Timmo's Fin Chaser 535CC
Hey guys,
Timmo here. After just over 6 months of use and countless hours spent on the water with my new 535CC, it’s safe to say this boat has some serious mojo! We have been across the country chasing fish from the East Coast to the West Coast, and right up the Far North as far as North Cape!
I guess we will start from the beginning. The very first outing was to the beautiful Rangiputa for the Lure Masters fishing competition. To say the weather was not on our side would be a fair statement. We fished in some very testing conditions. We had ups and downs with the fishing, although we didn't land any competition winners, we did land some nice snapper casting soft baits into the wash. We even managed to land a respectable kingfish after some strategic driving in the shallow waters below the North Cape lighthouse.
Although this was a very testing trip with the weather, we had a great time and ran the boat in well, bringing it straight back for its first 20-hour service at Fin Chaser Marine.
Pacific Bluefin Tuna - The Trip of a Lifetime!!
This adventure was nothing short of phenomenal, to say the least! We had received intel that there had been some very large bluefin tuna seen out from the Bay of Islands in relatively shallow water, including some that were seen and hooked right beside the rocks. Some of the fish seen have been estimated well over 300kg
This mission for Hamish (one of the Fin Chaser boat builders) and I started off with my ute breaking down in Bombay. Luckily, it happened at the gas station and not on the motorway. Mum (Jannine) and my brother (Jack) came to the rescue, bringing up Jack’s ute so we could carry on. We arrived around 1am to our accommodation in Kerikeri Inlet and got ready for a 5am start.
We started the day off chasing jack mackerel for live baits. We managed to get a few in the tank, then set our sights on the first rock of the day. This rock was rather quiet, so we moved on. The next spot was absolutely alive with baitfish and birds everywhere.
Fishing for us was still slow to begin with, although we managed a couple of nice kingfish and a good-sized snapper. The signs were there for this place to come alive, so we kept at it. Later that day most boats started leaving, and the kingfish fishing turned on big time! We caught them on live baits and stick baits, with some good fish up to roughly 20kg.
We fished until we had no more live baits, then called it a day. This wasn't the bluefin we were after, but it was a great day nonetheless. We headed home to get ready for day two.
Day 2 - this was the day of days.
After seeing how much bait was around the day prior, we decided not to worry about catching mackerel and go straight to the spot for the day. We got there early, and the bait was yet to rise to the surface. As soon as the sun was up, it didn’t take long to get our hands on some live bait. We managed a mixture of koheru and slimy mackerel, so they were sent straight out as live baits.
There was an insane amount of activity with marine life compared to the day before, which was already impressive — this was next level! Something we will never forget.
We were simply towing our live baits around at roughly 2 knots. Every now and again we'd turn the motor off and drift through the bait with the small amount of wind we had. During these drifts Hamish put a snapper jig down and caught some good-sized snapper.
At one stage Hamish was hooked up to a snapper and a humpback whale came rolling through. This was truly an amazing experience. I even managed to get the drone up and film some unbelievable footage of the whale feeding, and as soon as it disappeared, we had a live bait get eaten.
Not only did the live bait get eaten, but whatever ate it went on one extremely fast run. From memory it ran for 1 minute and 40 seconds straight without stopping. We even drove towards it and it went faster! Luckily, we got a look at what it was fairly early into the fight as it came up to the surface — sure enough, it was the bluefin we were after.
Unsure of what we had gotten ourselves into, we settled in for a long haul. With plenty of tense moments over a 5.5-hour fight, we had him on the leader plenty of times. Towards the end he went deep, and it took a fair bit of work to get him back up.
After about 30 minutes of inch-by-inch progress, we had slowly worked him up. Not far from the boat something weird happened. Unsure what it was, we kept going, then he came into sight headfirst. We thought he had died and we were simply pulling him up. As the fish got closer, we noticed a mako shark hanging around, and it had taken a good chunk off the tail end. Just as well it wasn't the best eating part!
This was an adventure Hamish and I will never forget and will struggle to beat.
Whakatane Yellowfin Tuna
Over the last couple of years, we have had a huge increase in yellowfin tuna in New Zealand waters, similar to what we had in the early 2000s and prior. With large schools of anchovies getting absolutely obliterated by dolphins, yellowfin, sharks, birds and much more, it really does make for a great fishery that is super exciting to experience.
