fishings been very good around my neck of the woods,thought i would post up a few things that im doing to maybe help out,mixed in with a fantastic trip i had last night.
its incredibly hard to look at a flat ocean and resist the urge to head off fishing,hot days ,lots of boats moving about,bad fishing reports on here..
just a few things that will put me off,mucked around at home as long as i could then thought bugger it im off

yesterday i launched at hatfields at 4.30pm,headed to my spot, stopped looked at the sounder.
lots of bait no bottom sign and more importantly no drift.
while everything looked less than ideal its still worth a cast or 3.
flicked a s/b around in every direction,not a touch.
marked the bait on the sounder for later  then moved off.
what to do ? headed to flat rock to fish the deeper water on the edges of the foul.

did a bit of a reccie around the place,out to the east can be good on the incomming tide,fish seem to like sitting here.
nothing at all showing,still did a few casts to make shure.
headed back in to flat and set up to drift the eastern edge of the foul.
wind was about 12knts of northerly

the marks are all spots where good size fish have been caught on previous trips so a good area to start,the drift was almost perfect.
very little sign but i knew there would be a few  fish here.
lightly weighted s/b,5 inch shad 4 pd braid.
while this rig works for me it may not be everyones cup of tea.
the most important part is what ever lure be it s/b or jig needs to be light and as small as possible  and flutter down.
spawning fish may not be hungry but they are protective,they dont want anything in there space and will lash out in anger.
with this in mind you want the lure to hang around in there face as long as possible
to get that reactive bite.
Remember as well they are spawning so a big meal may not be what there after,do you sit down to a 3 course meal after bedroom acrobatics ? No probably not so dont be afraid to put on a small lure.
All my large fish this season have been on small baits.
hope this is starting to make sence,its a hard thing to do as it might take a few drifts to get 1 fish and may take while to get your technique right.
Dropping lightly weighted baits can be a bit of an art,if you cast it out in front of the boat/ drift just let it sink ,keep any slack line on the reel and wait till the lines out the back.
After a while you will hone this technique to the point you know when its on the bottom and when to retrieve.
Dont be fussed on to much movement,concentrate on presentation.
Even a 1/2 ounce weight will get bottom time with a 1.7 knot drift in 40 mtrs of water.
In saying all of this its still important to strike at anything that feels like a touch.
How long do you drift for ?
i just drift till i think its time to go back or ive travelled off the area im targetting,if i get a fish i push the M O B  button and temporarily  mark the spot.
If i get another fish in the same area on the next drift ill shorten up the drifts concentrating on the area where the fish are.



1 hour gone and multiple casts for 4 snapper in the bin.
no specific colour s/b but they were all  caught on the drop and 5 inch or less size baits.
with the fishing hard and evening aproaching i thought back to the bait i marked earlier.
2 gannets flew past in that dirrection and that was enough to get me moving back.

perfect,sun going down a few random gannets diving.
headed up well past the bait i had marked,this is important as you want to be set up well before you hit the spot,wind was a good 15 to 18 knts of SW.
drift was fast (1.7 knts)as i has lost my good sea anchor and had a bucket and a small drougue out.
sounder looked awesome,snapper in mid water just like the last few trips

this shows snapper and bait,the red patch mid water has been typical of this spot.
The dark red spot is bait with snapper around it,these bait balls have been pushed up to the surface by what i can only belive is snapper,no kahawai or kingies caught or seen.
Why else would the bait surface to get attacked by gannets?
not wanting to give to much away but this depth has been good.
1st cast good size  snapper in mid water,s/b swallowed.
2nd cast another good  snapper in mid water.
back for another drift (drifted 550 mtrs)
went back past the start of the 1st drift by a good 100 mtrs.
3 rd cast limp line,wind in the slack and its on,fish ran back under boat or ive drifted over him  ..awesome run,good scrap and nice fish released around 6 kgs.
2 more smaller fish  fish on this drift ,so far a fish on every cast
moved back up to drift again this time into 10 mtrs off the weed line.
cast a 1/2 ounce jighead with a 5 inch gulp  curry chicken crazy legs (my favourite bait).
what happened next was pretty special,great fight with 2 long runs.
fast drift so pulled the sea anchor and put motor in reverse.
something told me this fish was a wee bit bigger than the 6kg fish i released earlier .
all those horrible thoughts ran thru my head,is this my 1st over 20pd ,will the 4 pd braid snap,should i have retied my loop knot,is it hooked proper..
was getting dark when the fish surfaced,20+ minutes to the net.
fish came in dead,didnt even  kick when in the boat,hook fell out of her mouth in the net..
was certain it was a PB, couldnt get fingers around tail,and it just looked big.
threw her in the bin

went back for another drift,still hitting baits but now they were seeminly just under the surface.
next fish was  around 5 kg,let him go still buzzing about the big fish.
pretty good fishing when your in a hurry to release a fish like this to get another cast in.
this session carried on for another 6 drifts..unforgetable fishing, i certainly wont forget it .
released around 20 fish.brought home a good feed
photo below of the main area for the last 2 trips,you can see theres alot of drifts there.
ive cropped out the  area im hitting the bigger fish but those weigh points are large fish.
sometimes its many drifts for a few fish but theres usually a good fish mixed in with pannies



got home at 10pm,weighed the big girl at 19.6 pds.
very hard to be disapointed in that,not far off a new PB
photo on the mat for the fishing comp.



78 cms,more than happy with that.

so that was it,many memories in the memory bank,truly epic fishing.
my little spot has been producing consistently for nearly 6 weeks,very specific bite times that can be as short as 30 minutes or as long as 2 hours.
can be early morning or late avo or even start as  late as 8 pm ..
Has never produced during the day...
Most important thing is to do a bit of home work,dont be afraid of a wee bit of wind,read the reports on here,ask questions etc.
Most importantly dont get hung up on a certain style of fishing,try everything,you just never know when the line will go limp and that big fish has your hook in its mouth...

Well done :) 

Great report & nice pics~~the sounder in particular.

Great report and well done - thanks.

Great report, thanks for passing along your knowledge.

Awesome report - cheers !! 

Good to see they are in that area, the spots up by flat I had my best fishing at on the 1st of Jan last year, might hit a early morning mish tomorrow for a go.

real nice report thanks

Excellent report of2fsh, so close! Going to happen soon for you mate.

Skills wayne, love the report quite a few secrets of the trade in that lot, nice fish bro!!
Few drifts in that lot, don't give away 2 many secrets mate