9 Feb
A stunning dawn was brewing as I got the 6-year-old strapped into his life jacket and settled into the passenger seat of our little FC465. But I didn't think the omens were particularly auspicious: full moon, slack water quite early, and then stiff breeze expected against the tide.
Tough conditions for my first bait and berley mission for a good couple of years. I'd made the call to ditch the softbaits so the boy would be actively involved the whole time. I'd dusted off the trusty Ugly Stiks, found a sabiki rig, re-attached the Railblaza bait board, and dug out the berley basket. After a few moments thinking hard, I remembered how to snell a hook on the leader!
It was indeed a lethargic pre-high tide current in the Tamaki Strait as we found a suitable spot in 9m where there was a little slope and some bait sign passing through. I flicked out a couple of light strayline rigs with half pillies while I loaded some salmon berley into the basket and deployed it towards the bottom.
Bait and berley definitely requires smart organisation on board, particularly with a little fellow itching to get amongst it.
It was about then that I realised he'd innocently brought his partly consumed breakfast banana on board, tucked safely beside his seat. Hmmm...
However, we soon had a small keeper on board and the boy dropped sabikis into the berley trail - yes, some chunky jack macks had turned up. Great. Just what we needed for Sam Mossman's rig of a half still-twitching mack on two big circle hooks, cast way out the back to entice any bigger fish. It's worked well for us before, would it again today?
Well in the next couple of hours as the outgoing current picked up, Dad was kept busy baiting up several rods and manning the berley, and together we took turns battling a range of snaps in three size classes: low to mid-30cms, 40-43cm, and two very respectable reds for the Tamaki shallows - 61cm and 57cm, both on the twitcher half mack. They just buckled over the rod in the holder without warning, and pulled line hard. Exciting stuff.
Our last customer had the telltale shark feel - turned out to be a beautiful 4ft hammerhead which we got to the side of the boat before it thrashed on the surface and bit through the trace. The moment of the trip for the 6-year-old!
It was time to point for home into the strong Sou/SWer, with a great bin of fish and another beaut father and son trip in the memory banks.