Friday after work we decided the waning easterly and slight winds forecast for the days ahead meant we could head off down to Stephens Island for a fish, overnighting in Port Hardy.
Eight onboard the Lady Ash, we stopped along the way at the Marks, catching snapper, cod and one kingfish near Otu Bay.
We fished outside Port Hardy for the evening without much exciting happening except for cod, a couple of tarakihi and gurnard. We set anchor opposite Castle Head and put the barbecue to work cooking anything meat based.
The anchor was up at 5.00am and away we set with most resorting to stay in bed as we headed off to set drop lines above Stephens Island for groper.
Arriving on the Marks and having a few more out of bed, we cut some bait, and the first lines dropped before daybreak.
First line up, one small groper, nothing on the rest so we drift-fished the same Marks for most of the day as the tides were small. We managed to get several good snappers, biggest 10lb and three more gropers.
We headed south and stayed inside Rangitoto Islands for shelter from the slight westerly overnight. Next morning we fished in Stephens Passage and the surrounding area, catching plenty of sharks, a few small snappers and one good trevally.
We then started hunting for kingfish using the sounder and tide to locate the fish before we started to jig. Seven lines over the side and we landed one about 20lb and then we got excited, and the fun began. After a couple more passes, we had some good cod on the 200gram jigs and a barracouta. Then we had a double hook up on the kings and one rod was handed to my nephew Blake Hebberd, who did well to land the big kingy before we even got the camera out.
We were on again and the rod got handed to my eldest Jack and he also landed a kingfish, now we had four goodies.
We moved further along trying to find the school again but couldn’t see them on the sounder, so we moved around until we found what we thought was more kingfish. It turned out to be barracouta, with one rod tip breaking off, jigs getting lost and lines getting tangled and going around the prop. We decided we had had enough of the fishing.
We headed back to Port Hardy, where we threw two free divers and thee scuba divers in. In different locations one diver caught two 10lb crayfish. The others caught plenty, and the two free divers speared three large moki. The inflatable was pulled onboard, and we were off back to Okiwi Bay. Some fish were filleted along the way and a few beers had with a lot of chit chat about the adventure,
Lady Ash is based in Okiwi Bay, and we are now surveyed to take up to 19 passengers, so if you’ve got a group that’s keen, give us a bell. Shane 0211408204 or go to our website.
