Landbased on the West Coast

Charter boat captain Nick Jones knows how to make the most of his days off. A west coast landbased session was the latest trip on the agenda, and it didn’t disappoint.

After spying a mid-week window where the swell was down on the west coast, I hatched a plan with fellow Hauraki Express skipper George Bourke and friend Tom Bilkey to head north for a day on the rocks. With a bit of a hike and some bush-whacking required, we opted to pack our bags lightly. Armed with an array of stickbaits, soft-plastics and only a few kgs of berley, we left the ute at the end of the beach and hit the track in darkness. Spurred on by the promise of epic fishing ahead, we made good time and arrived above our chosen spot just as the sun was rising. We were pleased to see minimal surge, some good current flowing past and nice clear water – fair to say the lads were fizzing!

We carefully descended the rocky precipice and set our gear up at a very likely-looking ledge. The first port of call was to get some berley in the water. Within five minutes, we had sizeable trevally and snapper swimming at our feet. Kingfish were our primary target, however, so we resisted the temptation to tangle with the fish in the berley. Instead, we grabbed our topwater rods and began firing wooden stickbaits around the ledge. It didn’t take long for the greenbacks to materialise – in fact, Tom’s lure was attacked on his second cast of the morning! I was the first to hook-up though and winched in a small kingfish which was duly released.

A moment later, George’s lure was pack attacked by a yellow-tailed gang on the edge of a big back-eddy, and he found himself connected to a better fish. This fish managed to peel some line before George quickly gained the ascendency, and I slid the king over the bull-kelp and onto the rocks. ‘Chahoos’ all round for George’s first king off the rocks! After a quick photo session, he slipped his prize back into the drink. I was up next, being privy to a spectacular sideways strike close to the rocks. Running some serious drag, it wasn’t long until a similar-sized specimen was in my hands for a photoshoot. We released this fish too – given the rock climbing involved, none of us were keen to take any fish home!

George Bourke nabbed the first decent kingfish of the day.

By this stage, the gut where our berley had been flowing resembled an aquarium. More snapper and trevally had appeared, along with a rat kingfish and a posse of school sharks. Bigger snapper were cruising back and forth a bit deeper, their pectoral fins glowing iridescent blue in the clear water. The temptation was too much now, and we swapped our topwater gear for soft-baiting outfits. George immediately hooked a freight train, and line hissed of his reel as the fish headed towards a patch of reef around the corner before busting him off. I was the next to be left licking my wounds as a big snapper grabbed a 7” Z-Man and took me on a ride before chomping through my 30lb fluorocarbon trace. In hindsight, we needed some more sturdy soft-baiting gear to have a chance at landing these moochers in such gnarly territory.

Trevally were a regular visitor to the berley trail.

With our attention diverted, we hadn’t noticed the school sharks closing in our berley bag. Before we could do anything about it, one of the pesky critters had inhaled the bag and torn it to shreds. This, combined with the upcoming slack-tide, resulted in the fish dissipating and the bite shutting down. Anyway, it was a good time to catch our breath and have a bite to eat. We decided to save our last berley bag until the incoming tide was running strongly and scouted out a nice crevice to position it away from any toothy critter’s reach. We had a few lazy casts of our topwater lures over the next hour, but it seemed the kings were having a break too.

The current soon began to run again, and we placed our final berley in the drink. However, on the different tide the result wasn’t nearly as impressive with only a few smaller snapper and trevally showing up… until a big greenback cruised past our feet! I drew my pistol quicker than George, lobbing out a short underhand cast. After two sweeps of the stickbait, the king made a beeline for my lure and inhaled it as it sat bobbing on the surface. I worked the fish towards the rocks before it realised it was hooked. At this point, it turned and dived down, pulling some string before the hooks pulled out. With the sudden release of pressure, yours truly ended up feet in the air and landing arse down on the rocks – perhaps my drag was set a bit too tight!

Tom was next to be in the action when a chunky kingfish began circling his live kahawai set under a balloon. Sure enough, the king inhaled the hapless kahawai and took off out to sea. Tom patiently let the line feed out before cranking up his drag. Much to our dismay, the hook didn’t set and the big fish spat out the kahawai – bugger.

Tom Bilkey managed to land the best snapper of the trip.

After this incident, we kept casting and changing lures – achieving a couple more strikes but no solid hook-ups. As the day was wearing on, we decided to put our final efforts into trevally and snapper. We landed a few modest specimens – nothing akin to what we’d seen at the start of the day, although Tom nabbed a nice snapper. A squall then came through, bucketing down torrential rain on us. It was therefore an easy decision to pack our gear up and begin the trudge back to civilisation and most-importantly KFC. We’d experienced an incredible winter’s day, found an epic spot, seen some awesome fish swimming around at our feet and landed a few solid ones. We vowed to return again in search of bigger kingfish when the next opportunity allows.