Headed over to Kawau Island yesterday morning in my little Stabi with buddy John Eichelsheim. Started off well when we found a bunch of biting snapper near some feeding terns, resulting in three of the session's bigger fish right away (although John wasn't quite as enthused as he was re-rigging at the time. Nothing like a buckled rod and squealing drag to get the fingers fumbling on knots!)
The rest of the morning was tougher, but we still caught at least another 20 snapper or so. New Penny and Bruised Banana in 4 and 5" worked for Johnny, while my 7" Motor Oil continued to perform throughout, and also caught the biggest fish of the day - a nice 5kg snapper that took on the drop in the shallows. This one, like most of the others, was released. And yes, we did lose a bigger one - it simply fell off in the midst of a smoking run.
The shallower areas around 3-15 metres appeared to hold the most biting fish, but we noted plenty of good sign - probably snapper - lying hard against the bottom in deeper depths around 20 metres. This area is notoriously tough when winds are from the south or east during the colder months, especially if they also conflict with the tidal direction.
-Mark Kitteridge
Editor of NZ Fishing News magazine
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