A weekend fishing trip away is a pretty cool option, but often it can be a lot of hard work, time spent driving, lack of sleep, expense and a significantly poor ‘effort/fish’ ratio. 3.5 hours in a car from Sydney will get you to some ok places, but 3.5 hours by air will get you to Tauranga in the incredible Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.

Tauranga has access to a very exciting fishery, and is the base of Ocean Blue’s NZ skipper Mark Armistead. NZ is known for big kingfish (amongst other species) but until now they have been targeted exclusively on jigging gear and baits. Mark has pioneered the art of catching big kingfish on topwater lures (poppers & stickbaits) so the attraction for anglers used to GT popping in the tropics is obvious. In fact, leading Japanese tackle brand Carpenter are developing more rods and lures to suit kingfish on topwater gear, with the owner Kenji Konishi regularly making trips to Tauranga himself. Mark is now an agent for the brand and one of the few people who is able to supply Carpenter tackle.

It was great to share this trip with angler Malcolm Crane, who is very experienced in GT circles. Malcolm was as keen as I was to see first-hand the similarities and differences between targeting big kingfish on topwater gear in the Bay of Plenty, and targeting GTs which are encountered in tropical reef environments such as the Coral Sea and New Caledonia. We both bought over a mixture of gear to cover any foreseeable options – as a new and exciting fishery for us both, we didn’t know exactly what to expect from Tauranga.

A Quick Trip Report

We flew Air New Zealand which is as cheap as chups – a definite bonus for anglers looking for the best value international fishing travel options. I pre-arranged a transfer to take us to the Sebel Trinity Wharf Hotel which is about as good a base I’ve encountered to suit even fussy travellers; very comfortable without being excessive. It has great facilities and a waterfront location including it’s own pier so the boat picks you up and returns you to your doorstep each day. A range of restaurants and cafes are just a few minutes walk away, top local food & wines take care of the necessary creature comforts. Mt Manganui has a hot thermal pool complex, well worth a visit and just the thing to factor in on a trip to soak tired muscles; doing battle with these brutes can be a lot like hard work!

Fishery

Mark is really passionate about what he does and is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to kingfish and his fishery in the Bay of Plenty. We had a number of spots available to choose from which all fire at certain times, and ended up visiting just 1 of these places, only spotting one other boat jigging the whole time. We fished in open water some distance offshore from Mayor Island, and we drove past numerous spots that are known to hold resident 30kg+ fish. It’s very encouraging to know there are plenty of options based on weather, technique and tackle choice. It’s an exciting prospect to think what could be achieved on a week long trip! Unlike my history of home grown Australian kingfishing trips (where it’s hit and miss as far as being on ‘the spot’ goes, all about jigging, generally lackluster and riddled with leather jackets & crowds) we were about to find ourselves in real kingy territory, Bay of Plenty style!

Score Card

The fish were showing mid-water and were all fat, healthy and aggressive. Malcolm bought a heap of gear to try out and we gave pretty much everything a run. Malcolm must have landed 9 fish all on topwater, from a rat of about 10kg up to a solid 25kg hoodlum. Most fish were in the 15 – 18kg range. I chimed in with more fish, all over the magic meter mark, a couple on topwater and a couple on jigs. They gave such a good account for themselves and all were in top condition (unlike me). Plenty of fish were raised and they’re not shy of big lures either, Malcolm had a heap of fun watching his Orion Big Numbas 220 gram stickbait get plenty of follows and strikes, as did our Hammerheads, Sea Falcons, Carpenter Gammas, Tailwalk Gunz, Heru Bobara and Adhek Goby’s. I’m sure cup faced poppers work well, but the stickbaits reigned supreme for us that day!

Next Time

It was a whirlwind trip but it’s so easy and so good! Malcolm has already booked with me to return to Tauranga early next year for a week and I’m psyched to get back there myself, I think my kingfishing days in Sydney are numbered.. It’s one place you can easily find kingies of all sizes on tap willing to take topwater lures, jigs and baits (3kg kahawai livebaits) plus trophy snapper on plastics and jigs, silver trevally, football field schools of kahawai as well as mako sharks, albacore and broadbill.

I’ll edit up the video footage shortly so watch this space; apologies in advance for including a particular rod breaking incident which can happen with big kings at close quarters and high drag settings….