Most of the success boats are having is by using topwater lures and casting them into the workups. Seeing yellowfin eat these surface lures gets the blood pumping!
With a busy week of action down at Whakatane through December, I couldn't resist going down and having a crack. There was a very average forecast for the only day we could make it. I knew if there were only a small number of boats chasing the workups, they wouldn't be getting pushed down and chased around.
We headed out through the Whakatane bar and set the autopilot for a rough area that had been producing. After a few hours of trolling around, we came across an area with a large number of birds and dolphins. This was the zone — I could feel that at any moment yellowfin would start feeding hard.
Thirty minutes later it was all on. Fish busting up everywhere and going hard. First cast with the stick bait and I was hooked up! I handed the rod to Mum and she got stuck in. After a good scrap on light tackle (30lb), we got the fish boat-side and it was a nice, tasty yellowfin. High fives all round and we were ready to go again.
Hamish’s turn this time, and he managed another nice fish — a first for him too! It doesn't get much better than this. Such a great feeling when a plan pays off, especially when it's rough.
Having my Fin Chaser 535 centre console is perfect for this style of fishing, not to mention how well it handles rough water for a small boat!
Not long after this action unfolded, we had another opportunity. I managed to hook a really nice one on the light tackle. During the fight Mum hooked another one right by the boat — true chaos, yet so much fun! Unfortunately, just as we landed Mum's fish, I lost mine right by the boat. That's fishing!
With a good feed secured for all friends and family for Christmas, we called it a day and headed home. Yet another great trip!
My Biggest Harbour Snapper Yet!
We had a weekend with a great forecast, so we made a plan to fish the harbour on Saturday and head over the bar on Sunday. I have had a few mates fishing in the harbours recently with some really great success. When the fishing is good in a harbour, it really doesn't get much more rewarding and relaxing.
Within 2 minutes of having a bait in the water I hooked into a really nice snapper. I knew this was going to be a good fish, but I didn't realise how good until it came up. It put up one hell of a fight on light gear in 3.5m of water, which was great fun!
We got the fish in the boat and it measured 70cm. However, this fish was extremely fat and in such healthy condition that it would have been a good one to weigh. Recently I heard of one caught in similar condition that was 73cm and weighed 19.5lbs. I don't think this guy would have been too far off that weight with the way he was built.
I couldn't bring myself to keep such an amazing fish, so he was released to fight another day!
To see this trip click the following link - Big Harbour Snapper
We Caught a Marlin on Kingfish Gear!
This day was the complete opposite of what we were expecting to experience. We shot out from our local spot of Kawhia in hopes of getting onto a few kingfish.
It took some time for us to catch our live baits, but we got there in the end and managed to get a good amount. We tried a few spots, but everything seemed to be rather quiet. We did, however, land a couple of really nice snapper that ate our live baits.
The day was getting on, and we thought it would be time to try one last spot. Arriving at the final spot, we did one drop with no luck, so continued looking for sign with my Raymarine sounder. I saw this huge mark on the sounder that was too big to pass up. I knew whatever it was, it was big. My thoughts were either a shark or a marlin. Whichever one it was, I didn't mind as I was eager to hook into a big fish.
Fortunately for us it was a marlin! Unfortunately, it was on kingfish gear, which is fine, but very hard work, along with a light 150lb trace. The light trace made it very difficult due to the fish weighing over 150lbs — and so do I — meaning if both the fish and I pulled hard at the same time, there was a high chance of breaking the line.
This created a huge amount of pressure every time we had the fish boat-side. We played the patient game and came out on top with the first marlin for my Fin Chaser 535, along with some great memories for Mum and me.
We had been wanting some smoked marlin for a long time and hadn't managed to get out trolling this season, so to say we were over the moon was an understatement. A truly great experience for us.
It is safe to say my new boat has been game-changing for a few key reasons. It handles extremely well, whether that's sitting stationary or travelling through the sea. It's really well set up, super practical to fish out of, yet still easy to take anywhere and of course we can't forget the mojo this boat has!
Be sure to follow my journeys on Timmo the Fisho (Facebook, Instagram & YouTube) for many more epic missions to come!
