Chasing "Carrots" on the Kaipara

Once again another grate day on the "Mighty Kaipara" - My mate Darren gave me a call at the start of the week saying he was keen to go and track down some carrots on the Kaipara, Darren lives at shelly beach and he had news the gurnard were on there way in. Mid week we made a call to hit the mighty Kaipara on the Friday with the weather not looking to bad, I had to be there at 6.00am so 4.30am Fri morning I made my way to Shelly beach.

Darren ...already had the boat in the water so I jumped aboard and we made our way down to one of Darren's fav spots, It's great fishing with Darren and most of his spots that we fish average 5-6mtrs. Most people heading out on the Kaipara think you have to use heavy gear and in some places you do, there is strong current within the main channel and down towards the heads. Fishing on banks and smaller channels have allowed us to strayline with 1/4 - 1oz sinkers and on the odd occasion no weight at all, using 2500 - 5000 size reels on light rods mainly 3-5, 4-8 and 6-10kilo rods.

We do a bit of softbaitng and even throw small blade lures around but my fav is still straylining big baits back down the burly trail.

As we got down to his spot the sun was just coming up so we quickly dropped the pick and deployed the burly, we first started picking up Kahawai and a lot of them to but Darren was keen for a few for the smoker anyway. Most of the morning was a mixture of Kahawai, Carrots and Snaps - We were getting mainly plagued by Kahawai but in between we would get some very big Snappa runs and even had a couple of big boys bite through my 20lb trace. It was a great day on the water and I'm loving more and more fishing days on the Kaipara, over this season the Kaipara has been kind to us and some days it reminded me of the old days off the bays.

The hot bait for Carrots on the Kaipara was Gulp Alive Squid Vicious

Thanks Darren for a mint day chasing Carrots and we even managed a couple of decent Snaps....

Tight lines

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hot bait for Carrots on the Kaipara - Gulp Alive Squid Vicious