fishwisperer wrote: Hi bazza If I wasn't heading to the far North next weekend I would of probably talked Darren in to a Sunday mish - There are stacks of Kahawai on top of Kahawai (can't get away from them) and plenty of Carrots there - Last week if we weren't concentrating on the Snapper we would have binned up on the Gurnard for Shaw - I had my gurnard rod in the corner just constantly buckled over with Gurnard attacking my baits but just left it to hook themselves... Good luck Mon and let us know how you go if you head West... Cheers Jase |
bazza wrote: Weather looking good for Sun on the Kaipara then for most of the week. Anyone planning on going out on the harbour Sun ? If so would appreciate any feedback on how you got on which will likely influence our decision of where we go Mon ie the Kaipara or the Gulf. Last time out a few weeks ago we found the harbour virtually devoid of fish both on our lines & showing on the sounder until we moved over towards the entrance side. We put it down to the chilly water temps along with the amount of rain water flowing in & those conditions have been pretty much consistent in the interim. I can perhaps understand the snapper not being prevalent given the colder water temps, but puzzles me where the KY & gurnard that tolerate or even relish the cold disappear to. |
bazza wrote:
 OK ... the Kaipara was decided on for an early morning start yesterday ( Mon )  On the way to the ramp at Mungakura I expressed concern about the patches of misty fog lying about & even more so when it became apparent there was even more out on the water, to the extent I declared that if it was noticeable at the ramp, then I would opt to abhort the mission.  As it happened it was perfectly clear at the ramp so launched as intended & navigated out a bit beyond the channel markers before we were suddenly engulfed in this ( bottom pic ) which was to worsen.  We decided as there was no chance of finding our way back to the ramp under the conditions we would be best to push on in the intended direction until we reached deeper water, but in the interim we would wait at anchor for awhile in the hope that conditions may clear enough to see where we were going. Despite only being in less than 2 mtrs of water decided we might as well cast a bait out the back to ease the tedium of waiting & almost immediately my rod had a good size KY attached which went in the bin. Shortly after there was a partial clearing lasting only a matter of seconds but long enough to make out a line of nearby mangroves that should not have been there so it was up anchor & away supposedly in the general direction of where we wanted to go but stopped once we realised we were "lost" with accompanying uncomfortable feeling not eased by the fact Lloyd boated our second KY.  As anyone familiar the Kaipara will know it is not the ideal place to be, lost in the fog in shallow water on a falling tide & it appeared that our fishing trip at best, might lend itself more towards becoming a sand building completion ! Tried sourcing info from the GPS but to our total dismay found it was giving our position as close to Tiritiri Matangi which of course is on the east coast & we were on the west ???????  After some divided speculation between the two of us we resorted to google maps on Lloyds' phone which showed a speculative position but was a "locked image" inasmuch as it did not show in which direction we needed to move, a situation made all the worse by the fact we were being afforded momentary glimpse of totally unfamiliar land profiles. Altho I vigorously disagreed with his assessments it was to prove that Lloyd had a much better idea of where we might be & the direction we needed to go than my totally disorientated version, a fact that was reinforced when we caught a glimpse of some familiar cliffs.  Eventually we found the deeper water we were after & it became apparent that instead of having headed towards Orongo Point we had ended up well on the way to the unfamiliar territory towards Stables Landing.  The irony was that once we finally found the general location we wanted to be in the conditions began to gradually clear until they became idyllic. ( top pic )  Regrettably the same can not be said for the fishing as we could barely buy a bite let alone hook a fish so as low tide approached opted to have a dredge for scollops which was only marginally more rewarding but after 3 or 4 drags had only accounted for about 1/2 dozen, even tho may have eventually reached our quota it would have risked using up a lot of fuel in addition to that already burnt up when lost.  Went ashore for lunch & in anticipation of a least a bucket load of oysters had those hopes dampened when they were found to be prolific but unfortunately in less than prime condition.  OK so the overall bounty for the day may have less than rewarding but had still enjoyed some magical weather, the fog excepted & more by luck than good judgment had avoided the potential of being stranded on a sandbar even if the fish tally would probably have remained the same.  Four guys we spoke to on another boat that were locals that knew the area had not managed to boat a fish between them, so the fact we had managed two that made us feel slightly better.      |
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