Posted by Jase (Wgtn - ex Palmy boy) on 13/9/2007, 9:01 pm, in reply to "Re: Manawatu"
Andy
This time of year when the whitebait are running you can have fun at most of the local river mouths spinning for kahawai. It's a great way to improve your casting, and for the most part is easy. A bit of advice tho. Buy a small combo or trout set, fill it will 4kg line and use 12g hex wobblers or grim reapers. Spinning for long periods of time with surf gear is super mean on your back.
One spot worthy of a try is the Tangimoana River mouth (Rangitikei River). It's easy access. High tide or late incoming/early outgoing is best on a clean sea. The whitebaiters will hound you so try pick a spot where there is less of them until the end of Nov when whitebaiting finishes and the river is a desert again. An alternative is to try further up the cut (about 300m upstream of the actual mouth) where the whitebaiters are rarely fishing. The kahawai will continue up the river for several km's sometimes so you can get them anywhere in the area, but especially at this time of year. You also have a good chance of getting a sea run trout of decent proportions (have seen a 22lber that looked like a soccer ball with fins caught in a flounder net there a few years back), or even the occasional salmon.