Gently rocking on the South Pacific Ocean aboard the 28-foot Sanity, I watch as my wife, Sue, engages the reel after counting out five coloured segments of 80-pound-test braid. Down 160 feet is a golf-ball-sized sinker, a 48-inch lead of 100-pound-test fluorocarbon, and a footlong jack mackerel swimming on a 10/0 recurve bait hook. It hovers 30 feet off bottom near the reef ’s edge, which is a highway for yellowtail kingfish. The rod tip quivers.
“That bait is nervous, Sue, get ready,” I say.
“Are you sure you don’t want to take the first rod,” she offers one last time.
“Nope. You’re up. I’m itching to see you catch a kingfish.”
No sooner do I reply than the rod’s end stops trembling, bends with steady force, and the reel’s drag screams to life.
“I got one!” Sue yells, knees bent, braced against the gunwale, rod handle wedged underneath her arm.
“Take your time and remember to pump and wind,” says Epic Adventures guide Toby Kemp. Violent headshakes and long, blistering runs follow. Eventually, Sue’s persistence tames the brute.
The following six hours deliver some of the most adrenalin-filled angling of my life, especially once I start vertical jigging.
Where in the world is Whitianga?
Epic Adventures is a two-boat operation owned by Carl and Belinda Muir. The company’s namesake rig, a 25-foot vessel, departs daily from the coastal village of Tairua, while the Sanity operates out of Whitianga, both on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula on New Zealand’s Upper North Island. The peninsula is a popular vacation spot for kiwis and international travellers, given Auckland is a 1.5-hour drive away.
Sue and I stay for four nights in Whitianga at Marina Park Apartments. The spacious rooms feature fully equipped kitchen and laundry facilities, perfect for resting up between back-to-back fishing and recovering from playing tourists for two-and-a-half weeks across the country.
Leading up to Whitianga, we enjoy an array of experiences. Our South Island highlights include snorkelling with dolphins from the quaint town of Kaikoura and visiting a seal colony with stellar guide Darryl Sanderson of Abel Tasman Kayaks. Greenshell mussels and fresh seafood provide many culinary delights, while the trip’s best rest is at Atholwood Luxury Country Accommodation, our home base for exploring the Nelson Region.
The North Isle, too, is ripe with natural marvels. At Waitomo Caves, we watch hundreds of tiny glow worms light up a subterranean chamber like stars in a clear night’s sky. Just as exhilarating is Orakei Korako geothermal park near Rotorua, where we see boiling mud pools and spitting geysers. The hike reminds us this picturesquely rugged country exists thanks to the geological violence of colliding tectonic plates and volcanic eruptions.
Reflecting on New Zealand’s origins, I wonder if its brooding subsurface pressure somehow seeps into the psyche of its fish, which explode with remarkable power and force once hooked.
Jig as fast as you can!
The first two hours aboard Sanity pass quickly, as all four guests hook several kingfish between 25 and 45 pounds on live bait.
“So, when can we start jigging,” I ask eagerly.
“How about now?” Kemp replies with a grin.
He instructs us on the fast-jigging technique, which is best described as a sprinting lift-drop-reel sequence. Ripping and reeling the 10-ounce jig proves to be a workout, but it’s worth it once a kingfish attacks. There’s no hookset; you just hold on tight. Reminding myself that the jigging outfit carries a $2,500 price tag and that there’s a “You drop, you buy” policy help me maintain a vice-like grip.
Sue and I bring a dozen kings aboard, five of which take jigs. She lands the day’s biggest, a brute pushing 50 pounds. Shortly afterwards, we’re awestruck by the sight of a massive marlin leaping across the water.
That evening, we enjoy a delicious meal at Mill Road Bistro, a cozy eatery serving up savoury local produce. We raise a glass of local sauvignon blanc to toast Sue’s biggest lifetime catch. Sleep comes quickly that evening, thanks to kingfish-fighting fatigue.
Scoring on western reds
At 4 am, I’m jolted out of a deep slumber. After breakfast, I begin the drive northwest across the peninsula on the Pacific Highway to meet kayakfishing guide Rob Fort. Later, when returning by light of day, I’m able to appreciate the route’s scenery of steep valleys, lush forests, quaint waterside towns, and vast ocean vistas.
I arrive at Papa Aroha Holiday Park, north of Coromandel Town, just before 6 to meet Fort. He’s prepping two Ocean Kayak Prowlers. The red and yellow boats contrast starkly with the beach’s dark volcanic rocks.
Fort briefs me on kayak safety and operation, along with fishing tactics, and we set off.
The paddle to the snapper-laden sand flat takes 20 minutes. Fort gives the go-ahead and I deploy the drift sock. The kayak slows to an easy drift.
I make a cast and work a 5-inch smoke-coloured grub on a 3⁄8-ounce jig along bottom. Soft-baiting inshore red snapper proves an easy transition for an Ontario walleye and smallmouth fanatic.
A few casts later, I hook the day’s first fish. After a short scrap, I palm the 5-pound red, snap a photo, and slip it back into Hauraki Gulf ’s cool waters.
A few fish later, I switch to a Gulp! 5-inch jerk shad in nuclear chicken, which gets crushed instantly. The snapper rips line from the reel, then serves up violent headshakes. I eventually subdue the chunky specimen, as a cool April rain arrives.
Next, Fort suggests paddling to a flock of gulls pestering baitfish, which he suspects are being hunted by a school of kahawai, a popular pelagic prize that averages from two to five pounds. The kayak’s stealth lets us creep right into the feeding frenzy. I swim a soft bait through the churning water, feeling several false hits before a solid strike. The kahawai goes ballistic, peeling line as it dives and jumping before I’m able to get a hold of it and pop the jig free.
For 20 minutes, we can’t keep the kahawai off our baits. Then, as if on cue, several powerboats arrive, the rain increases, and the wind intensifies.
“Well, I think that’s our signal to call it a morning,” Fort says.
I agree and soon we’re heading back. Each paddle stroke becomes a faint reminder of the incredible angling of the past 48 hours – a slight muscle stiffness I’d gladly endure for another opportunity to rod wrestle with any of New Zealand’s amazing saltwater sport fish.
CONTACT INFO
Epic Adventures
+64 07 864 8193,
www.epicadventures.co.nz
Coromandel Kayak Adventures
+64 07 866 7466
www.kayakadventures.co.nz
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