T.F.M. Spotting - Tim's Salt Adventure

Tim Angeli, student and international fishbum, recently emailed a report from his first New Zealand salt adventure off the coast of Auckland.  It took four emails to get all the photos into my inbox but it was worth it to see his stellar T.F.M. Spotting photos and the fish that they caught that weekend. 

I thought you might be interested in seeing these photos.  I got the opportunity to head out and do some saltwater fishing on an island off the coast of Auckland over the weekend.  It turned out to be one of the best weekends of my life.  I essentially got to live in paradise (right on the ocean) for two days, fish all day, and spend the weekend with great people.  I landed my first saltwater fish, on the fly no less, within the first 5 minutes of fishing.  The day didn't slow down from there either.  The group consisted of me, my good fly fishing buddy from Auckland, and his friend who we were staying with.  His friend is a really keen saltwater fisherman, but not a fly fisherman.  He let us have some fun with Kahawai on our fly rods for a while, and then we turned our attention to the big boys.  We used the fly-caught Kahawai as live bait to target Kingfish, which are basically the biggest, baddest creatures with fins down here (aside from sharks).  We caught a ton of snapper throughout the day, more Kahawai on the fly, and I ended up landing a beast of a Kingfish which weighed 43 pounds to be exact.  

Honestly, it was one of the best weekends of my life.  I was rockin' my T.F.M. shirt that day, which has now been catapulted to the top of the list of "lucky shirts".  Although the Kingie didn't come on fly gear, the "bait" did, so it all started with the fly.  I'm using quotes on "bait" because catching the Kahawai on the fly was one of the best parts of the trip.  They are a phenomenal sport fish, respond well to a fly, and fight for all they are worth when hooked.  We also got a smaller Kingfish to chase a fly on the next day, but it turned away at the last second.  Just the chase was enough to get the adrenaline pumping though.  My mission now is to land one of these beasts on the fly.

Tim's T.F.M. Spotting photo is going to be a tough one to beat this month.  Unreal fish.

The game is getting stepped up in the T.F.M. Spotting Photo Contest with photos, videos, and trip reports that are making this contest nothing short of epic!