With a new job and baby the fishing has suffered a lot this year and even last, however with a mate having some time off over my RDO's it was all the encouraging I needed to dust off the gear and get out there for a day.

Regan had seen and heard a lot about my favourite NZ fish but had yet to really see it for himself.

I love this time of the year, the well conditioned hard fighting greenbacks cant get enough of what ever you chuck at them and the bites can be hectic.

We launched and as we left the river I wondered what the water temperature would be...13.5 degrees didn't make me overly confident of finding some fish for my mates.

First fish of the day on the first drop and I was happy that the kings were about even if it was a rat, first drop meant that they were hungry however it was no rat but a nice pannie - bugger are these kingfish around?



Regan's first attempt at jigging and on his first drop, this fish confirmed that there was at least kingfish cruising around in the cold milky water - a sigh of relief, that had taken the pressure off, Regan had his PB and that was really all we wanted to achieve today.



Pretty happy setting himself a new PB



A few for the help (Terror)







Regan produced nice fish all day and started to get the hang of things pretty quickly.



Spinoza having a silent protest good to see the old girls still works



First fish this year!



Regan's first jigged snapper and a PB too!







Double hook ups were pretty much order of the day



Sometimes the driver was allowed to fish too.



In the first session we got eight fish that were reasonable and then we had a lunch break while the tide turned, the wind managed to get up making fishing a little harder but we would have landed another seven or so before pulling the pin. A few smaller fish were thrown into the mix as well a school shark on a light soft bait set.

All in all probably one of the better bites I have ever had and a real hot three hours of fishing in the morning.

There are a lot more photos but all are the much the same thing repeated.

Some of the fish were full of frost fish, spewing up 3-4 as they came up - this lines up with previous years experience also that they feed deep and perhaps change feeding areas on tides/day/night.

I think White will be on the cards come end of the month, early November for the pre spawn fish and hopefully some 30kg+ fish.

It was nice to have an experience that mimicked that of days we had 6-7 years ago...funnily enough the same gear and jigs seemed to work.

Thanks Mike, yeah mate been a long while!

Fissure wrote: refreshing to see some fish in here. good weather+mates+nice fish-yeah!

Not like the old days aye      ...Fissure ..you've had a change, how's the fishing been down your way?

falco wrote: Fissure wrote: refreshing to see some fish in here. good weather+mates+nice fish-yeah! Not like the old days aye      ...Fissure ..you've had a change, how's the fishing been down your way?

yeah mang, not like the ol days, fishn been good through winter really, kings down deeeep. things about to kick off though with all the other goodies arriving, snapper, tuna ect. bit like you, new job and stuff but time for some serious fun now!!!
<thanked>

ahhhhh the balance in the world returns…..good to see you blokes back!

Excellent work Falco you fishing the Jigging comp?