Kina, fulltank...bait - fish 29/7

Hi Grant- can you let me know where to get your soft bait hooks, had no luck at fish city. thanks

Thanks Rockhop - a few changes have been taking place with Catch, sorted now, the upshot is that Fish City Albany (and key account stores) will have them in again shortly. A few new items are under serious scrutiny at the moment   . These things take time. My apologies for any hassle.

Did ya see the sea out there, flatter than a very flat thing with something to lay down low about. Magic sight.

That welcome mental siren blurted. Scramble. A momentary crew for the day had to pull out. Turn key, gone fishing.

Seems like a few other people had the same idea for the day. Anchorite rock was a popular oasis. Fishing the baitschools encountered away from the crowd produced some battles with 'Couda in the greater gulf expanse. Only a couple of rigs were lost, the other times it was unusally rewarding managing to successfully bring the buck-toothed bait to the boat i.e maybe 'cos no Snappers getting jiggy w' it. So with extremely fuel efficient waters, hadn't been in around the Noises area for a while - yeah why not? A blat over there and an enthralling sight of Dolphins hurriedly gasping air while pigging-out. It was like being in a geyser field. Mucked around with the Dolphins a bit dropping the Sps here and there, no real takers, also watched a small Brydes Whale very slowly swim along close to a rocky shoreline by the Davids, water only about 20m deep. Cool-as.

The sunset wasn't too far away so since the sea surface was still sharp, a fillet or two of KY for the weekends smokers delight and the biggest Cod I have caught (duely crumbed and served with home-made chips)    ...not a favourite 'heart attack' recipe...a mate had a deep fryer (until he got married, and the wife put the geiger counter over the fryer - red scale of toxic waste apparently) anyhoo. The recipe involved eating packets of Cheesballs while quaffing beer, deep frying the spuds, rinsing hands in cold water from searing hot fat splatters, serve chips on one huge plate with an overdose of cheese, salt, sauce, bacon if you can be bothered but usually the Cheesball/beer entree prevents this happening. Fishing lies are well flowing by now so defrosting and cooking bacon is just way too hard. On 'Special' menu night, i.e usually after a days fishing followed by much neighbourly manhood banter...catching some slightly heftier Big Reds than a scale would show, and so on...   ummmm    add anything else from the fridge like cream cheese, ground peppercorns, fresh chillis, and more of other types of cheese

We've both been banned from said practice by his Missus.

Even with such a compelling counter strategy honestly stating that surely this delicious nutritious meal is good, because as ya arteries clog up, the heart has to work harder to pump the blood through, heart is exercised. Simple!

Case was lost. Bless her.



So what do you do when you get your hands on the Binford 5000 of meat grinders?
You make salami.
The ingredients are straight forward, the instructions I understood, so no doubt a particularly cunning chimp could follow them. This time round there's some Venison and some smoked Mahi Mahi (...how cool having some of that around the place) getting included.



Nevertheless this monkeys salami making result is best explained by the noticeable absence of salami within a scary space of time once released from Bradleys grip.

The smell is so good it must be illegal.

But don't put great slabs of Salami between two thick pieces of fresh bread. There's no turning back.

Immmm, must get me one of those machines and the smokler o go with it.  I had the pleasure of some Venison Salami the other day and it was darn good ! ! !

There's only so much ya can take, and not-fishing is like Dark Matter, completely unknown territory, so to avoid impending catastrophic mental implosions, well 'round my place lately anyhoo, it's been just too long, so a fishing day or two was not hard to be talked into, even though it did mean getting the key from Bretts Marine on a Sunday. Mind you mid winter is a great time to get upgraded trailer axles, heavy duty bearings, rear end of the car's rusted bits replaced, cheap when I think of the launchings I guess , throw in some 'flu of the pork variety, topped up to the gunnels on various coloured pills from the knee surgeon, fortunately Trade Me came to the rescue and provided on-line sparkly toys that overcame the global consequences of me not going fishing, at least briefly, grabbed one of these superbike thingys, I had too, it was too good to miss, it talked to me, so what if it took that long to bend my knee to the right angle so I could hop on - you don't really need your back brake on an R1...





