Good Friday 2013

Good Friday in New Zealand starts a very busy holiday weekend here in the Bay of Islands. Lots and lots of people flood into town to spend the long weekend. Many bring boats and spend it on the water, while others just come to spend time on the beach and bar-b-que with family and friends. School's out, works out, and lots of businesses are closed. There's no alcohol to be sold, so planning ahead is essential. We chose to spend the day on the water fishing. 

Before we started our fishing, we made a pit stop on the boat at JB and Max's house on the water. JB, one of the owners of Libertas, and his wife Max have a great secluded vacation spot in the bay, accessible by boat, with a private beach and beautiful land. They had just arrived from Auckland on Thursday, and had some guests visiting as well. We visited there for a bit, then got going on our way to a great fishing spot. We went out to Bird Rock in the Pacific Ocean, about a 45 minute boat ride from Opua. We did several drifts around the rock with a sea anchor out to slow our drift. Dave caught 1 and 1/2 kingfish, as one was attacked by a bronze whaler shark just as he was getting it close to the boat. We saw the whole thing unfold, which was pretty awesome even though we lost half the fish. Jill, Barnaby, and Miranda didn't catch any keeper kingfish, but they did all get some keeper snappers along with Dave. The final keep was 10 snapper and 1 1/2 kingfish. We had an amazing time and even had a beautiful pink sunset on the run home!

KingFish

Dave has finished up the marlin tournament season here in New Zealand. He fished the Zane Grey on a local charter boat, then he fished the Truckers and Loggers tournament on Libertas. They didn't do so well in either attempt, but it was still a great experience on the water with a few small catches of sharks and small snapper. We did get a chance to go out on the water with friends a couple of times. Most recently we went out with Vinny and Mark in the evening and did quite well. Jill landed a 33 pound kingfish, known to Americans as a pacific yellowtail or hamachi (which is the farmed version). It was a fun fight and an accomplishment on a stick bait. We also got 3 snapper, which we promptly ate on our way home at Vinny's local fish-n-chips shop, Vinny's Takeaways. It was nice just stopping in town and having our fish fried up right away. Delicious! It was a successful trip. 

Marlin On!

Monday and Tuesday, March 4th and 5th, Dave was out on Libertas II fishing with two of the three owners of the boat. On Monday they caught and released 1 striped Marlin. On Tuesday they caught, and kept 1 striped Marlin. The two days were absolutly beautiful with perfect weather. They saw several groups of Marlin on both days which made for a real spectacular trip. On Tuesday evening they came into Russell Marina and Jill met them there to weigh in the fish. It was about 210 pounds. After leaving the marina we all went for a boat ride to drop the owners off at their property and have a few cocktails at their spectacular house on Mount Landing. It was a wonderful evening and a great end to the two day fishing trip. Dave couldn't have dreamed for a better first fishing trip back in New Zealand. The marlin was sent to the smoker and schedule to be picked up a couple days later.

Back Country Fly Fishing

Friday we were up early getting ready for another fly fishing day. We left Trout Beck with our guide Jason and headed southwest into the Tongariro National Park. After about 45 minutes in the car, we parked and got onto his 4-wheeler and began the 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) treck into the mountains. It was a tough ride over rocky terrain with 3 of us. In addition to trying not to fall off, we were also busy ducking and leaning trying to keep from getting branches in the face. Once we made our way well clear of civilazation, we unloaded and headed down to the Whanganui River. We bushwacked for about 45 minutes trying to find a way down to a great pool in the river we could see from above, but it was to steep from all angles, so we backtracked a bit to a more accessable area. We did see a huge wild mountain goat though, which was interesting. Once the fishing began, it was only a matter of minutes before Dave had hooked up and landed 4 fish in the first pool. 2 were small rainbows and 2 were larger rainbow between 5 and 6 pounds. They were great fights, 3 of which headed quite a ways down river and gave Jason an extra hard time to net. Jill was busy following along with support, encouragement, and most importantly cameras. We spent the next couple of hours working our way up river where Dave got a couple more great Rainbow trout. Along the way we saw several blue ducks, which are highly endangered in New Zealand, so it was a real treat to see them in the wild. We stopped and had a picnic lunch on the riverbank and then went back at it. A couple more were caught after lunch, then it was time for the final cast on a rainbow we saw feeding on the surface. Dave casted a dry blue blowfly, which landed perfectly and floated right over the huge fish. The trout came right to it and sucked it in. Dave struck and hooked up, then after a moment the fish was gone. The hook just wasn't set good enough in the trouts mouth, so Dave didn't land the huge fish. It was however, a great last cast and hookup on dry fly. We then trecked back to the bike and headed in. We had such a fabulous day on the river in the middle of a beautiful place. It is so amazing to be so far away from everything and enjoying the surroundings.