I have enjoyed good fishing in the Wairarapa, gutting and gilling as I fished only to have the fishing go dead and 15 min later have a series of tug of wars and bite offs with big fish. Kahawhai, gurnard, moki etc dont like 7 gills big congers and tope too much.

Ive had good fishing interrupted by the arrival of spiney dogs too often to be coincidence as well - particularly with gurnard in late
afternoon.

I used to use berley on a couple of Wellington west coast beaches to really good effect for terakihi and found that there were two fish that put them right off - congar eels and couta. Using berley was so good though that if I had it I continued to use it. Mussel and cray berley was ok but that wasnt so great for attracting kahawhai.