Brent Rolston and I fished overnight on Tuesday near Waverley. On arrival, Brent motored away on his quad with our bulky gear while I followed on foot with my rods and camera bag. Follow the tyre tracks, he said. It was about 800 metres to the beach. When I got there, Brent was out of sight. The tyre tracks were heading in the direction of Patea. I then realised why he told me to follow the tracks. Two kilometres later, I arrived.

Brent had zeroed in on his favoured low tide 'point'. I didn't think much about it, but soon he landed two shoalies in quick succession. Then the biggie pictured below struck. We estimated it weighed 7 kilograms before Brent released it.

We were there to enjoy ourselves, not to have some silly competition. However, while Brent had two shoalies in the bin and was merrily chucking back anything he considered too big for good eating, I had nothing. I was feeling the pressure. I eventually clawed my way to a respectable score. We both caught eight apiece in the end. These other fish ranged up to a bit over 2 kilograms. No more biggies.

The hot bite time was roughly an hour before dead low tide. This was when Brent caught his first three fish, including the big one. The incoming tide up to around 10pm did not produce. We caught one each in that period. I caught four in the morning either side of low tide—on Brent's possie. Again, the incoming tide failed to produce. On the way home, I walked over high mounds that would have allowed me to cast above and close to deep water at full high tide. I'll look for those next time.

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Brent Rolston's 7 kg snapper, which he released—see second pic.


A 2 kilogram snapper caught by Brent Rolston

A 2 kilogram snapper caught by me .