Some of the best fishing missions start off with a crazy idea. They’re often dismissed at first, but when eventually undertaken, they usually turn into an unforgettable experience, as Auckland’s Jackson Baker found out recently…

It was a quiet Saturday afternoon when my fishing buddy Brandon Breytenbach and I were sitting around discussing potential angling opportunities for that evening. Fishing the local lake or heading down to the beach for a surfcast were a couple of options, but then Brandon suggested we go for a soft-baiting mission around Kawau Island.

I laughed it off but soon realised he was serious, so I asked him how on earth we were going to do that as neither of us have a boat and our parents were busy that night. He took me outside to his kayaks. Within the space of about half an hour, we had a selection of fishing tackle, camping gear, food, drink and warm clothes packed and we were on the road heading north. 

The boys’ vessels of choice for their adventure.

Upon arriving at Jones Bay, we quickly put the kayaks into the water and started paddling across the channel. Since it had been so long between trips, I couldn’t help stopping while we were still in the bay to have a cast. My first effort was with a 5” Motor Oil Z-Man soft-bait and it got picked up on the drop by a respectable 40cm fish, which was kept for dinner. Straight after this Brandon hooked up to a similar sized fish, and we spent about 20 minutes catching a few more pan-sized snapper to take home. 

In high spirits after we’d had a good time catching a few snapper just a few minutes from the beach, we continued our paddle across the channel towards Kawau Island. Once there, we fished along the coast in the shallows without much luck, just catching a small fish here and there. I then spotted a small upwelling where I could see some current swirling around on the surface, indicating that there was some sort of structure underneath.

Without a sounder there was only one way to test this, and that was with my soft-bait. I cast straight towards the current I could see on the surface and let my bait sink down, but then it just stopped. Flipping the bail arm over and winding the line tight, I was thinking that either my bait was now on the bottom, or a fish had picked it up. It came tight, so I lifted the rod sharply, but my lure didn’t budge. I told Brandon that I was snagged and then gave the rod a couple of flicks to try and free my soft-bait.

Standing on kayaks is an option for those who back their balance, as Brandon proves here.

What I thought was a snag started slowly swimming away and I realised that I had hooked a fish, species unknown. It then did a massive run at decent speed, and as the sun was getting lower in the sky, I knew I was hooked up to either a big snapper or a kingfish. With only light braid and leader on my soft-bait set, I was a little nervous. After a 10-minute fight I saw colour, but the fish did another run before I could identify what it was.

The fish soon spent all of its energy and I finally had the fish alongside – it was a big snapper. My heart was pounding as I slid the fish into the net, and a massive sense of relief came over me as I lifted the snapper into the kayak. In all the excitement, we thought the fish was a bit bigger than it really was, but after settling down, we estimated the fish to be around the 20lb mark. I hadn’t caught a 20lber before, so the question was, “Would it crack the 20?” Unfortunately, it came in at 19lbs 8ozs, leaving me still knocking on the door of that exclusive 20lb club. It was still a PB for me and I was stoked with the fish, which fell victim to the same 5” Motor Oil bait I’d been using all day. 

Feeling good about ourselves with a few tasty pannies for dinner plus one big PB fish on board, we started paddling along the shoreline looking for a suitable place to camp overnight. We found our spot and pulled the kayaks way up above the high tide line to avoid being left stranded without our transportation when we woke up, and even tied them to a tree to be extra safe.

Jackson with his new PB!

After pitching the tent and setting up camp, we cooked dinner in the remaining rays of the setting sun. We ate and then relaxed for a while, waiting for the tide to come in a bit, and then tied some squid jigs onto our rods and went for a walk on the rocks around the corner.

Action was instant, with Brandon getting a reasonable squid into our bucket before I even had a chance to put my line in the water. What followed was an hour of non-stop squid catching, where we caught 32 squid and kept 11 for a feed. We were casting our 2.5 sized Yamashita jigs into a shallow gut, and they were getting nailed while they were sinking almost every time. We walked back around to camp and put the squid on ice before getting off to bed. 

The next morning, we woke on sunrise to the sound of splashing, with a big school of kahawai smashing bait in the bay. Hastily breaking camp, we jumped back into the kayaks and caught a few kahawai to add to our bin of snapper and squid. Paddling around the corner, we soft-baited our way back along the coast with not a lot of results, catching only a couple of small snapper. Content with what we achieved the day before, we started the journey across the channel and found a nice beach back on the mainland to have a quick lunch break. We cooked up some squid along with some crabs we picked off the rocks, before heading the rest of the way back to Jones Bay. 

This called an end to what was an amazing trip. It proved that some of the best trips are those last-minute ones where you take things back to basics and just go out exploring. Thanks to Brandon for providing the kayaks and being a great fishing buddy. 

November 2021 - Jackson Baker
New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
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