Tackle Tactics Surfcasting Message Board
[ Message Archive | Tackle Tactics Surfcasting Message Board ]

    Re: Calendar Update Archived Message

    Posted by Jase on 29/7/2012, 12:09 pm, in reply to "Calendar Update"

    Well, yesterday was, according to the Maori fishing calendar a bad day to fish. Um....nah.

    We headed up to a local beach for a look. The easterly was blowing about 50kph gusts, and it had a bite to it. The beach was scattered in one area with broken tuatua and cockles, and I was sure that there had to be something mooching out there. It was just into the incoming side of low and as we set up I found a tuatua still intact. This got me thinking so I went for a wander along the beach and found as many as I could.

    First cast with half a pilchard got neither Stu or I anything. Second cast I used a clip down rig with tuatua bait and pumped it out. 2 minutes later a twinge on the rod tip that didn't look like wind and a 30cm fat snapper slid up the beach. Sweet, this idea looks good. Within an hour I had a 30cm, 33cm and 35cm snapper in the chilly bin.

    Nothing happened for another 30 minutes so we decided to make tracks over the hill to some rocks we had found last time. We got slaughtered there last time because we were well unprepared for the terrain. Stu had bought himself a new set with 50lb rainbow braid. He'd also, on my advice logged on to the TT site and bought himself a pile of rig making gear. Me, being ever the optimist started with 8kg tied to a 40lb leader to try and combat the howling wind and increasingly big swell. We were dealing with a 30knot easterly and a 1.5m easterly swell. We waited for a bit and watched the water to determine whether or not it was truly safe to fish. We had a lot of high ground and exit points for safety, so in we went.

    The berley was pumping well and we had some of the biggest yellow eyed mullet I have ever seen in the berley. Stu was trying to catch a livey when he suddenly screams "Kingi!!" He wasn't quite on the ball. They were big kahawai around 3kg. Next minute he yells out "And big snapper!!" This got my attention, and we got our butts kicked last outing, so I was sure he was right. The kahawai showed up with a vengence, and man were they hungry. We caught 6 big kahawai in only a few minutes, keeping 2 for the smoking and releasing the rest for another day. Getting the baits down was hard work in the wind, and competing with the kahawai, but I managed to get a bait down, and whack! It hit like a freight train. My 8kg had no show. It pinged in a second and I wasn't even going to risk another break off so on went 15kg. Stu cast out the back of the berley while I was rigging up, and wouldn't you know it, he was into a big fish. The water, despite being like a washing machine was very clear, and I could see the fish from my high spot on the rock and he pulled it up out of the weed. I jumped down and grabbed the gaff, but he had already dragged it up on the rocks. I thought it it was bigger than it was, and got quite excited that my mate might have got a 20lber. Closer inspection told me it certainly wasn't that big, but it was a very respectable fish, and a pb for Stu at 4.35kg.



    He was dancing around, and after some high fives and some pics we were back into it. The tide was on its way out again and the swell had dropped somewhat, but still reminded us to be careful, and careful we were.

    After another hour we decided to go get some dinner, and reassess. I thought the beach might be worth a look through the low tide again into darkness, so we went down and had a look. The wind was worse, but the water looked really good, so we backed the truck onto the beach for protection and set up. The last of my tuatua produced nothing, so I rigged up some lumo beads and half a pillie. That did the damage and first cast I managed a 37cm snapper. Stu hooked into something big, and got it right into the wash before we saw a flash of white and the hook pulled. Whatever it was had some pulling power, because his little 12ft rod was bend big time.

    We both had several more bites that didn't stick. I began to fillet the fish I had and sure enough my rod bent violently and line started to peel. I grabbed the rod and it felt like a very strong fish, although not huge. After a couple of minutes up the beach slid a nicely conditioned fish bang on 2kg.



    We stayed for another 30 minutes, but short on bait, and well short on energy with the best part of an hours drive home we left knowing that a bad day on a calendar means nothing if the fish are hungry and conditions are right. One of the best days out so far.

    Message Thread: