Good report for your first one with the new boat.
With the Gold Spot Cod, if they are under legal maximum size, you may as well take them. They are the worst sufferers of baurotrauma I have found. I have a mate who has caught them in 7-8m and they still blow their guts. I've tried everything to get them back down here locally, tag needles to deflate their bladder, tieing them to my shot release and a 10lb downrigger bomb and some of the bigger ones will still float with the 10lb bomb, shot release and about 6x12oz snapper leads all tied together. Do them a favour and put them out of their misery. They eat pretty good. Brown Maoris and parrot are pretty bad too but a shot release gets them back down pretty easily, it is just the massive size of the gold spots that presents so many problems.