Yay for November snapper fishing!

Headed out from Tamaki Estuary aboard Craig Stewart's lovely Rayglass Legend 2500, accompanied by Rayglass' Ian Sullivan and fellow NZ Media staff member Scott Taylor. Beautiful day with 7-10 knot nor'easters. Tried Motuora first, but despite promising sign, it was a dismal failure, with 45 minutes failing to produce anything. We'd heard 40m off Flat Rock was firing, so started heading there, but I couldn't ignore all the snapper sign passing under the boat just a few kays further towards Kawau Island in 30m. Stopped and soon got into the action, with Scott leading the way - comprehensively - for the first hour or so. As someone who fancies himself as a soft-baiter, I couldn't fathom why 'part-timer' (Scott likes surfing best!) was being so successful, until, reluctantly, after several months using the same brand and colour soft-bait, I changed to a 7" Gulp - and enjoyed instant success. Interestingly, even the colour didn't matter much, with New Penny, Camo, Nuclear Chicken and Pink and Blue Sapphire all producing - these horny fish simply liked the Gulp flavour! Never had this demonstrated so graphically before - maybe it's a pregnancy thing?! It was also a reminder that every lure has it's day - so glad I'd bought a big pottle of them along to share!

Despite Scott failing to convert many of his bites into solid hook-ups during this frenetic session, he was definitely top dog, also landing the biggest fish of the morning - a nice fish of 5kg, followed by slightly smaller fish to Ian (a PB!) and myself. He might have been lucky to hold that position though, an obvious monster slipped my hook early in the fight - it felt so immovable it was almost scary. That's what I love about this time of year - almost anything can happen!

Great morning with a good bunch of guys on a superb boat - for more about super-keen fisher Craig, the boat and our fishing, read the article planned for the January/February edition of NZ Fishing News...