Insane 3 Kings Jigging and Topwater Action

[Andrew Johnson]

Fellas

Just back from a jigging and topwater trip to the 3 Kings onboard Enchanter with fellow forum members Scott Caton and Kent Gardner, as well as some other lads from Brissie - Michael "Lumpy" Moloney, Geoff Caton and Chris Stacey.

To cut to the chase - the fishing was insane!!!

I am not exactly sure how many kings came over the side but a reasonable estimate would be in excess of 120, including approximately a dozen fish over 30kg and one beast in excess of 40kg. We also caught an assortment of other species, but more on that later!


Day 1 - Three Kings Island and Princes Group
After having steamed for 14 hours from Mangonui the previous day we awoke at our anchorage at the Kings to 30+ knots of breeze out of the southwest. Our skipper Lance indicated that we would have a "lay" day at the anchorage while we waited for the wind to drop and that we might pick up the "odd" kingy during the day.

What unfolded that morning was four hours of madness as we smashed fish after fish on stickbaits and live koheru.  Multiple hookups were the norm and by lunchtime we were buggered!




Kent Gardner with the fish of the trip - a 40kg+ beast caught at the anchorage in 25m of water



Fishing in about 25m of water we had superb topwater action with the fish nailing bascially anything we threw at them - Orion Bigfoots and Nambas', Craftbaits, Nomad Dogtooth's and Nomad Ulua's. The lure of choice however was the FCL Labo CSP S220S in either the kahawai or blue sardine colours - the kingi's couldn't get enough of these terrific stickbaits!




Andrew Johnson with an "average" king caught on a stickbait, estimated at 25-28kg.



After lunch and a couple of medicinal ales the skipper made the call that we would brave the "washing machine" out at sea and head over to the Princes Group for a "look". Conditions over there were tough to say the least and with the strong winds and big tidal movement, just standing upright was a challenge. The fish were quiet on the stickbaits but man of the moment Kent Gardner performed a tremendous feat of angling to land another donkey in excess of 30kg.




Kent Gardner with a little help from Scott Caton manages to hang onto his second 30kg+ fish for the day - note the "choice" conditions in the background.



Given the unfavourable conditions we headed back to anchorage to battle the fish in more stable surrounds and about an hour before dark it was on again for young and old with a repeat of the morning frenzy!! The plug was finally pulled at sundown and 6 exhausted punters managed to stumble through dinner and a couple of rums before collapsing into bed - so much for the "lay" day!



Day 2 - Middlesex Bank and the "Flemish Cap"
The wind backed off dramtically overnight and we lifted the anchor in the predawn light and headed out to the Middlesex Bank where skipper Lance was confident that we would tangle with some "mules". Conditions were excellent with only a couple of metres of swell and a slight windchop.  The boys were all as "toey as a roman sandal" after the previous days action and the "Middlesex" did not disappoint. From the very first drop the shout of "fish on" reverberated around Enchanter and again for the next few hours we were stretched to our absolute limits by monster kingi's, with nothing coming on board less then 25kg. The fish were sitting in around 130m of water, so jigs in excess of 400g were required. Gun jigs included JM Rockets in 400g and 500g, Zest Super Deeps, SW Labs, Broken Arrows, Fisherman Crazy Longs and FCL Labo VM jigs.



Geoff Caton with the first big king of the morning.




Scott Caton has his "cherry" popped with his first fish over 30kg.




That man again - KG with another ripper!




Andrew Johnson with one of the three "mules" he landed on day 2 that were over 35kg.




Another "doubla"!



The action continued unabated into the afternoon and at around 3pm, 6 broken bodies called a halt to proceedings.

Given the good weather and favourable moon phase our skipper suggested we might steam out wider to the "Flemish Cap"and fish during the night with the aim of catching a broadbill swordfish. The boys jumped at the chance as none of us were likely to get a shot at a "sword" again.  On arrival at the "cap", baits were deployed and it wasn't long before the action started. Just for something different, Kent Gardner was on strike again when the first bite came - an hour and 20 mins later a 130kg sword hit the deck. This was followed an hour later by a 150kg striped marlin!




Kents "sword" - a terrific effort backing up from 6 six hours of heavy duty jigging during the day.




Lumpy with the stripey that unfortunately was not released on account of being gut hooked.



