King-slayer.

February 4th 2018.

Dean spent 15 minutes locking horns with a mighty shark . . .  or so we thought.  After all, we were in 60 metres of water off the West coast of Auckland, aka, the centre of Sharkesville.  He was ledgering a squid bait on an 8/0 dropper rig, with hopes of a snapper.  It was clearly a beast of a fish that took the bait and set off on long, slow, un-stoppable runs.  Likely a school shark or maybe a bronzy . . .  couldn’t be a kingfish.  That much we had decided.

With all the braid stripped off the spool and backing line exposed, it was time to lock down the drag and bully the big guy below.  Slowly but surely the tables turned in Dean’s favour and the line was clawed back onto the spool, metre by precious metre.  When you’re playing a shark in one of these tedious tugs of war, there’s no real concern as to wether you land the fish or not.  In fact, it’s almost a blessing when they shred the trace and win their freedom.  Saves you the time and effort of wrangling them at the boatside.  However, when a long slender shape hove into view from the depths . . .  with a bright yellow tail . . .  we couldn’t believe what we were seeing.  There was a sudden sense of urgency to get the fish aboard and start praying the line didn’t part after-all.

The kingy was by now wrapped in mono and coming up backwards.  After a few tense minutes bringing it within reach, there was great relief when I got a grasp around the tail and heaved a 15kg/34lb slab of fish onto the deck.  Cue whoops, hollers, hive fives and few choice expletives.  It was Dean’s first trip aboard and for a guy used to catching tench on UK canals, the whole experience left quite the impression;  One of those days that burned bright with exhilaration and will be etched deep in the memory for years to come.