Fishing the Tauranga One Base 2008 aboard the MV Manutere
2008 was the first year the Manutere had entered into the Tauranga One Base Fishing Competition, in fact, none of the crew had fished a One Base either, so we definitely had our eyes and ears open, sucking up as much information from the veterans as possible. Even though we didn’t have much any One Base experience, all of the crew had taken part in enough fishing competitions, and days fishing to know that success only comes to those who had a game plan.
Day 1: Trolling, trolling, more trolling
Day one fishing the Tauranga One Base was a relatively uneventful one for us. Our game plan was to work the outer knolls north of Mayor Island which we did throughout the day. No Marlin were sighted, but we did see some small Mako's which were in abundance around the place at that particular time. Marlin were caught out the back of the Penguins, which were feeding up on the abundance of bait which was in the area, which we found out back at the ten that night.
After a long, slow days trolling though, the boys were itching to get into some serious jigging the next day, and with the stay away night coming up the following day the plan was modified somewhat…
Day 2: The Stay away Night
We had decided the day before that the Rangatira knolls was the best chance we had to nail some big Kingfish and put ourselves in the mix for some of the prizes, not to mention covering some fantastic game fishing grounds on the way out there. We left Tauranga at a reasonable hour as we knew we had a little more time up our sleeves than the day before. It seems most of the fleet had the same idea as us and radio call-ups to Seacomms throughout the morning were frequent.
We passed through some good looking water, which we could have worked a bit more to see if there were some marlin in attendance, but Brett and the crew are great believers in sticking to their guns, once a plan is made, nine times out of ten, its best to see it through. So we continued our steam out to the mighty rangatira knolls, those crew members who had been out there previously were having a fantastic time winding those up who hadn’t with recollections of unstoppable beasts, and fast and furious jigging action. A few beers were consumed to calm the nerves, and once we got there, we sure weren’t disappointed!
The first few drops of the day proved to be fruitless, as we tried to establish our drift direction and where the baitfish were holding. On our third drift however we hooked up big time! There must have been about 5 of the 7 anglers hooked up on that first successful drift with fish from 6kg to 15kg coming aboard in fairly short order, there were a couple of fish hooked up on the first one which proved unstoppable, and the crews tales of previous encounters were once more becoming a reality. So, with a few sheepish grins from the sheer grunt of the adversary, rigs were retied, jigs attached and we were all ready for the next drift. What ensued was 3 hours of some of the most intense jigging action I have ever experienced, with multiple hook-ups, runs and bust offs occurring every drift. We got a run of bigger fish a couple of hours later with Glen Matthews landing the biggest for the day, which went on to take out 2nd for the Day 3 Kingfish prizes. The fishing slowed as the wind picked up and our plans of over-nighting at the rangatiras and drifting for a shot at a broadbill was quashed.
The trip back to Mayor was a fast one, with 20 knots of wind helping us along. We had the lures out, but it was a somewhat half hearted effort as we were all feeling pretty worn out from the jigging session earlier that day.
We quickly got bored of watching the ‘normal’ sized marling lures popping away, doing there thing, so it was decided to have a ‘who's got the biggest most raucous lure competition’, which I firmly believe I won. With a head diameter of well over 2” and a length of around 15” it looked fairly impressive. Other lures of note were the mighty Waihau Warrior and a big pink beast that looked like it had gone a few rounds in its time.
Day 3: Trolling Mayors North End
We started day three of the Tauranga One Base in a positive mood with some good Kingfish in the fish hold, we decided it would be a good idea to put in another full day trolling for the somewhat elusive marlin.
Well, with the amount of birds and bait in the area one would have thought a bite was inevitable, but, unfortunately for us, it wasn’t. We stayed in the area for some time before deciding to make a move closer to the island and work the area just outside the reserve. We stuck at this for another hour or so, and decided to try our luck jigging around some of our usual haunts around Mayor, but to no avail. It was somewhat hard to match the previous day’s action and excitement.
We went for another look around the back of the Penguins area where there had been some considerable action the previous two days, but we didn’t see any action, and by that time of the day, we had to head in to make it back to the tent.
As mentioned previously, Glen took out second place for his 21.04kg Kingfish, which we were all very pleased about. After a few drinks another cunning plan was hatched…
Day 4: Back to the Ranga’s!
Yes, we all decided our last crack at the big prizes for the Tauranga One Base lay with the Kingfish division. After seeing just how big some of the fish were out there we were keen to get back out into the mix and try and put the brakes on the big boys.
We didn’t hang around at the tent too long that evening, we decided we needed to be out to the rangatiras at the crack of dawn for our best chance of bagging the big one, so we all headed back to the Manutere for a couple of hours sleep before making the early (12:00am!) start.
Most of the crew spent there time sound asleep and the deckies steamed the boat out in perfect conditions. We got to the Rangatiras just before day break, and had enough time to cook up a quick nutritious and delicious feed before getting back into some serious jigging.
The morning proved slower than the previous day, with hook-ups coming after a considerable amount more work. The most memorable, and most successful drift of the day however came about at around 8:30 that morning, we had been jigging somewhat uneventfully for the past couple of hours, with only middle weight fish interrupting our jigging.
But not this drift, Tony and Wade were the first to hook up down the stern of the boat, followed shortly after by me. Wade and Tony were demolished back into the reef, but I managed to keep the fishes head up with some serious drag pressure and a whole lot of leaning back into that rod. I continued to pump the fish up from the deep, whose runs became shorter and shorter until we eventually saw colour. When the fish surfaced, I didn’t really get a good look at it so it was only when it hit the deck that we all appreciated just how big it actually was!
After that bit of excitement had toned down, we got back into the rhythm of jigging once more, trying for another big one. Unfortunately it was not to be so we made the call to begin the long troll home.
About 2 miles outside the Astroblae, we saw a free jumping marlin, the first marlin we had seen for the competition. We worked the area for some time, but couldn’t raise the first, plus, the close off time was drawing near, and we had to make it back in to weigh our Kingfish.
Once we got to the Tauranga One Base weigh station with the Kingfish we knew we had a pretty good shot at taking out Kingfish honours for the competition. There were some other Kingfish there, also caught at the rangatiras that looked as though they were about the same size, which had us all a bit worried. Anyway, the Kingfish pulled the scales down to a whopping 31.3kg, a personal best for me, and a division winning fish for the Manutere.
So all in all it was a great 4 days fishing, which saw some impressive fishing sessions, matched with some equally impressive captures. So, we will definitely be back next year fishing the Tauranga One Base, and looking for that elusive marlin, that’s for sure!
