It was CSFC family fishing comp yesterday, so my wife and I entered. Conditions were about as perfect as you can get, flat calm water with just a variable 5 knot wind and while warm enough there was cloud cover so it didn't get too hot. There were four classes in the competition, snapper, gurnard, kahawai and other (no sharks, rays or eels allowed). We set off reasonably early, not with much of a plan but decided to stop in the Waiuku channel to look for some Gurnard. After an hour or so all we had found were some small kahawai so decided to move on. As it was approaching high tide we headed to a spot we use a lot in summer on the top of the tide on the flats between ropers and the Waiuku channel. Had some great fishing here. Soon after arriving I caught a nice trevally, not huge but the biggest I've ever caught. Then we both put some nice fat snapper in the bin and I caught a gurnard. It got me quite excited as it was the heaviest fish I've ever pulled in, but then it turned out to be a rather average gurnard that had tied the line round the burley pot. As usually happens at this spot the best fishing was over slack water at the top of the tide, and once the tide started running the bite dropped off. So we decided t go and try the Papakura channel, where the really big snapper live (or so I've heard, never actually seen any of them). On the way the fuel ran out and I had to change tanks over. While we were stopped I saw a few fish on the fishfinder so we stopped there for a quick fish. My wife caught a nice big snapper, but then nothing so we continued to the Papakura channel. We tried a few spots, but got nothing at all there. Finally we stopped near Hudsons deep where I put a kahawai in the bin and my wife put a gurnard in. Then we headed back to the ramp at around 2pm, feeling quite pleased with what was, for us, a good haul. We had six nice snappers, a decent trevally, a kahawai and a couple of gurnard. I was particularly pleased that I at least had something to weigh in for each class as the last few times we've fished we only caught snapper, so hoped to avoid total embarrassment at the weigh in. Arriving back at the ramp, chatting to others arriving back we heard that most people had found it a hard day and the fishing had not been good. This made us feel much better about having fish in the bin. We weighed our fish in, grabbed a drink and a sausage and had a chat with a few people waiting for the results. I was pretty pleased to come third in the kahawai and snapper section and first in other with my trevally. The snapper was close, I weighed in a 2.10kg fish and the second place fish was 2.11kg. That second place fish was my wife, I'm sure she mixed my fish up with hers in the fish bin
We weren't the only winners stood at our table, but I'll let mars tell you about his prize himself. Of course, my luck deserted me when it really mattered -nothing at all in the rum raffle.
Thanks to CSFC for a great day, I hope Smudge has arranged similar weather for the grunter hunter.