Must be the full moon again.
So although our baitfish and some closley related species on the food chain being 'mysteriously' poisoned in the Gulf lately, I found out some good news Monday (and tuesday).
The water temp is heading upwards, a consistent 14.5C, there is some excellent looking fishy-type activity happening in the Gulf. Pilchards being smashed up by huge KY, Mackerel getting hammered in the middle of the Gulf by just about everything, 'Couda all over the show menacing anything and everything out there and Snapper in very good condition, here and there.

Amatuer and I headed out on those James Bond smooth waters we had on Monday, no need for speed as it was a full legit day of fishing. A bit of a flurry to start the day just out the gap was promising and the bin had the right colours added. Nice rod bends.



And some nice tastie little pannies to break the winter spell




A lot of the right signs were starting to show themselves, the fishing however got slower and slower..it was an odd, eerie sort of time. Very pleasant as you can imagine, drifting along, barely moving really, no wind, glass calm sea, hot coffee and homemade bacon 'n egg pie. Gannets diving all over the show (that was a sure symptom), no Dolphins, heaps of baitfish and unimaginable quantities of Jellyfish, yet the water was as clear as ever. Lot's of big KY in even bigger schools all over the show, easily seen flashing past the boat at times. 'Couda amonst 'em, also making their menacing presence known. I lost two rigs, Amateur a few more too. Slowly but surely a 1/2 a dozen or so keeper Snapper to 56cm, some excellent KY fillets destined for the big smoke, and while the fishing slowed to a crawl I got into the last of the filleting and Amateurs Daiwa Octopus slow jig did the damage - best fish of the day!





And a nice bright sunny day it was




A fine day to be out there for sure. The best medicine.


But when presented with an opportunity Tuesday morning, well it doesn't have to knock too loud, I have good hearing when it comes to fishing . The call was made so by 9am it's power up time again with a very open mind as to whether fish for tea might be a happening thing again or not, I really thought if I came home with a couple of Snapper I'd be rapt. The moon, tide, temps etc all stacked on the boating side of things rather than catching fish, it was even flatter on tuesday if that's possible, found some Dolphins but the young ones were just into showing off and the pod wasn't feeding so we headed out into the big puddle. No specific destination. It was certainly an picturesque place, so flat it was gloopy, sunscreen on, virtually nonexistant drift - the Gurnard SP robbers were about, so a brief change to Gurnard SP style managed a nice keeper, then off on the Snapper hunt again. The same scenario of Gannets everywhere, Ky and baitfish schools busting the surface, great sight and sounds




A few more Reds pulling string







A few more of these critters




No wonder they can destroy leaders with those teeth




Trying all sorts of new rigs




So as the sun eased down a little, that nice warm glow and must time to enjoy some more bent rods



Roe already!




That's a KY that's hooked, but the 'Couda kept knifing in trying to grab the Screaming Pilchard rather than the Ky, we think. The KY didn't know which way to go!




Two great days out there, and seeing everything from Pillies flying through the air dodging Ky, Gannets dive bombing right beside us and watching while it catches and swallows a whole Mackerel, Dolphins brief grins and eye contact, Snapper stripping mega-line of my reel, the boat gliding effortlessly over satin seas, Ky providing the aerials, 'Couda the dark side, Snapper the prize, Gurnard the surprise..and having a tiny crab swim up to the boat was far out..



Roll on summer and a swim.

I wondered what had happened to the maestro, great report again.

always a top read espresso

Excellent report guys. Agree with Keith C, nice to see you back on deck Espresso.

Awesome photo's Grant. Love the look of that new R1 too, very nice

nice to see ya back on the water Grant. awesome looking weather there, would love swedish summers to be like that.

