All but one of our charters this season was successful with the unlucky trip comprising a mix of Hawkes Bay and Auckland anglers sandwiched in between to southery fronts 8 hours apart and airline schedules allowing only one days fishing.The 2009 season started with a hiss and a roar with a 209kg BLUE and ended magnificently with a 245kg BLUE MARLIN caught in the last 2 hours of a two day charter with american clients from Wyoming on March 10th.Both of these Blue marlin were caught within 2 hours travelling time from the port of Gisborne.In fact,we hooked and played four Blue’s during our brief stay in Gisborne without venturing north of Tolaga to the Blue Marlin mecca of Waihau Bay and Lottin Point.With our longest charters being only 3 days this year we were unable to fully utilize our long range capabilities and an excellent season for Blue Marlin was only partially realised.However, a good strike rate was still maintained with more than half a dozen striped marlin-unfortunately not all tagged or caught.
The 2009 season was characterized by a lack of YELLOWFIN TUNA and we were unable to emulate the success of the previous two seasons.Only 4 yellowfin were landed out of Gisborne this year however there was compensation for some lucky anglers with 8 or 9 BIGEYE TUNA landed during the Marlin/Tuna competition in mid February.In our opinion Gisborne offers the best chance to catch large tuna ( Bigeye & Bluefin ) in the North Island.
Undoubtedly, the two Blue’s were the highlight of our season with the last one offering all the excitement that BLUE MARLIN are famous for.It came to the boat after 45mins,the leader was taken and instantly dumped by the leaderman as the fish launched into the air and immediately raced along the surface in a shower of spray ahead of the bow for at least 300m Quick thinking by the angler who backed off the drag as instructed and the release of the leader together with the teflon rubrail on the side of our vessel saved the day.An hour later we had the fish on the deck.
The vessel is now berthed in Welligton for some winter maintenance and survey.Hopefully, we will get a chance to revisit Eastcape and Lottin Point in 2010.There will be a discount on those charters who land/tag a BLUE MARLIN of $200 in the 2010 season