Who here fishes?
This is my favourite fish, Kingfish, pound for pound, supposed the best fighting fish in the world. This one was a couple of years ago out at White Island, and was a 24 kg fish, I was left a bit broken after battling this freight train.
They are voracious predators, just poetry in motion, and are tough opponents. They do get quite a bit bigger than this specimen, but it's still a damn good one.
Last Easter we were holidaying on a shallow harbour, there was a small jetty, lots of baitfish, a lots of Kahawai (Sea Trout) and a good few of these hungry buggers about.
It was brilliant to watch them chase the smaller fish, and even better to try and catch them. First night I had a small fish out as live bait, and a reasonable size Kingfish nailed it, we had a bit of a tussle and he got the better of me.
Two nights later, I had a bigger fish out as a live bait, but having no joy with the Kingfish. My wife was fishing for Kahawai. She and another guy both hooked Kahawai at the same time, he got his in, it was about 35 cm in length. She didn't, the hooked Kahawai was taken by a Kingfish! Suddenly all hell broke loose for her. With only 20lb line on she had to play the fish carefully, and she'd never had anything like this before.
There was a good 20 minute battle with the fish peeling line off, my wife reeling it back in, her screaming at me that her back hurt. Then screaming at me that there was no way she wanted me to take over. More line going out, her reeling it back in, more line going out, rod bent over...
All she wanted to do was see the fish, get it in and release it. I wanted it for dinner!
Eventually she tired the fish out, and got it up to the wharf. It was at that point that I realised that I'd left the gaff back at the house, and needed Plan B to get the fish out of the water. It was a reasonable size around 12 kgs would be my guess, and certainly legal size (over 75cm in length), so I decided that I would try and grab the gill plate and haul it out.
So, with that in mind, I wrapped my right hand with a rag, lay on the jetty, took hold of the trace (also 20lbs) and moved my other hand towards it's gill plate. I could see the hook in the corner of it's mouth, my left hand was about 10 cm was getting hold of the fish, I just needed to turn the fish slightly. I lifted with the trace, and the trace snapped.
The fish rolled over and swam off.
I was promptly kicked and called some names that aren't fit for family consumption.
However, within a couple of minutes, my wife was happy that she'd fought the fish, had seen it, looked it in the eye, and it had won.
Me, I was crestfallen. However the adrenaline was still surging.
A bonus is that these guys are damn good eating and I'm going out on the briney tomorrow to have another crack at them.
So, what's your favourite fish?
This is my favourite fish, Kingfish, pound for pound, supposed the best fighting fish in the world. This one was a couple of years ago out at White Island, and was a 24 kg fish, I was left a bit broken after battling this freight train.
They are voracious predators, just poetry in motion, and are tough opponents. They do get quite a bit bigger than this specimen, but it's still a damn good one.
Last Easter we were holidaying on a shallow harbour, there was a small jetty, lots of baitfish, a lots of Kahawai (Sea Trout) and a good few of these hungry buggers about.
It was brilliant to watch them chase the smaller fish, and even better to try and catch them. First night I had a small fish out as live bait, and a reasonable size Kingfish nailed it, we had a bit of a tussle and he got the better of me.
Two nights later, I had a bigger fish out as a live bait, but having no joy with the Kingfish. My wife was fishing for Kahawai. She and another guy both hooked Kahawai at the same time, he got his in, it was about 35 cm in length. She didn't, the hooked Kahawai was taken by a Kingfish! Suddenly all hell broke loose for her. With only 20lb line on she had to play the fish carefully, and she'd never had anything like this before.
There was a good 20 minute battle with the fish peeling line off, my wife reeling it back in, her screaming at me that her back hurt. Then screaming at me that there was no way she wanted me to take over. More line going out, her reeling it back in, more line going out, rod bent over...
All she wanted to do was see the fish, get it in and release it. I wanted it for dinner!
Eventually she tired the fish out, and got it up to the wharf. It was at that point that I realised that I'd left the gaff back at the house, and needed Plan B to get the fish out of the water. It was a reasonable size around 12 kgs would be my guess, and certainly legal size (over 75cm in length), so I decided that I would try and grab the gill plate and haul it out.
So, with that in mind, I wrapped my right hand with a rag, lay on the jetty, took hold of the trace (also 20lbs) and moved my other hand towards it's gill plate. I could see the hook in the corner of it's mouth, my left hand was about 10 cm was getting hold of the fish, I just needed to turn the fish slightly. I lifted with the trace, and the trace snapped.
The fish rolled over and swam off.
I was promptly kicked and called some names that aren't fit for family consumption.
However, within a couple of minutes, my wife was happy that she'd fought the fish, had seen it, looked it in the eye, and it had won.
Me, I was crestfallen. However the adrenaline was still surging.
A bonus is that these guys are damn good eating and I'm going out on the briney tomorrow to have another crack at them.
So, what's your favourite fish?