The Charter Boat Competition 2008 aboard the MV Manutere
The Charter Boat Association Tournament is a competition which takes place the weekend of the 18th 19th and 20th of January. It is a stay away competition in which most species commonly caught out of Tauranga are included. From marlin to Tarakihi, and most in-between, this makes for an exciting competition on a level playing field for all boats.
Briefing night
The 2008 Charter Boat competition was one which the crew had been looking forward to for months, unfortunately, often when there are such high expectations something is bound to go wrong, and it did. With a shocker of a forecast for Saturday and Sunday, with an average forecast for Friday, we were feeling a little bit picked upon, as the weather had been perfect for the previous weeks leading up to it. The crew however looked quietly confident though, as we had done very well in all the previous years we entered the competition. Cunning plans were hatched and rare steak and beer ensued through the briefing.
As soon as the briefing was finished, we made the call to head straight out so we could be in the action as soon as the lines in time started the next morning. So with a good sleep at Motiti for the night, we were ready to start the competition.
Day 1: Lines In!
Friday morning of the Charter Boat Competition we decided to have a troll for marlin, so we headed from Motiti out to schooner rocks and proceeded along the 100m line toward the Astrolabe and the Penguins. We continued this for a couple of hours, and the weather didn’t quite live up to the forecast expectations. We had virtually no wind, and a beautiful hot day, so the call was made to head straight to the Rangatira knolls, as the weather break would probably be our only chance to make it out there, considering the forecast for the coming few days.
The troll out there was uneventful although we all enjoyed a few quiet beers while sitting in the sun and preparing our gear for the coming fishing session.
The Rangatiras is renound for its massive Tarakihi and we were keen to get in on the action for them, whilst also giving the jigging for any Kingfish that might be around a good going over.
The fishing was quite slow when we first got there with some big Pink Mao Mao to show for our efforts, but while good easting, we needed fish that were actually in the competition. Dave McLean and I were jigging furiously for some time before we actually hooked up. Dave was the first to hook up on the spinning reel; the Kingfish took it one the drop. I hooked up on a solid fish not long after, so within a matter of seconds we were both pumping and winding furiously to try and decrease the chances of the fish tangling. Unfortunately for us the fish managed to swim around each other but after a bit of ducking and diving, we were able to sort it out and get back to putting some heat on the fish. They both surfaced at around the same time with a nice pair of Kingfish around the 15kg mark.
Those bottom fishing quickly changed there rigs and decided jigging, was infact, where it was at. So we all lined up for our next drift, and what came next was some of the most intense jigging action I have seen, we were hooking up left right and centre.
The two notable captures from this session were Tony Shores 27.1kg Kingfish and Glenn Matthews 21.4kg Kingfish. Some impressive captures to say the least! Both angler were working hard on the fish, and were reward by using the softly softly approach.
Throughout this amazing jigging session we had vertically schooling albacore swimming all around the boat which provided some awesome entertainment on the soft plastics and I managed to score myself a 5kg albie on my light spinning gear. Talk about excitement, as the little spool blurred and heated, I started thinking, hmmm, and maybe I should have stepped up to the next model. But after some serious thumbing the spool, the fish came aboard without too many hassles.
The Kingfish bite slowed then cam came to a complete halt, with only 5kg rats coming on board. Brent managed a big Tarakihi through persevering with the bottom fishing, which he was stoked about, and so were we, we knew this would be in the prizes. The wind was starting to pick up so we decided to head back in to Mayor for the night, and try for some of the other species on offer over the coming 2 days and nights.
On the way back we had a lazy little marlin come through the spread and check out some lures, but didn’t show much interest in what we had on offer, and quickly faded off into the distance. Oh well, it was sure nice seeing one at least.
Day 2: Beaten into submission by the weather
We awoke on Saturday morning to the howling wind, which was forecast. This somewhat limited our options for the day so we decided to hug in close to the island for some Snapper, Trevally and possibly a John Dory or two.
With plenty of berley deployed we started what was to be a somewhat uneventful days fishing. We got pounded by some pretty serious wind, but due to being tucked in so close, there was no real swell accompanying it. Considering the conditions we did well, with some good Trevally landed, and also some nice pannie Snapper, no prize winners amongst them, but by the sound of the radio, we were doing better than most.
In the afternoon there was a bit of a break in the weather so we went a little wider chasing some Trevally schools, but they were most certainly school fish, and while beautiful eating, they were just not the size we were after. So after a pretty hard days fishing, we all decided to head back to the lee of the island and catch up on some sleep.
Day 3: Weather, weather and more weather
Well, we expected this one. We were forced into much the same game plan as day one. This Charter Boat Competition was certainly being dictated by the weather, and with the weather being as bad as it was we, started up a berley trail and continued where we left off the day before. The fishing proved much harder though, so we decided to brave the elements and go and try some Hapuka fishing, our first attempt for the competition.
We went north of Mayor and got into some Gemfish and Bluenose, but nothing which would have gone the minimum competition weight. With that, we decided to move back to the pinnacles and have a look for some more Tarakihi of which, we only had one on board, a most unusual circumstance indeed!.
We punched our way back through some serious slop, to find that it was too rough to anchor in the conditions so we tried a couple of half hearted attempts at drifting for the fish but decided we were better off getting back to the berth a bit earlier and organising our fish for the weight in, so with the three competition days behind us, we turned and headed for home.
Charter Boat Competition Weigh In and Prize giving
We knew we had a relatively good chance at the Tarakihi and the Kingfish sections, and the weather meant that the smaller boats were restricted in where they could go. So after all our catch cards were filled out, and fish were weighed, it was time to head home for a brief shower and come straight back down for the prize giving.
Well, it turned out that we did pretty well after all. We won the top boat trophy, 1st and 2nd in the Kingfish division with a 27.1kg Kingfish by Tony Shores and a 21.4kg Kingfish by Glen Mathews respectivly,1st prize for Tarakihi a 1.03kg Tarakihi caught by Brent Moore and a 5.01kg albacore which cleared the minimum weight by 0.01kg by me. This was the only tuna weighed in the competition so it was awarded 1st place.
All is all it was a very successful Charter Boat Competition, one which we will defiantly be hotly contesting next year!
