Back in May I was lucky enough to head back to the Three Kings for my second jigging trip there for the year, like the last trip we also got some massive Bass, good kings and even Enchanter's first marlin caught on a jigging combo !
Nigel McDonald from the forum was on his first trip to the Three Kings with me this year, everyone else was on there first trip as well.
With the weather report not so flash, 4-6m swells and around 20-30 knots of wind for the first 4 days out of 7 we were lucky to be fishing on Enchanter.
Boat loaded and ready to go.
On the way out we were lucky to come across a school of kings which we managed to pick up a few on the troll in rough conditions.
Marco with a nice king on the troll.
After arriving at the Three Kings after dark the plan was made to collect some live bait the next morning and head out to the King Bank to jig up a few kings then have a crack with some livies for some stick face. Lance put us on the spot with 40 livies in the tank in no time and out to the king bank for a quick jig before we had a crack for some stick face.
Nigel with a nice king to start the trip off on the Jigging Master Power Spell 450.
Richo with one of his first for the trip.
Myself with a nice wee puka for the table.
Marco with one of his first from the King Bank, note the nice seas in the background.
Late on Day 2 while live baiting for kings Troy with his Jigging Master PE7 and Jigstar 350 which he was instructed would not be able to land a stick face soon found himself hooked to one, after a very short under 10min battle the striped stick face at around 100kg was soon tagged to fight another day, also there was another two hooked at the same time as Troys but they didn't stick, well done Lance and Steve you legends !
Here is the link to Troys marlin on the jigging combo, please excuse the language you could imaging how pumped we were considering the weather out there.
Striped Marlin on a Jigging rodDay 3 seen us out on the Middlesex Bank in some very tough conditions, the full moon and big currents made it very tough today and every king was fighting well over its weight.
Day 4 seen us back out to the Middlesex Bank in search of some more kings, fishing was tough again when searching for kings Lance come across a heap of bass so we thought we better cash in in case we had problems tracking them down later in the trip.
Richo with a nice puka and bass.
Myself with a nice 40kg bass.
Marco managed to hook onto a solid fish which was giving him a hard time on the spin outfit, the stella was screaming and Jigstar 350 doing its job nicely.
Marco with his new PB king over the magic 30kg mark !
Nigel soon found himself hooked to a solid bass, after a epic battle he was soon rewarded with his PB bass and heaviest fish on a jig, the magic 50kg mark !
Second skipper Steve got in on the action showing the boys how its done.
Charlie found himself hooked to a freight train from the deep, after a huge battle he to was soon holding his PB with a solid king over the magic 30kg mark.
Troy with a solid king.
Day 5 after a rough night spent out soaking some baits for the illusive sword fish was also spent on the Middlesex Bank, the conditions were improving and looking amazing for the last couple of days, Lance soon put us on the spot and had those rods bent over the rail !
Macro with another solid king.
Myself with a king.
Stefan had a hard few days at the start and started to get a few nice fish on board.
Richo with a solid king.
Lance teaching Troy how its done.
The end result a 34kg king !
Nigel and Troy with a double.
Another solid fish for Troy.
Steve taking the boys to his hot spot and what a spot it was we were all soon to be in a lot of pain.
We spent another night out chasing the illusive sword but with no luck again.
Day 6 the last of our trip was spent on the king bank in search of Lances word " some big bass " on the past two trips he has never let us down.
The boys telling us how Enchanter was the number 1 charter boat.
After landing a few solid kings and a huge bass Nigel thought it was time to get the noodle stick out, a solid king on PE4.
After a couple of drifts for bass with not much luck I soon found myself hooked to a solid bass, a few minutes of locked drag and a tug of war dodging the anchor on the bow I soon had the fish clear of the bottom, after 20mins or so pretty sure the bass had to be over the magic 50kg mark after the tug of war I was soon rewarded with my biggest ever bass at 65kg on the scales, the Jigging Master PE7 and Jigging Master Amberjack Sniper Hyper made this task very easy, Lance you are the man !
Next drop Marco found himself his biggest bass for the trip as well.
Time for the light tackle so out come the Jigging Master PE3 and Ocean God 180, my biggest king to date on the light gear.
Troy soon found himself in a world of trouble hooking a solid bass right on the bottom, after using the new spew over the rail style his PB bass at 40kg was soon on board.
On the last drop for the trip Nigel was hooked to a donkey on the light gear, after a huge battle he soon had a solid 28kg king his largest on the light gear on board.
Below is a wee video clip we put together of the trip.
JigTalk International Jigging Forum Presents Jigging The Three Kings Islands, New Zealand, May 2011Most gear used on our trip was either Jigging Master or Jigstar which can be purchased or ordered via site sponsor Fish Head.
Cheers Coxy
