Report 055 The Jetskifisho’s warm up before the Top Catch King of Jetskifishing Tournament… 13th of February 2011

I had a small window of free time last weekend before the rush of getting everything finalised for the King of Jetskifishing Tournament, so I decided to fish in the local Howick Club Comp with Stefan and Simon. We left Bucklands Beach ramp at first light and made one stop for a jig at the four metre pin on the way to Gannet, with no reward. Next stop, back side of Gannet where Stefan picked up a rat Kingfish so I decided we should head around to my hot spot of late and this is where Simon got on to this fat boy!

After a bit of frustration trying to gaff it, he finally lifted it on board!

I managed to catch a rat Kingfish but had my eyes set on a bigger reward, so continued scouting the area. With no real sign on the Raymarine sounder, I made a slow, rough ride heading to Channel Island. It’s great to have the confidence on these 1.8 Yamaha WaveRunners, knowing I have the range to do these spur of the moment rides with plenty of fuel capacity... On arrival at Channel it felt like it was blowing twenty knots, along with a big swell breaking on the island! Was pretty tricky to jig where I wanted, as I picked up one legal Kingfish close to the rock face after many drops and retrieves... At this stage I had spotted some healthy sign on the sounder and was hopeful of a larger fish for my hard work. My hopes were answered, I was hit on the retrieve as I was drifting very close to the danger zone of the white wash, I had no choice but to start the ski and drag the fish out, as the drift was pretty fast and the fish would take a good five minutes to retrieve... All went to plan and eventually got it on board, but had the next issue of where to put it as one was already taking up the space in the lower part of the bin!

Eventually got things sorted and put it in my custom Jetskifishing catch bag, to keep the fish out of the sun.

I stopped for some Snapper fishing on the way home and caught a couple for dinner using my latest favourite soft bait, the Gulp 6” New Penny – Grub.

I called it quits after a few more Snapper and headed back to see Stefan and Simon had arrived back at the ramp...

It was another good day out, with plenty of fish for dinner and a few laughs in good company.
I didn't attend the weigh in, as my Kingfish just fell 40mm short of the 1 metre minimum, so I had a lot of Kingfish to steak!