Surfcasting advice

Spotty sharks are not a bad ‘backup’ – kilo for kilo they are perhaps the toughest Kiwi surf species.

The New Zealand inshore fishery is diverse, and rock fishermen and surfcasters encounter many different species through the course of the year. Andy Macleod says getting to know these species, their favoured haunts and conditions, are keys to becoming a successful angler and keeping the freezer stocked with fillets.

There are times when I head out on surfcasting missions with one species in mind, but these are the exceptions, not the rule. Fish are fickle at the best of times, with most desirable inshore species remaining frustratingly out of the range of surfcasters for much of the time in our Wellington-Wairarapa area. For these reasons I like to hedge my bets, so normally head out with at least two species in mind and prepare accordingly. This means a range of baits and favouring locations with proven track records for producing different species.

In the north, this can mean locations capable of producing snapper and trevally; in central regions, red gurnard and blue moki; and in the south, it could be elephant fish and sevengill sharks.

A recent trip to the Wairarapa’s east coast reminded me why I’ve got into the habit of ‘hedging my bets’ over the years. I’ve long regarded this coast as a cruel maiden, with the weather and sea conditions weighing heavily on your chances (including what you will catch). In a brisk August southerly it feels a hop, skip and a jump away from Antarctica, and if you catch anything at all, odds are it’ll be spiny dogfish or red cod. Under a January sun it gets really hot there and feels like another place altogether, with sand between your toes and the prospect of one gurnard after another hitting your baits. A seasonal approach and careful eye on the weather will save you a lot of wasted time, but even so, you can never be quite sure of the sea conditions that will greet you on this exposed coast. Your first glance of the sea could bring a sinking feeling if you spy an onshore chop and dirty water, or great expectations if there’s flat, blue water and a flock of working birds. It pays to come prepared for either scenario.

On this trip I found pretty decent conditions: half a metre of swell, discoloured water in the surf zone, and cleaner water further out, just within casting range. A range of species was possible, but I had come with hopes of catching red gurnard and blue moki – the two most desirable (and fickle) species on this coast.

Sticking to the strategy of hedging my bets, my first cast was a paddle crab bait sent short into the discoloured water for a moki, and my second an anchovy bait cast long into the cleaner water for a gurnard. The beauty of this was that it also brought two other species into play – spotty sharks and kahawai – which are also popular species there. Spotty sharks, like moki, are specialised feeders that hunt the shallows and eagerly snaffle morsels of paddle crab (crayfish is another bait that appeals to both species). Kahawai like nothing more than an oily baitfish, like anchovy, and my ‘gurnard bait’ sitting out in deeper, cleaner water stood every chance of attracting one.

I didn’t have to wait long for my first bite, with something hitting my ‘moki bait’ hard and wrenching my left-hand rod over. Knowing spotty sharks usually outnumber moki by about 5:1 in my catch bags, I was surprised to feel an energetic moki pulsing around on the end of my line before being slid up the beach, dispatched, and put on ice.

Where there’s one moki there’s always more, so I quickly sent out another bait. I could have deployed green-lipped mussel bait (generally regarded as better moki bait than paddle crab), but I didn’t want to move away from the winning formula. Shortly afterwards, my other rod buckled over with a fairly listless fish on the end; I was certain it was a red cod – until a nice gurnard emerged in the wash. The plan was coming together!

I fished away for a next few hours, and had the rare (but welcome) experience of little bycatch. This meant I was able to keep good baits in the strike zone for extended periods. Casting long into the cleaner water was key to catching the gurnard; this water was right on the edge of my casting range much of the time, but I was invariably rewarded with a gurnard whenever I hit it. The moki were cruising back and forth along the shore break, deriving comfort from the discoloured water (if the water had been cleaner they would have waited until sundown to move into such shallow water).

From the comfort of my wagon, set up right on the water’s edge, I was able to target both species successfully with different casting lengths and baits. In the end I was rewarded with three more moki and two more gurnard, along with two kahawai and two spotty sharks.

I was fortunate on this day that my two target species and two backup species were present, but often this isn’t the case. When the swell is up it might be spotty sharks alone that turn up – and thank God for them! With their powerful, sleek build they scythe through the surf like no other fish and keep surfcasters in this part of the country entertained when other species have headed for sanctuary in deeper water.

In marginally better conditions kahawai also start to turn up. Moki are more tolerant of dirty water and swell than people give them credit for, but 90% are caught on very short casts in the shore break, a very difficult zone to fish when there is weed or any sort of swell present. Gurnard are the fussiest of the lot, generally only entering the ‘surf zone’ after days of settled weather, when a good base of soft sand starts to bed down.

By carefully monitoring the conditions in front of you, it is possible to diagnose which species are most likely to turn up on the day and target them accordingly. However, I will very often start my fishing by sending out a fish bait on one rod and a shellfish bait on the other, varying my cast lengths. Results quickly indicate which species are present, and in turn you may choose to ‘lock in’ on a particular species with both rods. This approach can deliver double-digit bags of quality fish if you maintain your effort and keep hitting the strike zone over and over again.

This approach is not the way to go about catching a trophy (say a 9kg/20lb snapper) – that type of fishing requires a specific, exclusive focus – but it is very effective at determining what fish are present and filling the chilly bin. In my local waters, this is what surfcasting is about for at least six months of the year. At other times trophy specimens are present, requiring a different approach altogether – something I’ll cover in another article.