The plan was to rally up the Pure Fishing troops and meet up with Brett from Assassin Charters out of Sandspit. Brett had said they were having a good Snappa bite just North of Kawau over the past few days
We planned to get the greenhorns on to some nice fish with product that they had never fished with, As I went through the show room I collected up a couple of the new Abu Salty Stage light jigging rods (Spin & OH) and a couple of the new Veritas light jig rods as well. I was thinking what else we could put through it's paces, as with greenhorns they are great putting new product to the test. They don't worry about high sticking or really putting rods under some serious load not knowing how far rods can go before they brake.
I also decided to grab the good old Legion/Fathom 12 combo as these have some serious action and also a couple of the Regiments combo'd up with the smaller SSV reels - It was going to be interesting not only to see how these light combos would hold up to some serious abuse but it was all so a "NO BAIT" sesh
I had to leave my strayline sets behind but the great thing with my sets they are already very light so it was easy for me to take a couple of my own to thrash
As we headed out of Sandspit the weather had closed in a little but getting out past Kawau it must have only been 5-10knts all the way out to the middle. Looking for any bird activity there was not a lot of action going on, We had brought all our new Braid micro jigs, Squiddo's, Slowmo's and good old gulp softbait - I was starting to think, man we are going to need bait with no work ups around
As we stopped off around 45mtrs we could see schools of rat kings so we dropped our jigs, softbaits and it was all go. Every one was hooking up left right a center - The guys were stoked hooking into fish, It didn't matter what it was or how big but the yahoos kept on coming. A couple of the guys made it to the bottom and picked up a few small Snapper. After catching a few fish with rods buckling like they had never buckled before Brett decided to head a little more North.
We had been fishing for awhile and still no work ups
I was thinking we had come all this way and we weren't going to have a hot fishing sesh... How wrong was I going to be - As Brett got us down to a spot he said we would all hook up on fish we got a little excited seeing a few gannets working. We all reached for our choice of weapons and set them up with micro jigs, Squiddo's and lumo elevator heads for attaching a mixture of softbaits.
One of the greenhorns gave a Koha to Tangaroa (A nice combo at the bottom of the sea) but it seemed to work as we dropped our jigs and softies everyone was hooking up and hooking up to some nice fish to - We thanked her each time we pulled in a good Snap anywhere between 2-6kilo
after awhile it was all forgotten and she had already grabbed another and was hooking into them as well. Mal was working the new Braid T Caster which was smashing some good Snaps, I set up one of the combos with my fav Squiddo - Pinkshine, The big snaps just couldn't leave it alone and Josh one of the greenhorns was smashing snaps with it on every drop, and of the softbaits it didn't matter what we used - 6" grub new penny, belly strips was firing, squidvicious none of it was getting to the bottom
Mid fishing sesh the boat was surrounded by acres of pilchards and it sounded like rain on the water - There were millions upon millions and not really any birds in sight, what an amazing sight it was
For the next hour or two we ended up with a good looking bin, With the good size fish we were landing we ended up keeping 22 between 7 of us which gave us 3 solid fish each to take home - The guys smiles lasted all the way back to base as well.
What a great arvo out on the water with the troops and if you want to get into some of this hot action then you need to get hold of Brett from Assassin Charters - He has amazing knowledge and the knowhow to get you onto some good fish for a good time.....
Craigo hooked up with the 120grm Salty
Our cool little Legion combo fully tested
Mal fully testing the Veritas light jig 1-3PE rod - Swinging a 45grm Braid Micro jig
A few fish in the bin
The Penn Regiment under a serious work out
Josh with his 70cm Snap caught on the Pink shine Squiddo
Mal with a nice Snap taken on the Braid T Caster
Schools of pillies
Couple nice ones caught on softies
The Pure Fishing troop with a few of there catches
Go the Pink Shine Squiddo.....
The fish bin
She's choker now...
Thanks Brett for a top fishing sesh on Assassin