A plan was hatched late last week for Olfart , Far Quirk and myself to hit the muddy on sunday .
The
weather was a bit iffy with the westerly but we planed to fish the lee
of the Awhitu penninsular for carrots and the Papakura for snaps when
the tide and wind were in the same direction .
We met up at and launched from Te Toro at seven and 20 mins later we were fishing off Pollock for gurnard .
Only fish there were throwback snapper and a couple of keeper trevs .
We then upped anchor and headed to the Papakura half an hour before slack tide .
Checking out the sounder while heading to my normal spot I spied structure rising to 17mtrs from 22 mtrs with some good sign .
Anchoring
where upstream would be once the tide turned we started off catching
snapper but not of any quality , I think FQ landed the first fish that
went in the bin .
The wind and tide were playing havoc with our line
angles but once slack water came and went we soon were facing the right
direction .
I took a bit of time out and started throwing crushed up
in their shell pipis overboard and OF chucked some dehydrated burley
over to compliment what I started .
We soon started catching and filling the bin with nice pannies when I decided I'd show my good companions a trick
I cut the head off the smaller trev we had and stuck an 8/0 recurve hook in its mouth and out its nose and dropped it over .
It had only soaked a minute or so when the rod bent over and line started peeling off the TLD15
I fish this reel at strike set at 2kg and I was losing line fast .
It
sure felt like a snapper but it took a big run out wide and opinion on
the boat suggested a king . I had to agree when it changed direction and
headed for the anchor warp .
I soon got it in an up and down fight and when it came up I yelled ..
IT'S A SNAPPER , A BIG *#@!EN SNAPPER , GET THE NETTTTTT ! ! !
And the net was got .
And FQ netted the snapper
Holy moly ( and other choice words ) were exchanged .
" That's gotta be a 20lber "
A quick search of the boat found some scales and on the rocky boat it weighed close but the numbers fluctuated either side of the magic mark , only calibrated scales would reveal the truth .
Once the photos were taken care of , OF and FQ continued to fish and continued to catch .
I on the other hand retired with shakey hands and knots in my stomach randomly texting everyone and anyone
While the bin was being topped up I was anxious to get back to the ramp and we decided to cut short the trip ( the shortest trip ever for us three together
)
Back on the scales it went 8.62 kg
One pound shy of the magic mark and acceptance into " the club "
But it's pretty hard to be disappointed with a new PB
A fantastic day out with Grant and Geoff and the second time we've been together where I have got a PB snapper on the muddy .
Must be something in that , I think I'll keep them on