First off, thanks again to Fishwhisperer for not only sharing his experiences and knowledge but also
giving some of us the inspiration to sometimes change it up and put in a little more effort to try new
areas. Been meaning to do the Kaipara for a while and Jason’s last report made the decision for me.
Thursdays weather window stayed open and the planned plan was put into action. My crew for the day
was Benedikt, one of our German volunteers who do a years stint in our disabilty sector as part of their
national service. Ben has only been fishing once before on the Manukau and even though they did get a
good bag, they were all the usual ͞barely legals͟ with the Kaiparas reputation I hoped to get him into
some bigger models. We hit the beach before sun up and got the boat ready, took a bit of time to throw
the cast net in the shallows for a couple of dozen small mullet…nice lollipop sized baits
Headed straight out and settled on the far edge of the channel in around 7m, tide was an hour from high
and just a little current so out with the flashers and a mullet on a strayline. Was not long before Gods
little green apples showed up (Kahawai) and we had some fun. First run on the mullet and Ben was in, I
coached him to be slow and steady and he was rewarded with a nice big copper flash below the
surface…not a bad way to start
This was followed by a steady trickle of kahawai, gurnard and snaps. I was more than impressed with the
famous Kaipara carrots, big, fat and feisty. The biggest of the bunch picked up one of my snapper baits, a
ky fillet on a big 10/0 J hook. Even pulled a bit of string and had me guessing what the hell it was till it all
came up red
Given my experiences on the Manukau and even east coast and also from other reports, I really
expected to have to wade through a lot of smaller and undersized snaps to get some decent keepers.
Unless we have had a very slow day we try to only keep snaps over 32cm, no problem here. In total we
caught 10 snaps, only 3 of them were below our limit and the rest measured out at 39, 43, 44, 49, 50, 51 and 51. Gurnard 38 to 45cm and all medium sized ky.
All fish were very fat and have been feeding up large. Snaps had loads of mussel shells in their stomachs
and one had a huge mantis shrimp in him, gut cavities packed with fat . Checked some weights against
the measure/weight calculator, 51cm snap calculates at 2,53kg....we will need to call weight watchers,
these snaps came in at around 3,5kg. As I said, these fish are very well conditioned.
All round an awesome day, one hell of a benchmark to start off with and it sets future expectations very
high. My first trip to the Kaipara was an awesome one and it definately wont be my last.