Fishing Reports

Last Saturday I had the good fortune of going for a fish with Bruce Duncan aka Captain Swish, his trusty sidekick for the day, 'Swordfish Steve' and my long time fishing buddy, Mad Mary.  Our plan was to fish the shallows and for Bruce to try out these Salmon pellets we have just got our hands on.

Bruce took us to a spot very close to the Rangitoto shoreline where wind and the incoming tide were working together for us. We arrived at around 7am and parked up about 10 metres from a small runabout already there.

The plan was to berley up and strayline half baits (pillies) as close to the kelp line as we could land them. In saying this Bruce anchored his boat at the limit of our casts so as not to spook the fish that might be about.

Usually story this time of year, nothing happened for around 45 minutes while the berley worked it's way into the shallows (more about that in a minute) and then it just went off.

Just about every bait we put just in front of the kelp line was nailed. Baits cast 5-8 metres closer to the boat were completely ignored. Most of the fish caught were in the 6-8lb range with only one small (legal) one landed. We set a limit of 3 fish each and when they were landed we caught and released, including 2 in the 10-11lb range. By 10am it was up anchor and off home to get under the Tamami Drive bridge before high tide.

Interestingly the boat right next to us caught no keepers & ended up moving to a new spot several hundred yards off to try their luck. The only 2 things we noticed they did differently were:

1) Not casting far enough back towards the area where the fish were, an extra 5 or so metres would have made all the difference

2) They were not using berley.  In our case I had given Bruce some of our Salmon pellets to try out. A bunch of these he soaked in a bucket overnight, just covering the pellets with water. By morning they had swelled up 4-5 times in size and looked like milk soaked Weetbix. This mixture he then moulded into "grenades" and lobbed them out behind the boat while also broadcasting a smaller amount of dry pellets. Well Bruce is now sold these pellets, is now in possession of a 25kg sack and is on the lookout for a slingshot with a cup on the end to improve his lobbing distance and accuracy!

Lastly in shallower water small "baitrunner" or in Bruce's case, Penn Live Liner reels clearly had an advantage over boat/bait casting reels. They were easier to cast and for striking a fish on the run with the bait. Bruce also was not using trace tying a single 7/0 hook to the end of his nylon and using a small sinker only if required.

When we filleted our catch, with the exception of one fish with a small limpet, all their stomachs were empty.  The reason is that over winter the fish are in grazing mode and live off the stored fat built up over summer. It is for this reason that tempting the fish to take smaller baits works better than whole ones. Once they come on the bite, then larger baits work well.

Big thanks to Bruce for the outing and for anyone interested in scoring themselves some of these Salmon pellets come down and see us or visit our Topcatch website for more info.

Cheers
Mike Anda
Topcatch