Day 3 - King Bank
After a huge night locking horns with billfish we steamed back in on gentle seas to the King Bank on what would be our last day before transiting back to Mangonui.  On arrival we were greeted by a raging current and tougher fishing. We managed to catch numbers of kings again, but the quality was down on the action experienced the day before at the Middlesex bank. We also tried to target a few of the big bass and hapuka that the area is famous for, but the current made things very challenging on Lance's deep water spots. In some ways this was a bit of a blessing as I am not sure our bodies could have held out for another extreme session!




Chris Stacey with a nice bass from the King Bank.




Geoff Caton with the last big fish of the trip - another 30kg+ specimen!



At 5pm Lance called lines in and we headed back to Mangonui via an overnight stop at North Cape.


So in summary we had a fantastic trip - sensational weather and great fishing. I can't speak highly enough of the efforts that our crew on Enchanter - Lance and Steve - went to to make our trip so special.  Nothing was too much trouble and they worked really hard to put us on the fish and keep us well fed and watered - thanks fellas, much appreciated.

This was our fist time at the Kings and we will be back.  There is a fait bit of planning involved in putting these trips together. There is no doubt we made a few mistakes and learned plenty of lessons. I would be more than happy to try and answer any questions from Forum members interested in doing a trip.

Cheers

Andrew

[Mick Rowley]

Hey Andrew,
absolutely crazy fishing, awesome big kings!!!!!! your arms would be a couple of inches longer than when you started!!!!! what was the highlight of the trip, the 30kg plus kings or the magestical broadbill? The stripie would have been some fun also!!!!! Great effort.
Mick.

[Cam Foley]

This is mint, im up there on Wednesday, you have got me fired up now.

[Scott Maybury]

That is quite insane, monster class kingies and oh will just throw in a broadbill catch of a lifetime......well done

[Kent Gardner]

Great report Andrew. Outstanding trip! I still get excited looking at the pictures. I agree completely that the trip was such a success due to the massive effort Lance and Steve put in for us. Thanks again boys!

The highlight for me (apart from the spectacular fishing) was the motivational speeches our skipper Lance would launch into, following him shouting "FISH ON!!!" from the bridge. Pure Gold!

One day the directors cut of the trips video footage should be available from under the counter of selected extreme fishing outlets. Brace yourself for Lances inspirational anecdotes.

Cant wait for our next adventure.

[Peter Lowe]

Excellent report mate,

Congrats on the great catches - get me amped just to read it....Massive Hog that 40+  RESPECT

Thanks for the great read and pics.....

 

[Dave Hudson]

Great report mate, looks like the trip of a lifetime!
That broadbill is amazing
Any standout rod and reel combo's used during the trip?

Dave

[Andrew Johnson]

Dave

No real standouts but the key message was to not to be undergunned gived the sixe of the fish! We took a couple of PE6 (80lb) setups but these didn't leave the rocket launchers!

For the stickbaits, I was using a Ripple Fisher Ultimo 79H matched with a Stella 18000 and and Carpenter MH80H matched with a Dogfight. Both reels were loaded with PE8 Varivas Avani Max GT braid. Both rods are top shelf but the Ripple Fisher Ultimo was as absolute joy to fish with.

On the jigging front I fished with a Ripple Fisher 5215, a Ripple Fisher 5620 and an MC Works Southern Deep Ultimate Monster SD538XX - all were matched with Stella 20000's and PE8 Varivas Avani 10x10 Max Power braid. Of the three, the MC works had a bit more in reserve and was the rod of choice when the 30kg+ monsters were on the chew.

The other boys were using Jigging Master Powerspells in 450g, a Wilson Venom 450 and a Ripple Fisher 5220 and they all handled the fish we encountered.

In terms of traces - minumim we used was 150lb Sunline or Fisherman mono and some of the lads fished 170lb and even up to 200lb in the rough ground.

Hope this helps!

Cheers

Andrew

[Scott Caton]

Thanks Andrew

Excellent report.  Almost feels like I was there!!! 

Dave, the Stellas all performed unbelievably under enourmous drag, in fact much better than most of us who spent three days pinned to rails of Enchanter and grunting like Maria Sharapova.  The Kiwis seem to express a preference for the overhead, but I found the spin config great.  I have to admit that my Hots Wei World 48XXH  may be "for the Ranyu" but it wasn't for the Middlesex banks.  It is now a two piece rod compliments of a foul hooked 20Kg kingy and some possibly over ambitious drag settings.  Mind you, it was beautiful to jig with and it did take some punishment before giving up the ghost.  The JM's and the Wilson appeared bullet proof with the JM's noticeably more comfortable to jig with.  Andrew wouldn't give me a turn on his Ripple Fisher after seeing what I did to the Hots, so I can't comment on this, but the results speak for themselves. 

