Mike from Black Pearl Charters (don't even get me started on Mike and his wife, these two are possibly the two nicest people we had ever meet and will go completely out of their way for you).
Aitutaki
Day 5 second half
We had landed in Aitutaki and we stayed at the Aitutaki Lagoon Resort and Spa (it is a private little Island a stones throw).
Anyway, we rang Mike that night and he said GTs were probably going to be a no go but the Mahi Mahi were on the bite. This is now where things went pear shaped for us, especially Kelly. We became super sick and I mean super sick and i was not far behind. However I was not going to let this get the better of me as there were around 35 anglers spread all over the lagoon flicking flies for Bone Fish and here i am wandering around with a Popper and Stickbait chassing GTs. It was like I was abnormal and should have been chassing Bone Fish. Anyway I wandered all over the place casting poppers and so forth to get not a dam thing.
That night was one of the worst for us. We had contracted a virus with sever coughing and other stuff you don't need to know. Anyway i was a tad worried we wouldnt be fishing due to this. We did our best that night but nothing wanted to work for us.
DAY 6 7 and 8 on next post
