A weekend on the ski

The base of operations was to be the swanky Grand Mercure Puka Park Lodge in Pauanui. Needless to say life for the three days wasn’t going to be too tough!

All we required was an additional ski to join the NZ Fishing News Kawasaki Ultra LX on the mission. Peter and Todd at Family Boats in East Tamaki kindly sorted us out with a 2017 Yamaha Waverunner. It had all the bells and whistles with heaps of grunt to get us to the fishing spots fast and in comfort. These guys went over and above to make sure we had trailer locks, tie downs and everything else we needed.

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With the weather window looking exceedingly average for Thursday but improving rapidly on Friday an early Thursday fish was put on hold. We settled on a morning in the office then head off to join the team late afternoon. Grant had packed the Ranger to the roof with the latest fish catching gizmos from Daiwa and Shimano, so after some final checks on the Kawasaki we headed off in convoy to our Coromandel destination.

Arriving at the Grand Mercure to a car park full of every brand, model and flavour of PWC fitted out with all sorts of combinations of rod holders and fish bins made quite the impression! I always find it a tad daunting walking into a room full of strangers, but it was quite the opposite with this crew. 

Andrew greeted us warmly and after introductions to a range of people, plenty of friendly banter ensued. A stunning dinner was served, and as the drinks flowed freely tactics and plans for the morning were hatched. With the Tairua Bar predicted to be uncrossable a few of us decided to head to Kuaotunu as that side should be sheltered from the swell.

Friday dawned fine and clear with light sou-westers predicted. The buffet breakfast consumed quickly and a supplied packed lunch stowed, a convoy of six skis headed toward Kuaotunu. A zero-degree reading on the trucks thermometer at Hikuai reminded me that we were definitely in the middle of winter! 

Only a slight surge greeted us at the ramp and in quick succession we were throttle open and headed towards the Black Jacks. Unfortunately, due to the high rainfall earlier in the week, the water around the coast was murky and not overly conducive to casting soft baits in the wash. So, after a fruitless hour, we headed into deeper water looking intently on the Lowrance to see if we could identify any sign.

If you’ve never used Bite Times https://www.fishing.net.nz/fishing-advice/bite-times/ I would thoroughly recommend you do as after several fruitless and frustrating hours of hooking nothing, the bite time kicked in right on the minute!

I was casting a Gulp 5 five-inch Sapphire Shine over some sign and had an 80grm kabura hanging over the back dangling just off the bottom. As the bite time kicked in, the softie was hit and the kabura got nailed too! 

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A quick fight on my soft bait set saw a nice 40cm pannie landed and put on ice. One down one to go! The little assist hooks on my kabura were doing their job well, still holding my second fish on the other line. Another quick battle ensued, with a similar-sized fish ending up in the bin. I looked up to see Grant hooked up as well. I quickly dropped the softie back into the water for another solid hook up! A manic session ensued, lasting about 20 minutes, but as is often the way, it ended as quickly as it had started. Half a dozen nice snapper now graced my bin, plus a bonus gurnard.

After the excitement finished, the quiet lull that followed encouraged us to pull the pin and head back to the ramp. With the tide now full, a reasonable surge was lifting over the reef, which made the extraction a little tricky, but the ski's handled it with little drama, allowing us to head back to our Pauanui base.

After a friendly weigh in between our team, the 'first-place' was taken out by Grant and Nigel whose fish were exactly the same length and weight, while second place was yours truly.

Over a superb buffet dinner, the discussions on the trials and tribulations of the day centered around the difficult fishing conditions. The swell was predicted to hold at a respectable 1.8 metres and the Tairua Bar again looked questionable. A plan was hatched to head south to Whangamata where the bar is usually crossable in most conditions.

Saturday dawned fine and clear, encouraging another early start for our south bound convoy. Further proving how easy these craft are to use, we had an uneventful launch and soon six of us cruised out and across the bar through the channel.

The surfers were having a ball as the swell was holding up superbly in the light off-shore winds. We upped the tempo and gunned it out to fish Dogger Bank.  With only patchy sign reading on the sounder, a couple of tough fishless hours passed. We tried several different locations closer to Slipper with the odd fish tempted to bite but nothing substantial crossed our paths.

Once again, bite times proved accurate and suddenly almost to the minute several of us hooked up and a couple of reasonable fish succumbed to the soft baits. I made an amateur error and having hooked the bottom spent several minutes trying to free the jig head. Finally, I locked the drag and busted it off. I then recast without resetting the drag and was immediately hit by a solid fish, only to lose it when the hook pulled because of the overly heavy drag setting!

A couple of nice fish up to 4kg graced a couple of ice bins but all too quickly the fish stopped biting. A leisurely ride back in was very enjoyable with the Yamaha proving a heap of fun in the oily calm conditions.

At weigh in the couple of keen lads who had braved the Tairua Bar and headed to the Aldies took out the prizes. There was plenty of friendly banter over drinks and another fine buffet wrapped up a tremendous fun weekend. 

If you’re keen to try your hand at jet ski fishing my advice is to get down to your local Yamaha dealer like Family Boats in Auckland or call Andrew Hill from Adventure Fishing to get all the good oil on setting yourself up with the right gear.

 

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

October 2018 - Scott Taylor
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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