# Army bay Auckland NZ



## JB (Jul 5, 2006)

Myself and a coupleof mates planned a mission for Army bay in the yaks as this was going to be the only sheltered spot today by the looks. With a 20knot SE with temps around low teens celcius but a fine suuny day - arh a nice clear but dam cold day it was. Venturing out with us for a while was a couple of spearo's. The vis looked poor and it looked like the only way the spearo's were going to be able to score anything was if it swan into his spear,after 30 minutes or so they packed it in. 
On the water out to the spot X mate 1 had a dark blue SP in tow. Shortly afterwards a big splash close to the SP, up pop's a ganet with no luck. Mate 1 starts winding to get it in and then another ganet folds its wings in and then headed straight for the SP. Again another miss. No more of that tactic as the ganets were still around.

Spotted a likely looking spot in 8m of water in the lee of wellington reef. A few flicks with SP's but nothing doing. Then anchored up and after a while a few nibbles on the line.... Mate 2 then decides to rig a second rod and as old murhpy's timing couldn't be better the first one (he's holding between his legs) starts peeling a nice bit of string. Short story - too slow the fish had dropped it. A nice run it was too. Probably a 5-6 pound snapper

A few just legal ones (27-29cm) started to come up and then released back again before the mate 1 got out his magic wand and hey presto. ZZZZZzz before coming up solid. After a minute or two the fish started taking line. 5 minutes later and mate 1 got himself a nice feed of snapper. 5 pounds maybe at around 50 cm. with another flick of this wand he made a small snapper do a swan dive right over the front of his yak.  
a few more just legals nibbling on the mullet bait I was using on my line. OK back to the strayline with a pille - I'll put a quarter onze on this time to make sure its on the bottom. Sure as eggs are eggs not two minutes after I put the rod in the holder and reach for the SP set up the main line starts going zzzzzzzzzzzzz on the shimmy 6500 bait runner. Great sounds like a good run. Whack, she comes up solid. Now on the main drag and I'm thinking "did you set this drag right JB". the line was peeling out at a reasonable pace I thought, before the fish kicked into top gear. It was about now I was wondering about how stable this new yak of mine was. Holely cow this is the 9.01 freight train to wellington (reef that is). After about 100 metres of line gone and no sign of it slowing its decision time-- dump the anchor from the yak or up the drag. Easy decision up the drag as dumping the anchor would mean I'm going to south america and it still won't have stopped.

So I tighten her up slowly - no still not slowing. pump a little, still not slowing... ok 12kg line so time for sunset on the drag as the bottom of the lines getting close. Arh turned it. Its now doubled back am I'm winding like theres no tomorrow to keep the line tight. A few minutes more than the beast starts to head toward the 3 yaks. It starts heading toward mate 1 but then more heat from me (3 anchor lines in the water to deal with). Then it circled the my yak before cutting directly under me - dam the drags on full from before - I feel a cold dunking coming on 12 degree water. Just as I'm back the drag off - pingggggggg. Ok fullas everyone make sure that your feet are out of the water - the teams pick was Mr bitey -pssobily a reasonable bronze whaler shark but a very outside chance of a decent kingie was a thought. Oh well thats fishing - if it was mr bitey I was cutting the line anyway but have not felt the horsepower like that off the yak before.

A few more smallist fish and time to back it in. Mate 2 stayed out a bit longer and was rewarded by a 40cm snapper and the first KY of the day.

A nice winters day all around with action most of the time. The fish were generally biting very lightly and often a tighning of the line would come up as a fish if you struck.

The new elite went well in a 1 metre swell with a chop and handled a surf launching (good luck on the timing I think). Stability when putting the heat on the beast was actually very good plus handled the swell with easy.
regards


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## Gator (May 10, 2006)

JB: Sounds like a real fun day. Glad to hear that the new Elite did everything you wanted it to. Dealer here has refused a test ride - says he has most of his incoming Elites sold and can not afford to use one as a demo.


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

Ripper of a read JB


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

JB enjoyed your exploits and glad you are happy with the elite


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## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

Great to read your post JB, it was very entertaining to read. Would have been great if the big one had of been a nice big Kingie.


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## JB (Jul 5, 2006)

Yeap would have been great if a big kingie. Have just kitted myself out with some large lipgrippers so would have been set. Am going to chase some big kingies next summer so the practise was great.

This fish had serious power and speed. I've caught reasonable seven gill sharks and such before but this was in a totally different league.
I'd only just stopped using a 60lb leader as I was hooking a weedline alot so though 12kg line - just tie the hook to it straight.

from the speed and decription of the fish some local guys from the region picked it as game shark (Bronze whaler, hammer or mako) or a kingie. the bigger kingies depend to hang around this time of year but are in very limited numbers until the return from deeper reefs offshore.


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