Braved the cold this morning and got a few at the bay. Looking forward to my favourite eating dish- Panko crumb tonight. Thanks for the tips Shane.

Back to OP Sunday morning, was cold and when the fog came through, vis was bad. So thick at one stage the sun was completely blocked out and lost all sense of direction, really makes you appreciate those who came before us without modern technology.

With modern technology on my side was at my usual and picking up fish before long. Was a slow morning with a quite a few smaller throw backs. Fog cleared and hundreds of birds showed up frantically chasing and diving moving at great speed across a square km. Let the wind blow me home and was right in the thick of them at one stage. never saw what they were chasing but was a great sight.Kept 6 snaps between 35 - 40cm.

Nice trip reports there guys

Late report - last week on the 15th
Paddled to usual spot for throwbacks to 32cm, nothing really happening & for the first hr.
I was in a sort of back eddy with not much current & the lines were almost straight up & down .... on the bigger tides, its ripping thru here
Also tried out for the first time, a dry berley called "Murphys brew" its pretty good after being wrapped in a double mesh bag for slower release

Paddled out deeper towards the main channel, nothing on the sounder, looking for somewhere different before tide change
I paddled towards Cheltenham / north head direction in close & went over a reef that I had marked 3yrs ago.
Fish on it & around it. I worked out the current direction in the variable slight breeze then anchored up current.
Baits & berley down & fish straight away in the bin
A few minutes later, there's this boat coming straight for me at cruising speed, as it got closer, it didn't seem to slow down at all, the boat still heading to me, only to find out it a feckin MAF boat, straight over my strike zone
Hi, how's it going she says, gee its been hard fishing lately aye, boats we have checked had nothing
Have you got any fish to measure.... I was swearing under my breath
They measured a couple fish, then she tried to do the small talk, then left
I was sooooo pissed off, I knew it would be game over with the fishing & it was. Zero bites after that, bloody cold out there & drizzle just starting to set in
I know they got to do their job, but a little discretion could do aye
A boat can buggar off at 15-30kts somewhere else if its dead
A kayak goes at 3kts no where fast
I've had swimmers, kayakers, paddleboarders, waka canoes & now MAF go straight over my strike zone killing the fishing & ending the sesh..... yay - not

Hard Yakker wrote: I hear you BB, it hurts when you're in the zone and someone motors over you and buggers it all up, it's usually a jetski for me. I've been inspected by the fish police half a dozen times, I can't say I enjoy it, but the rules are simple enough, I prefer that they don't grab the front of my yak, but I wish them well with their work, however commercial fishermen working around Rangi with huge longlines, turns me into a raving lunatic.

Longliners perfectly legal. 1st april till 1st september,same issue in kawakawa bay,but they not doing it for nil ,so good indication where fish are holding.

Well this is a flash back.
Had fisheries approach me once on the water and their straight on fast approach scared the **** out of me. Also lent over and grabbed my kayak. told them if they back off I can spin around on my seat and pull them out and show them. They did not let me go and we proceeded to smash against each other in the chop, nearly tipping me out while they tried to look in my bag. Had a couple of goodies in the back and when they saw them they laughed and let me go( literally) Then wanted to have a chat about how I caught my fish!

Hard to knock people doing such a good job and I wish there was more around, but the whole experience was mind boggling.

I've been out a few times over the last few weeks, and I caught my usual bag of fish, but the water has been very dirty, with slime and muck on the surface close in, coming from the Wairau creek and city end, and a lot of silt and mud further out at 11-12m. When you bring your lure up silt comes of your line like a snap has crapped next to the yak. There is so much noise on the sounder it's hard to see fish, you can see the muck in the water, my hunch is it's sewage, but I don't know? 

" Mud",  if only it was just that

Hard Yakker wrote: Great fish Hopkins, congrats finding the window.  I hope the water was cleaner out your way than it's been round the Bays, God knows where the mud has come from...multiple developments? The skip on the commercial shark boat Stormy says the inner harbor, bays etc  is the worst he's seen it in 30 years, too much mud to put a dog fish net out...but I'm bringing the mood down, nice fish:)