Aquarius
24-08-2008, 05:49 PM
Howdy Ausfishers, Well a 15 year dream has now become reality for my wife and myself.
We flew into Lord Howe last Sunday and were greeted with 35 knot S/W winds as our small plane decended towards the short landing strip.
Talk about a rough ride but eventually we were safe on land once more.
Talking to some locals i soon learnt that the fishing boats had not been out for a couple of weeks due to bad weather.
I had studied the weather charts and was confident my luck was about to change.
Tuesday had come around and the sky cleared and the winds dropped....'ye ha fishing trip here we come"
Not many charter boats working on the island over winter but i managed to book a half day trip on GREENBACK.
This boat is a tri hull at around 9.5 metres and handles like a dream in the rough conditions so i was told by the skipper.
We set off at 7am through the small passage way out across the reef and into the blue ocean.
Dave our skipper stopped at several locations after following diving sea birds to try for live bait.
This trip we had about 5 fisher people a deckie and skipper.
Not many slimmies about but Dave pulled up quite a few pilchards for the live bait tank.
Ok time to let those livey's loose on some kingfish.
I took along a 15 kilo jigstick matched with a small Saltiga overhead reel spooled with 40 lb braid.
I was keen to try the soft plastics on these powerful fish.
Only pulled in a small kingie of about 4 kilo and got busted up many times so i opted for the skippers gear after this.
80lb braid and a 150 lb leader was the go to land a good kingie.
Someone lost a ripper of about 15 kilo at the boat and i pulled in a nice one of 10 kilo +.
Total catch forthe morning was 25kingfish.
The islanders fish drought is over and i was proud to be a part of the crew.
Wednesday Morning was a cracker, variable winds and a metre swell.
This trip was to be special for me as the skipper and deckie were going out to catch more fish for the island and i asked if i could join them.
"You beauty i'm out here with a charter boat all to myself how lucky is this"
We started off with the usual ritual of livey gathering and this time we had about 25 slimmy's to let loose.
Talk about fun these kingies pull like frieght trains and don't like coming up from 35 metres.
Another 10 kilo for me and i lost some bigger models.
One fish bent the hook it was almost straight!!
Just before we headed for home my bait got hammered and what ever it was took off at a serious rate of knots.
The boys were saying come on you can do it but my arms were so sore and the fish was winning.
The skipper started to back up on this monster which we all thought was a 20 kilo kingie but after 15 minuets i had a 40 kilo black cod boatside.
Would you believe it there was my 7' gulp down its big gob.
I actually hooked the same fish on the Tuesday.
All i can say is you havn't fished until you have done battle with a Lord Howe Island kingfish they are truely awesome.
Many thanks to GREENBACK skipper Dave and Deckie Mark for a sensational fishing experience.
Cheers Brent
We flew into Lord Howe last Sunday and were greeted with 35 knot S/W winds as our small plane decended towards the short landing strip.
Talk about a rough ride but eventually we were safe on land once more.
Talking to some locals i soon learnt that the fishing boats had not been out for a couple of weeks due to bad weather.
I had studied the weather charts and was confident my luck was about to change.
Tuesday had come around and the sky cleared and the winds dropped....'ye ha fishing trip here we come"
Not many charter boats working on the island over winter but i managed to book a half day trip on GREENBACK.
This boat is a tri hull at around 9.5 metres and handles like a dream in the rough conditions so i was told by the skipper.
We set off at 7am through the small passage way out across the reef and into the blue ocean.
Dave our skipper stopped at several locations after following diving sea birds to try for live bait.
This trip we had about 5 fisher people a deckie and skipper.
Not many slimmies about but Dave pulled up quite a few pilchards for the live bait tank.
Ok time to let those livey's loose on some kingfish.
I took along a 15 kilo jigstick matched with a small Saltiga overhead reel spooled with 40 lb braid.
I was keen to try the soft plastics on these powerful fish.
Only pulled in a small kingie of about 4 kilo and got busted up many times so i opted for the skippers gear after this.
80lb braid and a 150 lb leader was the go to land a good kingie.
Someone lost a ripper of about 15 kilo at the boat and i pulled in a nice one of 10 kilo +.
Total catch forthe morning was 25kingfish.
The islanders fish drought is over and i was proud to be a part of the crew.
Wednesday Morning was a cracker, variable winds and a metre swell.
This trip was to be special for me as the skipper and deckie were going out to catch more fish for the island and i asked if i could join them.
"You beauty i'm out here with a charter boat all to myself how lucky is this"
We started off with the usual ritual of livey gathering and this time we had about 25 slimmy's to let loose.
Talk about fun these kingies pull like frieght trains and don't like coming up from 35 metres.
Another 10 kilo for me and i lost some bigger models.
One fish bent the hook it was almost straight!!
Just before we headed for home my bait got hammered and what ever it was took off at a serious rate of knots.
The boys were saying come on you can do it but my arms were so sore and the fish was winning.
The skipper started to back up on this monster which we all thought was a 20 kilo kingie but after 15 minuets i had a 40 kilo black cod boatside.
Would you believe it there was my 7' gulp down its big gob.
I actually hooked the same fish on the Tuesday.
All i can say is you havn't fished until you have done battle with a Lord Howe Island kingfish they are truely awesome.
Many thanks to GREENBACK skipper Dave and Deckie Mark for a sensational fishing experience.
Cheers Brent