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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Fraser Hocks Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Kahawai Thread
    Posted: 06 May 2014 at 6:03pm
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Nice work Tom. There a great fighting fish!

Just following up from our discussion regards Kahawai In WA, I though you guys might like this little video clip? 

 

The Kahawai do a spawning run up the WA coast from the South West which usually starts around Easter / Anzac weekend.  On their migration they tend to predate on what they call Herring (not a herring at all, but a smaller version of a Kahawai).    In the video you can see the kids first picking up the “herring” which have been chased onto the beach by the Kahawai then catch Kahawai as they beach themselves trying to capture the herring.

 

Trust me boys if you want to target big Kahawai, then Autumn in the south west of WA is the place for you!  

 

Enjoy! 

PS. Sound quality is atrocious
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Fraser Hocks Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 May 2014 at 6:10pm
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Oh that big black shape you can see just a few meters off the beach is the main school of fish.  These schools can reach 50 ton in size.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote desmofrankie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 May 2014 at 6:38pm
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Jeeeezz.... gime a fly rod!!!!!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Millsy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 May 2014 at 7:00pm
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I used to see events similar to this on the south head of the Manukau just inside the bar when I was a teenager. Used to. Maybe the recreational fisherman fished the big ocean going schools out?

Biggest I ever caught was 4.6kgs on 2kg. We thought we were breaking world records...LOL
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Ahab Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 May 2014 at 7:56am
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Awesome, Fraser. I've seen similar schools in South Aus, but not right up against the beach. Are the herring the same as tommy ruff?

I've heard that every so often a bronzie (or maybe bull-shark?) comes and smashes the kahawai party, and it's an amazing sight.

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Fraser Hocks Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 May 2014 at 8:46am
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Yea Tom, same fish. In the eastern States they call them Tommy Ruff and in the West Herring. Same fish, different name.
http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/recreational_fishing/fact_sheets/fact_sheet_australian_herring.pdf

Yea the Bronzie’s get fat at this time of the year. You often see footage from aircraft of packs of bronzie’s gorging on a school of Kahawai. Very impressive stuff and reminds you of why so many people in WA get taken by sharks each year?

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote DeVille Incarnate Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 May 2014 at 8:58am
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The annual sardine run (they're not really sardines, they're pilchards) up the East coast of Southern Africa is very similar, although they don't come right onto shore too often.

Fantastic getting into the various game fish on the edges of the 'run' while everyone else is going crazy collecting pillies with whatever comes to hand - hands, buckets, skirts, you name it!! Quite a spectacle!
Approach with extreme caution - I NEVER look where my back cast is going....
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Fraser Hocks Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 May 2014 at 9:47am
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Sounds Awesome Geoff. Makes me think we should start a thread related to great fish runs around the planet. I know for sure the Salmon runs in Alaska is on my bucket list. Not so much for the fishing, but more to see such a spectacle. I was meant to go for my 40th, but funds ran short. One day, one day!

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FISHBYFLY Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 May 2014 at 5:15pm
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Hey FlybyNite, just wondering what the Predators were youd target In SA,?
Photos?
Cheers
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote DeVille Incarnate Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 May 2014 at 7:50pm
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GT's mostly Adam and Garrick (Leervis), Shad (Bluefish in Oz), a number of shark species and of course the pelagic predators in the deeper waters offshore, including whales.

You Tube is crammed with footage - enjoy!
Approach with extreme caution - I NEVER look where my back cast is going....
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 May 2014 at 8:30pm
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Used to be a regular sight in NZ. Massive dark schools that could easily be spotted from a high dune - and most of the fish were big. We used to weigh them and weights were from seven and a half to ten pound and a bit. Lots around the eight pound mark.

Obviously kahawai were given the chance to grow older before the netting scourge started in the late eighties.

Haven't seen thick schools like that in the surf in a very long time.

Cat food must be more important than having fish in the sea Angry



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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Millsy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 May 2014 at 10:27pm
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Glad you mentioned it Craig. Although you would have a hard time convincing one commercial fisherman I know of in the Waikato who would tell you there are more kahawai now than there ever were. After all, he will exclaim "I filled 40 bins of kahawai's the other nite, got a ton. Made no money just paid for my gas and wages cause they are worth sheeet".

