Catching kingfish on saltwater fly Part 2

Adrian Bell describes the steep learning curve he experienced on the first day while chasing stingrays accompanied by salt-fly-eating kingfish. In part two, he hopes to benefit from some of the harsh lessons learned.

Upon waking up and facing the day’s conditions, we had a balancing act to consider. With a high tide at 7.27am, we wouldn’t have to wade out so far to reach fishable water and the nor’west wind would still be light. However, the autumn sun would be too low to easily spot rays if we started too soon, so we took our time over a ‘Kiwi breakfast’ at The Courthouse cafe.

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Next, we followed my brother Malcolm to an inlet situated between Collingwood and Farewell Spit. Leaving Malcolm to do some shore-based filming, Ben Booth and I hit the water at around 10am, with Malcolm set to follow soon after.

The underwater topography was more varied here than at the spit’s, including a series of channels of varying depths to negotiate.

Taking advantage of the relatively calm sea, Ben deployed a popper to land two kings from three strikes early on, while Malcolm caught one on a baitfish fly.

Ben, along with cameraman Richard Bell, continued his quest northward, where, because of a rising sea, he had to change to a baitfish fly to secure another king.

Meantime, Malcolm and daughter/cinematographer Nina headed inshore, while I scoped a variety of offshore locations looking for rays. Eventually, curious to discover why Malcolm and Nina had remained for such a long time in a spot close to the shore, I waded in their direction.

If only I’d joined them earlier – Malcolm had found a virtual bus lane of rays moving to and from the shore and, standing in water little more than knee-deep, had already picked up three kings.

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I stopped nearby and, looking seaward, spotted a large ‘bus’ with a load of ‘passengers’ heading toward the shore. They appeared as an array of blue-green lines ranked in the wake of the ray.

Right: get the fly in front of those fish; don’t stuff up. Now strip, strip – bang! Then “Well done, Adrian!” from Nina as my rod bent over.

Next, Malcolm hooked into his fifth fish of the morning. As the battles continued, Nina filmed her father and uncle swapping rod angles as our kings took opposite tacks.

Malcolm subdued his fish first – a real cracker. Then my fish appeared, prompting the exclamation: “Look at the length of that one!”

What a blast! The sighting, the cast, the strike, the ensuing battle – followed by the hefting of what was probably the largest kingfish caught by our party – epitomising for me what was great about fly-fishing for kingfish.

After hunting extensively ‘out on the plain’ the previous day, here was another strategy for capturing Golden Bay royals: one which hadn’t been anticipated, by me at least. Find a ‘bus lane’ frequented by rays, stand your ground and cast away!

The lane we had been fishing wasn’t particularly deep or wide, but when compared with the sparseness of the adjacent flora, it was richly colonised by clumps of vegetation. Also, the intertidal zone is populated by a huge number of sea creatures, including molluscs, marine worms and crabs – plenty of tucker, not only for the vast array of wading birds, but also for the three species of ray inhabiting the bay. So any investigation of their eating habits, of the reasons that they congregate in particular areas, and of the nature of their relationship with the freeloading kingfish, has to provide information of benefit to anglers.

Malcolm, understandably satisfied with his morning’s fishing, was happy to take his family to Takaka for the afternoon. Meanwhile, Ben and I checked out a spot closer to Collingwood, where Ben spied the latter stages of a work-up. However, it was all over by the time we got there (apparently dawn is the time to target work-ups in the bay), so we relocated to an area of soft sand containing virtually no vegetation. Only one ray was spotted, and that was moving too fast for even Ben to cover.

Was the lack of a firm, muddy substrate spoiling our chances? Perhaps. Having fulfilled a need to explore, we returned to the Bus Lane, where Ben soon hooked a fish.

After spotting a large ray moving seaward, I fired a couple of ineffectual casts in the potential strike zone, then told Ben, “There can’t be any kings on it,” while dropping the fly in front of its head on the third attempt.

I then had to eat my words as a nice king took the fly and fled, at one point seeking refuge on a ray with another kingfish accompanying it. (Was it the same ray it had been riding with?) Towards the end of the tussle I ran into trouble when the fish ran through my legs, but was able to lean on Ben and pivot one leg out of the way.

Meanwhile, Matt Jones, another of Malcolm’s employees who was fishing with another group, hooked and landed a larger king; Lewis, a member of his party, photographed our two fish prior to their release.

Next morning we made the mistake of fishing the same area. While Ben landed one fish and Matt guided Jeremy, a client of Malcolm’s, onto his first-ever king, Malcolm and I caught nothing. There were rays to cast over, but their train of kings had mostly deserted them. The result of pressure perhaps?

But we were satisfied: Malcolm had landed eleven kings, Ben ten and me four, with all twenty-five returned. It was time to get out of our wet clothes and head for home.

Questions remain: When do rays leave the shallows to spend their winters in deeper water? What are the temperature thresholds that trigger this migration? When do they reappear on the flats? And do the kings turn up at the same time, or later? There’s only one way to find out – go back again...

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

June 2016 - By Adrian Bell
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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