Frostbite Adventures

21/12/2023

Glenn had never caught a legal King Fish or soft baited before but was keen to give anything a go. It didn't take long for him to pick it up and his first fish was a 20kg plus fish which he put back for someone else to catch one day. While the snapper fishing was slow at this time of year the King Fish are plentiful.
A lot of the marks that the majority of anglers use at Mayor island to target King Fish are plagued with smart Knobbly Clarks (sharks) at this time of year which means if the Sharks turn up you should move to a different location. What happens is the sharks learn that the boat engines mean an easy feed. When you catch a small King Fish of around a metre the angler can muscle the fish in before the fish is taken by the tax man............... but when you get a fish around 20kg plus the fight takes longer and in turn the angler ends up with just a head so do the right thing and move it will save you money and frustration.

21/12/2023

Josh with a nice chunky kingfish caught in perfect glassy conditions, it really is a privilege to get zero wind and swell and at least 20m visibility for diving. When Tūhua shows off she really lays it on and we were spoilt for options.......... do we chase the green backs or do we go for Tuna and marlin. ..... perhaps a free dive or exploring the island itself.
With so much bait around the kings are really fat and great for the smoker and will be a nice addition to the table over Xmas.

17/08/2023

31/07/2023

Sword ⚔️ o’clock

29/05/2023

Josh with a Frostfish he caught in 23m of water on a soft bait. This fish will be turned into 6 sword baits and deployed to 800m in the hope of catching a Sword Fish............fingers crossed!!

17/04/2023

One happy angler and his fish. Rookie move on my part taking the photo after the Haku had been gilled and bled.

29/03/2023

Recently had the privilege of taking a couple of groups of super keen anglers from Japan to Tuhua to jig for king fish. To say that they jigged hard is an understatement , even when we were fishing some deep pins over 150m there were always four anglers going hard.
The tackle was all top of the line .....Accurate reels and super light weight rods which were all spooled with new line and the knots were a work of art....... these guys were keen as mustard and well prepared and I was fizzing as much as them.
Not everything went our way with a full moon which didn’t help but also we had to deal with weather, divers,sharks and the bigger fish close to the reefs which meant we lost a few of the bigger fish to rocks or teeth.
I thoroughly enjoyed both groups and have to add that they fished as hard if not harder than any group I’ve had on the boat and the time was spent with smiles,laughter and good vibes.

24/03/2023

While everyone is chasing marlin we snuck out chasing kings.

21/03/2023

Stunning start to the day!

13/03/2023

Last week I was blessed by a visit from an old army mate Andy who I served with 30years ago in 23 Pioneer Reg. Andy had a massive stroke last year and had to put a lot of work into learning to walk and talk again, so when I invited him on a four day fishing trip I didn't quite know how we were going go.
Day one we drove around dragging plastics looking for bait and temperature breaks and a couple cold beverages were consumed while telling jack and tories (stories) and taking in the amazing scenery. we had a angry little marlin attack the B***e undertaker lure over and over but wouldn't stick. After inspecting the leader it was ruffed up about half a meter from the lure indicating that it was a juvenile fish.
Day two and again amazing conditions so decided to do a couple of drops for Swords which resulted in no hook ups but I did mark two fish at 800m on the way homes have some new ground to explore.
Day three and decided to do some snapper fishing and they were hungry with fish hooking up every time the softball reached the bottom. Every fish was between 55cm and 70cm but no real donkeys, so we filled the bin over a couple of hours for family and friends.
Day four we dragged plastics from Tuhua to the Rangas for another string puller but again it didn't stick so we came home very tired but content that we couldn't have done more. on. another day both those stick faces would have stuck and at least one snapper would be huge ......... but that's fishing and what keeps us coming back for more. Thanks for the trip Andy maybe next time we will be lucky enough to land the big one but in the mean time keep dreaming!

16/01/2023

Throw back to when the weather used to behave itself for summer.............. not like the last two years which has been nearly as atrocious as the inaccurate weather forecasts . Rant over😉 tight lines 😂😂

03/01/2023

Clint with a tasty kingfish destined for New Years celebrations.
Nothing on this fish will go to waste with the head and belly smoked, steaks for the bbq and also the worlds largest bowl of raw Haku.
King fish are here in good numbers as we would expect at this time of year we just need the weather to behave itself🤞🤞🤞.

22/11/2022

These Dolphins are on a mission! They turned up out of no where then led me to a huge work up where we pulled some donkey snapper from under it.
So many boats will only fish marks or follow other boats but quite often nature will show you where to fish...........If you have your eyes open.

25/10/2022

Dominic from The Barber Shack (Papamoa)Hired the boat to chase King fish and snapper at Tuhua Island. The day that was booked the conditions were a little windy so we decided to roll the trip over to the following day.

We headed out nice and early to catch some live baits but they were not playing the game even though a little open topped tinny was pulling them up two at a time. We changed weights and colours and still struggled which was more than a little frustrating watching Henderson and his crew load both their live bait tanks in record time. At this point I had too eat my pride and ask Finn if he had a couple spare live baits to add to the ones we had caught...............straight away he came over and gave us 20 A grade live baits which was above and beyond what I was expecting and saved my bacon......... I owe you big time mate!

With perfect conditions I made the call to have a look at some deeper marks for King fish but they were very quite so kept looking for sign. It was at this point a client let it out of the bag that someone (who will remain nameless) had Bananas on board and that could have been the reason catching live baits were hard work.

As soon as the Bananas were removed our fortunes changed with work ups coming to the surface then screaming reels with a hook up, unfortunately the first king was dropped but as a team we were all fizzing and got another bait deployed and first kingfish landed by Muzza a few minutes later. nothing huge but excellent eating so was bled and put on ice.
The rest of the day kept me busy with some solid snapper coming aboard and as the team improved their skills at soft baiting, the fish got bigger and double and triple hook ups were common. The fish of the day was a 82cm snapper that pushed the scales to 22.6 pounds.
Thank you Dominic for choosing Frostbite Adventures and all the best for relaunching The Barber shack Papamoa, so if you need a cut, fade or man grooming get down to the best Barbers in the bay.

09/10/2022

Thank you Kaveman Tackle for sending some plastic squid and new soft baits for me to try. These new lures are just hitting the market as I write this post. Check them out on the extensive Kaveman Tackle web site. Getting sent new tackle to try was perfect timing with some settled weather and charters about to start up again for summer.
Sam, Ali and I had a late start a 1100hrs departure for Tuhua Island. With the sea nearly twice what was forecasted, we had to hide on the western side until the wind settled down which only gave us two hours fishing before having to head back home.
After one long drift I had found a nice patch of fish and worked out how The Sexy Beast was drifting due to the wind and current and rigged up the rods with the squid lures. As soon as I saw them glisten in the sun and then the movement in the water I knew they were going to slay the snapper. The excitement levels went through the roof. After two hours of fishing Ali and sam had caught 17 snapper keeping 14 with nothing under 50 cms and both anglers smiling from ear to ear.
Thank you Kaveman Tackle I really appreciate that you thought of me to try out your new tackle and I look forward to my clients catching donkey snapper on your awesome product.