Sunday 26/8/18 7:30 am to 12:15pm
The forecast was for overcast weather with light SW and possible showers. The showers threatened, but stayed away. I took a colleague from work who was keen to fish some of the spots I've begged/pilfered from some of the legends of this forum. Redfinger pointed the way to a spot up against the rocks at Rangitoto, and another one not far from Browns Bay. Snap gave the thumbs up to another one near Takapuna. We left Okahu Bay and went to Takapuna first for the beginning of the outgoing tide. Used bait and berley and tried to catch some sprats but plagued by baby snapper. Had some KY bait from the freezer and put out some lightly weighted bigger baits, but all shredded by the pickers.
After about and hour with an empty bin, we headed for the Rangi shallows. "Russells Foul" showed promise with a huge run on a big KY bait, but busted off. Felt like a good snap. A while later a decent sized ray grabbed a flasher rig and had us busy. After about 10 minutes of charging round the boat it broke off. The end of the flasher rig bottom dropper was badly chafed and worn thru. Stephen picked up a panny and a just-legal snapper and I got a medium KY. But the pickers came back so time for a move.
The wind had come up, so to avoid a drenching in the FC 390, we tacked over to Takapuna before turning north to Russell's Rock. Put down a Salty Dog salmon berley and sat back to admire the mighty oil slick. We had been using salmon berley from Top Catch that had no oil, and was very slow to disperse, so a pleasure to use a decent salmon berley for a change. We were getting some good hits but more bustoffs and fish stuck in weed. We left with no further addition to the bin, but the spot showed promise, just needed a bit more time and experimentation.
We both got a small feed and enjoyed the session. Pity some of the bigger ones didn't stick.