uncleping_88 wrote:
Does it get crowded at Te Hapua? I'm prob going to be berleying a bit so don't really want some one to be shoulder to shoulder with me. Did you catch much else apart from the jds? How was fishing at Paua? |
Yep, what JK said. The wharf is tiny and if there are four of you with two rods each, you're chocka. I caught a JD and a couple of kahawai. The locals reckoned that they get everything from piper to sharks. One of them got a decent snapper. My lovely lady got a JD and something huge that got off - it may have been a stingy by the way it bent the rod and kept it bent, then again it may have been one of the kingys that I heard so much about but didn't catch.
I berleyed when I was there, and berleyed up not just for me and my lady, but for everyone on the wharf. It helped - I went from persona non grata (particularly unfriendly Maori boys fishing next to me) to celebrity in the time it took for the fish to turn up and start biting, which they definitely weren't before I berleyed up. Berleying is definitely worth it, I reckon.
I caught a kahawai at Paua and a whole heap of piper but for whatever reason things were pretty dead when I was there. I was alone on that wharf for ages which probably should've been a sign.
I was using salt baits (mullet, squid and mussels) and they absolutely went off everywhere up there(cheers Ahab!!).
Good luck up north bro. Try Ocean Beach if you can - I saw a dude pull in a decent kingy of the beach at the harbour entrance, and six kids fought with a monster kingy and got it in off the wharf at the Wagener campsite just around the corner.