After a summer chasing round marlin I headed out to Little Barrier at the end of March with the old man to try and get a fish to weigh in the local Browns Bay fishing contest.  After catching some livies on the way out we anchored up in close. Got smashed in the reef by a couple of goodies, and only managed to land a few snaps up to 10lb. 

When the fishing died down during the day I jumped in the water and had a dive, crystal clear water was awesome. Grabbed a few of these while I was there.

Grabbed a few kina while in the water and moved around to a different reef for the incoming tide. Burleyed up the kina and the snapper came on the bite hitting every bait before it could reach the bottom. Caught a couple of kingis too. Right on dark I hooked up to another goody on a whole sweep who arched around straight into the reef. Since we were about to leave we pulled anchor and drove over the rock. After about 10 minutes just as I had given up we managed to drag the fish out, and eventually up popped a nice snap. Weighed the snapper and kingi in for the monthly browns bay fishing club comp and managed to take out first place for both with the kingi weighing in at 12.4kg and the snapper 9.1kg.

After a busy couple of months hunting stags and ducks I managed to get back out for another crack at some big snaps. With the bait tank loaded with piper we cruised out on oily calm seas. We anchored up right in shallow and casted back into the rocks breaking the surface. First run managed to miss the hook. Next run on a whole sweep again and the rod loaded up. After a few good runs the fish arched around towards the anchor making me call it for a kingi. Eventually a flash of red in the crystal clear water had me getting excited as a big red drifted up to the surface. After a couple of issues with the net the fish was in the boat. A quick weigh on the scales had me doubting their accuracy as they bounced over 12kg. 

Fished the rest of the day without anymore good fish, but managed to land a couple of kingis on live koheru and sweep that were released.

When weighed the next day at the monthly comp the fished ticked the scales up to 12.63kg or 27.5lb. A new PB for me and another win at the comp pulling in $400 that might go towards mounting the fish, still deciding about that one, fish is currently wrapped up in the freezer.

Last week I decided to take a mate out hoping to nail him his first 20lber. Filled the tank with piper again before smashing our way through a snotty 15-20kts of SE wind that was forecast to die off. Fished all day with the fishing pretty slow. With a couple of hours before dark we moved into a nice sheltered bay. While my mate was finishing tying the anchor off I flicked out a big chunk of fresh trevally into the bay. With in seconds the bait took off and after a good fight another nice snapper slid to the suface. We weren't in a competition this time, so after a quick photo and weigh the fish was released to hopefully grow bigger. This one pulled the scales down to 24lb. Bit gutted my mate didn't catch it.

For those wondering all these fish were caught on a Shimano Thunnus spooled with 50lb line using circle hooks. I'm sure I hook less fish using this heavy line, but the trade off is I have a decent shot at landing a good fish once hooked up, still get smoked sometimes though which is just part of fishing the shallows.

Video added