We over catered horribly on jigs and I am sure there are a few baggage handlers at Auckland international on Workcover this week as a result.  If considering a trip to the Three Kings, my advice would be limit the number of jigs you take, stick with the heavy end (400 - 550gms) as we didn't in reality do a lot of jigging.  We fished up to 160m in 3 knots of current.    I remember only having to retrieve a jig the full 160 metres twice.  On most occassions they were pounded upon within two or three drops.  I would also add that centre weighted jigs underperformed compared with the tail weighted ones, possible on account of the depth and current.  The JM rocket was my favourite but jig selection was, to be honest, not particularly critical - we caught them on anything tail weighted, colour did not seem important.   While we didn't do much jigging, we did do a lot of fighting and I should, in retrospect, have taken a better gimble belt.

Three key lessons for me  - 1)  Go heavy on everything  2) Make sure you have got your knots sorted  3) Go to the gym before hand

Cheers

Scott

[Andrew Johnson]

Thanks Scott - agree with your assessment around not going over the top with the number jigs.

Yes Dave - I forgot to mention the Wei World!! In fairness to the rod, it nailed a number of big fish before succumbing to a rampaging animal that had been arse hooked against a fully locked up drag!

Here are a couple of before and after shots!









Just to give you a sense of the stresses involved, here are are couple of shots of me and Lumpy under the pump. Check out the bend in that MC Works Southern Deep!!!








Cheers

Andrew

[Andrew Cox]

Good to see you boys got a mule over the magic 40kg mark, thats what we go there for, the sword is a cracker another fish many will only dream off.
It would have been good to get onto some bass but that will give you boys a good excuse to go back next year for ! dont worry I will get enough for you boys in a couple of weeks lol.

Next time you should take some lighter jig stick rather than those broom sticks you will have far more fun, the first year I went I took my JM 450s and so on thinking I would need them but on the recent trip a 350 done the job perfect, much more fun when your rod buckles over.

The tail weighted jigs like the JM rockets are by far the best jig you can use there, with the strong currents and some depths up to 180m 500 gram jigs are needed most of the time, even larger when the current is screaming, not much fun jigging more I was battling with a 600 gram jig when winding up empty handed.

Scott, you really should listing to Lance and consider trying overhead gear, I was once a spin man but you should leave those reels attached to your popper rods and relieve yourself of some pain by changing, hard to explain you just need to try it, unless you are a machine on that spin reel once you have jigged next to a overhead jigger you will make the change.

Bring on 2012 !

[William Espina]

that first pic is a donkey!
wish we had fish like that in the P.I


fish on!

[Andrew Johnson]

Scott, you really should listing to Lance and consider trying overhead gear, I was once a spin man but you should leave those reels attached to your popper rods and relieve yourself of some pain by changing, hard to explain you just need to try it, unless you are a machine on that spin reel once you have jigged next to a overhead jigger you will make the change.

Coxy - I think you are spot on regarding the benefits of the OH setup at places like the Kings where you spend 95% of the time fighting the fish as opposed to here in SEQ where proportionally you are spending  more time working jigs and fighting smaller fish in shallower water and where I think the spin setup is a better option.

Thanks for all of your advice in the lead up to our trip - still don't know about going with that lighter gear - not sure that I am up for the bollocking from Lance when things go pear shaped!!

Hope your next trip goes well and the weather gods smile upon you - can't believe that you are doing another trip this year - I'll take a year to recover from ours!!

Cheers

A

[luke bell]

what a magic trip,so many good fish. to get 30kg+ kings and a broardbill  and stripe just awsome well done.

[Andrew Cox]

Andrew, I use lighter 50lb spin and overhead gear myself over here as well due to the smaller fish, the spots we fish out of Tweed are covered in kings and AJs and when its on its as good as New Zealand just smaller fish, they seem to be shut down at the moment.

On my last trip I was using a 350 gram rod, JM PE5 spooled with 80lb and a FC 76lb leader that landed me 3 fish over 30kg and 2 over 40kg, 80lb is the limit you wouldn't want to go lighter, I also had a 100lb combo ready to go just in case.

Plenty of training goes in before I head over there, packing the bags tomorrow and heading up to the GBR for some training before the Three Kings again 

Make sure you book Enchanter again for next year if you boys are keen otherwise you might loose your spot, once you get a spot dont let it go you might not get back on.

Cheers Coxy