All good, all good indeed, cheers guys

Ground Hog Day, almost..as in ditto, play it again sam, de ja voodoo ... somehow somewhere there was a time warp in our galaxial niche recently, had to be. There we were again, Amateur and I searching the seas for some Snapper and a few smiles, on a weekday no less    With all good intentions we left before we woke up due to keeness brimming over i.e. throttled up early-as on the low tide, in a predawn haze, with a basic plan of very local dimensions. Head out and catch some Snapper, back at the ramp by high tide 'round 3. Sounds fair enough?

By late morning we were having serious doubts. You know that feeling, the glances, tiny little takes but SPs dropped just as quickly, could this be a day of zero fish? We seemed to be in the black hole of no fish.
A 'Couda or two, 3 Snapper and a number of hours with little to offer prospect of a change in fortune if we hung around i.e. we were at the party to miss. Some incredible luck bestowed on us by random dropping into a smooth patch of water - as we figured a totally calm drift couldn't hurt with a bacon and egg pie....and with the help of trying everything under the sun on the dash dangling in front of Mr and Mrs Snapper (every brand, colour, size, you name it, it was tried and nothing). Finally at lunchtime we found the combo that was to work virtually exclusively in bringing fish after fish for over half an hour, until the real feeding switch went on and we could use (just about) everything and catch a good fish. No birds, no Dolphins, nothing on sounder at all but a large low lying school we had happened across that was all sparked up by the Purple Pilchard
As we found out in due course it was a mixed sex school. A frustrating morning of very fishy signs but nothing bar a few Reds and a few 'Couda  to back it up, so when we found the colour du jour it was big grins and time for some fun!  .




Once the bite came on strong Amatuer got into using an array of stuuf that the Snapper found enticing. Very cool fun trying all sorts of stuff. Snapper certainly like the bling..






To say we had a blast would be lying, it was incredible. The Snapper were rising up to meet the SPs so they were hit several feet off the bottom on first drop, every drop. The ultimate in champagne fishing I do believe was stated more than once   It was very interesting to note that without a) finding the fish and b) changing many times to find out what would work (eventually found the Purple Pilchard on 2 - 3oz deep water rig/Jolly Roger, not the Torpedo lead head, was the go. Wow talk about discovery!)..until then we could have been looking at very slim pickings indeed, or maybe even going home, tails between the legs...glad we kept at it.



So we got lucky with finding the combo that started the days off and kept us in the right spot. Once into the fish, we stayed, as you do, then the feeding grew, and grew, it was intense - and once checking their bellies no wonder, they were empty, not a greeblie inside 'em. Geez even the Gerbils got into the purple power.



With the thrill and pleasure of aching arms and a full bin, time to stop fishing, no matter how tempting, and fillet a few for friends and whanau...



Oh yeah and once again when a little tug dislodges the SP of the rear of the hook, it has to be rigged back on properly, don't know about you but like this, Snapper are hardly interested, it has to be presented properly otherwise the action is wrong, no matter what soft Bait used, well the bites just stop.




A fantastic day out with memories for a lifetime, cheers Ian.

... of course waking up the next day, a nice surprise in that the boat was still hooked up, a courier pack of new 'possible's arrived, so a quick dash out the following morning just to see..

Lot's of baitfish near Tiri and Dolphins and Gannets milling around in the same general area..



and a heap of monster jellies wafting through like this one nearly a meter diameter




But the various parties didn't get together for a shindig at all, a quieter day with Dolphins playing and surfing the 1.5m swell, sun shining but the fish on school holiday i.e. the school had moved and weren't to be found/feeding. An obliging Red or two, but nothing like 24hrs prior. So here's what to do with the bits of Catch SPs - make up your own  

Grab the bits and pieces and a lighter, melt 'em back together..




And like magic a funky new SP to try. not quite as robust but can do the trick and make a heap more softies per packet...




With some nice Red colours as a result







And now while the boat is getting it's grooming, there's a nice smell of smoke lingering in the still air from Bradley with this lot inside..




 while the toys are made shiny, clean and ready to play again another day

Yep, there's a few spirng Snapper out there, not huge amounts, but they are coming....