big jigging comp NZ.

[Mark Armistead]

Keep an eye out next week for reports of monster kingfish coming out of New zealand.
Many of the top jiggers throughout the country are gathering up in Tauranga for the annual jigging tournament.
Weather looks awesome, so keep an eye out for some reports.

[Nathan Cefai]

cant wait ot hear the reports mate,bring them on with plenty of pics...

[Mark Armistead]

Was a really well run competition, Cam Foley and Roly Bagshaw from Top catch did a fantastic job putting this competition together.
Josh Morrison took out the comp with a fish just over 30 kg, another nice fish around 26 kg was also taken.
talking to a few anglers sounds like things were a bit hit and miss, if you found the fish then you got good numbers of them but if you didnt then things were tough. I had one of my most memorable days out for a long time, took my wife and some good friends out and we landed close to 40 reasonable kingfish. the majority of them were around the 14 Kilogram mark, they were all fat and fought hard.
Thanks to all the sponsers, this event is only going to get bigger and bigger.
Cheers Mark

[Jamie Moir]

Good on ya Josh - now whose jigs were you using?

[Greg Burt]

I hear it was another enjoyable comp Mark, 120 Anglers all up is great. The rumour has it you grabbed Cam for the Sunday session, was that when he scored his Kingie on the surface outfit? or the day before with Falco. My old team 'Re Pete' ended up being a tow boat from White Is  which curtailed their fishing time, but we're looking forward to making amends for it next year, Popping rods and all  .

[Nathan Cefai]

Upload some pics mate,sounds like a cracker of a trip..

[Josh Morrison]

Here a couple of pics of the fish which won it.

1.38m long but only weighed 30.10kg, this fish was in very poor condition as you can see how thin it is from the gut through to the tail.

Fish was caught in 220m of water on a Fisherman 300gm black Andaman.

Stella 20000SW and Synit Deepshot 450 at work....



The fish....



The trophy at prizegiving...



Massive thanks to Roly and Cam and the rest of the team from Top Catch Tauranga for putting on another awesome competition!. 

Cheers,
Josh

[Nathan Cefai]

THAT KINGY IS HORSE,ITS SIMPLY MASSIVE..BLACK JIGS WORK WELL FOR KINGS....

[Mario Benedict]

how heavy would that fish be if it's a good condition ? high 30s or 40kg?
love that action shot on the rod !

[Josh Morrison]

how heavy would that fish be if it's a good condition ? high 30s or 40kg?
love that action shot on the rod !

Yeah mate around 38kgs.

From personal experience and talking with a few charter operators here in NZ who specialise in targetting kingies the general rule of thumb for weight/length is a healthy conditioned 20kg king is around 120cm, every cm after that is roughly 1kg making 130cm fish around 30kg, and a 140cm fish around 40kg.

[Greg Burt]

Top one Josh , and to think Stu was going to that area to get a 'Monster Class' Puka .

[Josh Morrison]

Cheers Burt,

Yeah mate we were hoping for some nice bottom fish but occassionally pick up the odd big king over that same seamount. that dirty reef donkey was hooked one crank off the bottom in 220m of water. 

[Andrew Smart]

I hear it was another enjoyable comp Mark, 120 Anglers all up is great. The rumour has it you grabbed Cam for the Sunday session, was that when he scored his Kingie on the surface outfit? or the day before with Falco. My old team 'Re Pete' ended up being a tow boat from White Is  which curtailed their fishing time, but we're looking forward to making amends for it next year, Popping rods and all  .

Hi Bun,
Cam got his fish with me the day before.Poor team R Pete,seems that maybe third time round will be the ticket?
Look forward to having you over next year,should make for some fun on th water.
Andrew

[Greg Burt]

Thanks Andrew, I hear you were on fire, body wise though, not fishing ,hope you are well now.
I'll be there next year and have started planning with Pete already  , the new Carpenter casting rods should be there by then. Ill have to thank Andre for keeping my seat warm  although I can't complain on missing this year due to the date clash as the Elusive Reef trip was Awesome  .

Q:
Was there any Puka weighed in ?
Was there much action from up the Coromandel [Appleton Rum drinker] ?
Did Beni behave ?
   
      Bun     

[Andrew Smart]

Thanks Andrew, I hear you were on fire, body wise though, not fishing ,hope you are well now.
I'll be there next year and have started planning with Pete already  , the new Carpenter casting rods should be there by then. Ill have to thank Andre for keeping my seat warm  although I can't complain on missing this year due to the date clash as the Elusive Reef trip was Awesome  .

Q:
Was there any Puka weighed in ?
Was there much action from up the Coromandel [Appleton Rum drinker] ?
Did Beni behave ?
   
      Bun   

Hi Bun
There were a few weighed in best was 24kg I think,I gave some gps coordinates to a few guys Cam knew and they got one about 8kg,would have been great eating but they let it go because they were unsure of the size limit!
The Appletons Rum Drinker went 0-0 both days,he fished out of Tauranga.Nothing of note from Tairua or coromandel,suprisingly.
Beni never behaves!

Andrew