This is part of the problem you see. Here we have one man who is for the most part, uneducated and ignorant of what is going on outside his tiny world. He made his wages so he is okay. Never mind everyone else and the future.

On the netting issue; The recreational limit  for mullet is 30 per day per person. On a good week you can observe the same people dragging a net for mullet, at times up to 6 of them. So that in their minds is okay. They are taking their collective limit of 180 mullet and will be back the next day to feed the street again. MPI don't have the resources or backing to police that issue so it continues every summer with most people not really caring. After-all, mullet are only bait right?

Then there are nets that can be seen at along beaches that stingray and other "non target" fish get caught in and left to drown. But hey, as long as the owner can walk down to the beach and get something "edible" for dinner, it is his or her right under the current legislation to use this practice. Lets not get into an ethics debate here, I'm eating my snapper.

I still have friends who will net mullet, slaughter small tuna because there are no apparent limits for them, and catch their limit of kahawai... for bait. Makes perfect sense I guess... kill one fish so you can catch another. I'm sorry please repeat?

The cat issue? That Morgan chappie has the solution. My best was 37 in 3 days with my trustie .22

I love how kiwis still have this "she'll be right" attitude.

Khaled Hosseini said "there is only one sin, only one. That of theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft". I am trying to figure how greed fits into that equation with respect to New Zealand's apparent blase' attitude towards its fishery. Maybe it s just my current perception.

Who's been fishing anyway?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote matto Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2014 at 2:35am
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Not me Millsy , but there were some big fish movements in our local creek today on the Waitemata. Predators ,baitfish and birds working. 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2014 at 6:49am
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Yeah Millsy, don't get me started on nets and mullet. They are slower growing than kahawai. Its very easy to knock the population around.

In the early days of Northland there were so many mullet about that there were canning factories set up in various locations right beside the mullet schools. Most of them closed down after only a few years. Duh.

Having massive, massive schools of mullet in our harbours is the natural order of things. They are extremely important parts of the marine ecosystem turning mudflat detritus and algae into fish protein.

It would appear that allowing people to drag nets and fill up their smokers is more important than that.

p.s You'll notice that I've dumped a bunch of that kahawai stuff in it's own thread. Just trying to tidy up the Auckland thread a bit.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Brown Dog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2014 at 6:53am
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Some wise men on this forum!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Millsy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2014 at 9:12am
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Yay, a kahawai thread!! Can it be a sticky please?

Reality is I am always in two minds as to where to post. Do I live in Auckland? Well not really. Is where I fish considered Auckland because it is not the favored Waitamata? No. Oh the dilemmas.

Netting: There are still plenty of of people who drag for mullet. I had a few words with a teenage boy who was trying to net a school of about 50 odd over Christmas that were right in close to the beach in a local bay not far from me inside the ban area. He was using his boat to set the net at one end. Took me two goes to convince him to go away and ask MPI for the correct advice not the advice his father gave him that it was okay. Poor kid. Clearly the mullet were breeding too. I thought, this is a future fisherman here who is likely going to be fishing the Manukau long after I have gone and this is how he is starting off. He is lucky he ran into someone so diplomatic, if he had tried that stunt in some other places around NZ he may well have lost his boat and had his noise realigned. He wanted some bait for fishing. 

I am in the minority anyway so I am hardly going to win any public debates on most issues. I fly fish for one. I don't use bait. I believe the limits are too generous and I believe we should be paying fee's and the money should go back into enforcement. We need more marine reserves and while I am at it I don't believe in god either. Flame me if it makes you feel better.

Back to the kahawai thread. So Craig, you gunna make it a sticky so I have somewhere to rave all about my favorite fish?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Brown Dog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2014 at 10:31am
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Paul I will post a link on an article written about the amount of bait used in this country. Very interesting as it shows that rec fisherman too, should be aware of their own responsibilities regarding the resource.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2014 at 11:02am
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Yeah ok, I'll make it sticky, but I'll have to re-evaluate if we get too many sticky topics.

I'm still trying to figure who was the diplomatic person on the beach you described
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote swoffer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2014 at 11:17am
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Come on Millsy, don't hold back, say what you really think!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote StPaul Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 May 2014 at 9:58pm
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We still get schools like that along the kaikoura coast and in some parts of the sounds over summer.
 I'd love to have seen in back in the day when the old fellas reckon that cloudy bay was black with the from october to march
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