16 March
It's not every day you watch a sizeable shimmering bronze shape flash across the top of a big rock 'bommie' chasing your softbait, miss it twice before finally nailing it a couple of metres from the boat. What a startling, but very memorable sight.
Conventional wisdom is that snapper prefer lures on the drop of slowly moving, so the experts say it's best to gently twitch softbaits and jigs, even letting them sit still for a while. But that's not an option when you've cast over the top of a flat rock formation at least 10m across, with the top just a couple of metres below the surface and steep sides covered in kelp.
If nothing grabs it on the drop into the deep water gut between the bommie and the shore, you'd better retrieve up and over quite quickly - or get ready to dig out a new jighead from your tackle box.
So I was doing just that with my favourite Z Man 5" grub tail in Midnight Oil when I had one nip that failed to hook up. I kept winding to avoid a fatal snag across the top of the rock and in the crystal clear water saw the aforementioned bronze shape materialise behind it at speed. Bang, another go. No hook up.
As my brain began to process what was happening, the fish - which I took for a strangely dark-coloured kahawai or small kingie - kept coming, determined to not let its brunch escape.
This was a fast-swimming predator, master of its territory. It engulfed the lure right in front of me in a metre of water, turned down the steep near side of the rock and went on a sizzling run.
Thankfully it stayed in the deeper (8m) water and I was able to eventually net my prize. A stunning dark bronze snapper of nearly 50cm. Not a monster by any means, but one of the most memorable snapper I've caught.
Soon after, on the seaward side of the boat, my SideVu showed some foul extending out a fair way, so I gave it a few casts. No joy until I was winding in to re-cast, and something powerful nailed the lure only a few metres short of the boat before taking off. Long runs turned to solid head nods. A 50+cm fish - this time quite silvery. It too had chased down a fast-moving lure. One for the bin.
There's something about that Z Man's wriggly tail action on the retrieve that is a magnet to fish. So far I've hooked two kingies, a kahawai and now two snapper when winding in at a steady pace. Unfortunately you can't get that lure (the 5" size or that colour) here (see image below) but I wouldn't be without it on a shallow softbaiting mission. Particularly on a sunny day it seems to be dynamite.
Too soon, my time was up. I'd just had time for a short late-morning mission with little expectation in blazing sun and calm seas. After a couple more drifts and some fish in the mid-30s, it was time to rejoin the family back on the beach where I'd dropped them and continue our adventure to the 'Bottom End', Rotoroa and Ponui.
We live in a stunning place - let's hope it long remains that way.