Back in March we were lucky enough to have booked Cova Rose on its first mission to the Three Kings under Enchanter management. Captain Steve and deckhand Slappy were as keen as us to get up there and tackle some monsters. With one of the better forecasts we have seen we started the long haul north only to have the sounder stop working before we had even reached the Three Kings. Half way around the top of the cape on the final leg we saw something floating in the distance which turned out to be a dead whale, pulling the plastic past in glass out conditions soon revealed dolphin fish flying thru the air after the lures, we landed 5 this first pass then targeted them on small stick baits, metals and plastics.

We ended up landing 18 in about 30mins of fun, Steve had only ever seen two caught in one day before as they don't get many in NZ.

The first couple of days we got some nice kings with a few over 30kg coming on board, it was great watching five Aussie boys with there PB kings under 20kg do battle.

Rob with one of his bigger kings from the trip.

Aerick hooked up on the Jigging Master Fallings MH, saltiga combo to his new PB king.

Dan with a fatty.

Over the length of the trip we tried for swords but didn't have much luck this year, we had some amazing fishing at anchor on light tackle, we tried top water but not much luck but heaps of fun on plastics, hard body's and small metal lures.

Jarrod with a solid king at anchor which took a large plastic right on dark.

One of the nights we saw a few squid hanging around so thought we would have a crack at them, four of us got stuck into them and ended up catching heaps, Steve got up at 3.00am to have a piss and couldn't believe his eyes as we were still fishing, he saw the fish bin full and said he had only ever seen around 10 caught in a night, we ended up with a total of 65 and went to bed at 3.30am.

With a couple of days to go we soon hit the jackpot, we come across a school of large kings not that we could sound them and three anglers were bent over the rail in pain, what we witnessed next I don't think I will ever see again with three kings over 40kg coming on board.

Dan with his weighed at 41kg caught on the Jigging Master Fallings L and PE5.

Jarrod with his weighed at 42kg caught on the Jigging Master Fallings Special MH and PE5 high gear.

I managed to snap this photo of Deano hooked to his monster, the Jigging Master Monster Game L getting seriously bent !

Deano with the end result, weighed at 44kg, the old FA stella still going strong !

Buzz with a 39kg king from the same area.

Getting bent !

With another day it was time to hunt some bass and hapuka down, without the sounder we were a little worried but Steve worked hard and still managed to put us on the fish.

Buzz hooked to a big hapuka on the new Jigging Master Super Tornado H.

Oisin with his 47kg bass the biggest of the trip.

Myself with a 44kg bass.

Deano with a 44kg bass.

We had a wee visit from a pod of killer whales that thought it would be fun to come into the spread and within a meter of the lures.

A big thanks once again to Lance, Steve, Slappy, always a pleasure fishing with the best in the business !

Cheers Coxy