Nick Jones fishing top 5

Broadbill Custom 'OG' Lure

Putting this item on my list is a bit of a laugh because I can’t even claim ownership of this gamefishing lure! It’s a medium-sized plugger of unknown age that holds a special place in my heart, having accounted for my first striped marlin – a fish caught off North Cape on my old man’s 5.5m Stabicraft festooned with surf rod outriggers and littered with spare fuel containers.

Just beforehand I’d turned a crashing blue marlin hook-up into an extremely short-term relationship by accidentally overrunning a sensitive TLD 50 that had strike set barely 1mm from free-spool. Nevertheless, my kind-hearted fishing pal Tom Bilkey let me have the next go and sure enough it was one of his lures that was again seized – this time the Broadbill Custom ‘OG’ as we affectionately call it.

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In addition to further marlin strikes, the OG recently accounted for a sizeable yellowfin tuna in the same vicinity, inhaled only seconds after it was deployed. Wrapped in a black outer skirt with a jellybean inner skirt, I feel as uncomfortable as an intermediate student at the school dance if the OG isn’t in the spread.

Gannets

I think my job on Hauraki Express would be a struggle without these airborne fish indicators. Even if we aren’t fishing a work-up, we’re normally fishing because there has been some gannet activity in the area during the last few days that we know about.

Handy for game-fishing, stickbaiting and finding livebait too, the only regular fishing situation I find myself in where gannets are rarely helpful is hunting kingfish over reefs and pinnacles. With numerous rookeries on both coasts of New Zealand, all anglers should take notice of these birds and learn how to read them.

For example, groups of gannets flying in a sinuous manner are generally in cruising mode, either heading to a new area or heading home rather than towards any sighted action.

On the other hand, low-flying squads flapping hard and moving in a straight line have actually seen (or smelled) something. High circlers indicate schools of baitfish below, and we all know what diving gannets mean – you’ve got yourself a workup!

Gannets sitting on the water are a tell-tale indicator of recent work-up action and the space between birds is proportional to the amount of time that’s passed since that action.

Jack mackerel

These fish are Tangaroa’s gift to New Zealand anglers, being readily available inshore around our coasts and available in a range of sizes to cater for a variety of target species – primarily kingfish, gamefish, snapper, hapuku and john dory.

Jack mackerel make wonderful live baits as they are easily consumed and tough as old boots, surviving repeated drops and associated pressure changes with ease. We find lure fishing for kingfish can be tough for beginners in the Hauraki Gulf, but with a wriggling, nose-hooked jack mack, all you need to do is drop it down and hold on – no spastic jigging required!

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However, it’s not all about live-baiting – freshly-despatched jack mackerel, either butterflied or whole, have probably been responsible for more 20-pound (9.1kg) snapper catches than any other stray-lined bait.

Braid

I cut my teeth fishing monofiliament and it certainly has some benefits, but braid has been a game-changer for many styles of fishing here in New Zealand. Bites on braid are readily detected when deepwater bottom-bouncing or swordfishing to depths beyond 500m, while lure fishing would simply not be anywhere near as effective or enjoyable without braid. Although you can soft-bait, stick-bait, jig and slow-jig with mono, the feel and instant contact of braid is simply on a different level.

For the uninitiated some braid to leader knots can boggle the mind, but a decent YouTube session and maybe a few tools such as a bobbin and a lighter are all that is required. I recommend learning only a couple of knots but learning them well, perhaps one suitable for light-tackle and the other for heavy-tackle. Oh, and I forgot to mention that braid can be multi-coloured – allowing anglers to know precisely where their bait or lure is at all times.


Kabura lures

How could I leave these beauties off the list! They are remarkably simple for beginners or even Rodney Holder to use but feature enough nuances and scope for refinement over time to keep things interesting for savvy anglers. Most brands work well, but of course everybody has their own preference.

Good success can also be had with lead sinkers in place of the more colourful (and expensive) commercially-made heads, as the skirt provides the bulk of the lure’s attractiveness. In saying that, on some days the kabura heads are viciously attacked, irrespective of whether a full skirt or merely bare hooks are dangling off the end.

Painting your own sinkers is an option worth considering if you’re a full-blown ‘bura’ aficionado. Personally, I’m a big fan of the rare and striking magenta kabura. The variety of species partial to the gentle movement of the kabura is wonderful. I’ve seen snapper, kahawai, kingfish, trevally, gurnard, john dory, skipjack tuna, tarakihi, blue cod, porae, pup hapuka, jack mackerel, slimy mackerel, leatherjackets, both sexes of pigfish, and scorpionfish all fooled – and that’s just in the Hauraki Gulf!

 

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

September 2018 - Nick Jones
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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