(^20) FLYLIFE
L
ate last year, Lucas Allen, a fly fish-
ing guide from Tauranga, reached
out to me after seeing the fun we’d
had on the Golden Bay kingfish
in the South Island (FL#84). He
invited me on a trip up north,
and of course, I was interested. Tau-
ranga Harbour was the New Zealand
birthplace of the kingfish ‘ray-riding’
phenomenon, so I was excited to see
how this fishery operated. We set the
date for late January and hoped for
good weather.
When Lucas picked me up from the
Tauranga airport he gave me his pre-
dictions for the next three days: “This
year has had consistent wind, but I
think you will get lucky... but maybe
not tomorrow.”
We set off on our first day with
a ‘late’ start of just after 6 a.m. The
morning was brisk and the wind built
over the day. While the light was still
low we cast to some markers in the
harbour channels and went looking
for bow-waves in the shallows of a
side creek. A few fish spotted, but no
real action yet.RAY-RIDING KINGS
By midday the sun was finally high,
but so was the wind. Much like
my Golden Bay adventures, we were
looking for stingrays accompanied by
ray-riding kingfish. The difference this
time was the advantage of Lucas’s
boat. Having the higher viewing point
along with the stealth of the electricJoshua Hutchins heads north to Tauranga
for kingfish and a touch of trout.
Lucas with a well earned smile.
Surface popper strike from a big king!Northern Kings