A mate of mine and I have been talking about having a crack at the super deep fish for a while now, and over the weekend we decided to give it a look.

I've not been out to buy an electric as i didnt know if it would be worth spending the 2k or so required if its not something I'd do more than once.

So the combo of choice was a single speed Tyrinos 30 loaded with 800m of 50lb Braid on a 24 kilo Penn rod.

This time my boat stayed home, and went out on my mates boat which was equipped with a 585-1KW transducer but never been tested in the deeper water, so this was a chance to give it a run. The plan was to start in shallower, see what happens and slowly move out. With the weather forecast being perfect for most of Sunday, time was not really an issue.

We started in the 170ish mark, sounding a around a bit, and did a drop or 2 for only a couple of BIG leather jackets but not much else. Next was to the 200 or so, again a bit more sounding but not a lot showing up. We then moved out to the 270m mark and found a nice drop off of about 20-30m which looked the goods, and probably worth another revisit to do a bit more sounding around, however we had changed out approach a bit, and if we did not pick something up on the 1st drop, then move on. The first drop resulted in one bust off, and 1 Bonito... bit strange at 270m Deep!

We made our way out deeper, and being beginners to these depths we were a little unsure of what fish actually looked like on the sounder in 400+ but none the less we sounded a lot of ground, and almost decided to head back in until we came across a school of fish. The school did not look real dense on the sounder (as some photos i have seen on FW showed), but showed a lot of fish. It was the best image we had seen on the sounder all day so decided it was worthy of a drop. Upgraded the rigs to 250LB droppers, BIG circle hooks, Baits you would normally only put out for sharks, and 50 oz Sinkers.

Down she goes......and down...and down... probably 4-5 minutes before you reach the bottom.. Now the first thought is holy shit thats a lot of line im going to have to retrieve on theTyrinos....And had not even considered hooking a fish!! well only a few minutes later the Tyrinos and 24 kilo Penn loaded up!

The call was blue eye....because we didnt know what else would be caught in these depths!

15-20 minutes later... up popped the first couple of fish!... too say we were pretty pumped was an understatement... First attempt of the deeper water, resulted in bagging from what i understand the species of fish that lives in the deepest water (Of the super deep fish).

2nd Drift, this time a little straighter on the school of fish, and as soon as the baits hit the bottom, the rods were loaded up again! Doubler Headers too!

The Weapon! Tyrinos Single speed..... Who needs an electric

All fish were between 15-18 kilo i think, so no monsters by any means. We ended with 5 between 3 of us from 2 drifts which was definitely enough.

Jury is still out on targeting deep water fish.... Blue eyes were a little dissappointing, didnt put up a hell of a fight, and whilst tasted pretty good, I'd put Dhu and baldie ahead of them. Using a manual reel, isnt as hard as you would think, and i would definitely do it again without needing an electric. Nothing like a bit of sweat whilst catching a good fish!

Will msot likely try again in shallower looking for grey bands, bass grouper and hapuka.