FlyLife Australia & New Zealand — Winter 2017

FLYLIFE^23

Only a few hundred metres from the
flat, we approached the first marker.
It was a beautiful sight: eight large
kingfish, all 1–1.3 metres, circling the
marker on the surface, tails out and all.
The largest of the fish was undoubt-
edly over 30 kilos and nearly gave me
heart failure as it followed my popper
all the way to the boat without eating.
We decided to give them five minutes
to settle before throwing another cast.
They soon rose back to the top and
continued their circular pattern, weav-
ing around the two wooden posts of
the marker. This time my cast was met
with much more enthusiasm as three
big kingfish fought for the popper, and
eventually one connected. Some stern
pressure on the fish early in the fight
steered it clear of the marker, so I
knew it was just a matter of time. 104
cm to the tail, I was a very happy man.
I’ve never witnessed a kingfish so fat
across the belly.
Thinking the action was over, Lucas
and I dropped Gareth back on the
flats and continued on our way. Ten
minutes later, Lucas noticed a message
on his phone saying Gareth was con-
nected to a big fish and needed our

help. We rushed back towards them

but it was easy to see from his body

language that Gareth had lost the fish.

“How big was it?” I asked.

“Over 20 kilos. It ran me to the

final turns on my backing, then broke

when I tried to stop it.”

He was still retrieving the hundreds

of metres of backing as we arrived.

Then we noticed another school of

large fish entering the flats. These

were big kings, 20–25 kg. Gareth

didn’t have a fly, so I grabbed my rod

from the holder and made the cast.

They were all over my popper, but the

combination of the afternoon waves

and their excitement meant every bite

failed to fully consume the popper.

We didn’t see them again, but that

moment was awesome! Tauranga had

me so satisfied, yet still craving for

more!

Daybreak hook-up on a lonely channel marker.

Not the biggest we saw, but good enough for me.