RANGAUNU HARBOUR and environs, Northland
I towed the FC465 up north for its first away trip in the week leading up to Easter. I must admit to a few nerves heading off up SH1 with the family after a quick stop off in Albany to pick up the tub of my favourite soft baits I'd left on Redfinger's boat. I've never towed a boat further than from Fish City to home when I bought it, but soon relaxed into the drive.
Just as well I picked up the softy tub, as one of the Gulp Crazy Legs (New Penny) accounted for my best fish of the trip - a nearly 9lb trevally from the harbour shallows which went like an absolute steam train. I got another slightly smaller one another day. Great to have nailed a couple of famous Northland trevs - and they made stunning kokoda and sashimi.
The KariKari Peninsula/Doubtless Bay area is a fantastic place to visit, with lots of options for family outings to pristine beaches such as Matai Bay. The Rangaunu Harbour is superb to fish in a small boat. My first solo beach launchings went very well, no mishaps. It's an ideal place to take the 4-year-old out - pretty flat except in very strong SW winds. i cast softies, while we dragged a 1/2 or 3/4oz jighead and soft bait for the little fella. During a rare slow patch I perked up his flagging spirits by asking if he wanted to try a "special" flounder lure I got from the US (which he had enjoyed playing with at home and tried to snaffle for his lure box). A big thumbs up from him, so on it went, and bang - two nice snapper in two drops. It's made by Almost Alive Lures and proved to be very tough as well, ended up more or less as good as new minus the eyes which fell off and plus a lot of teeth marks! I reckon it'd be dynamite in lots of shallow muddy harbours.
In two windows of very light winds we pointed the 465's nose out into Rangaunu Bay and the open sea, with rolling 1-2m swells, but no wind chop to speak of. Beautiful to be out there, and there was cobalt blue water at the 18m mark. So clear.
We got some nice snapper to the mid-50cm range, but no biggies unfortunately. Still, it was really about enjoying the location in the little runabout and gaining confidence with the boat, which I certainly did. It feels like a big boat for its size in the open water, if that makes sense.
One bizarre thing happened out in the open sea, with a disturbance behind us that turned out to be a massive (20lb+) snapper thrashing on the surface with its head fully out of the water. i thought it must have embolised or tangled in something, but when I clicked into gear and chugged over with vague plans to opportunistically net it, it had disappeared and left floating on the surface was half of a large olive coloured reef fish (parrot?). Presumably the moocher wrestled with it all the way to the surface in 55ft of water?
I lost my best snapper of the trip to a big bronze whaler in the harbour channel - two thirds of the way through the battle there were three big jerk/thumps and a screaming run before the line got cut. Doh!
No joy with the dreamed of kingies, despite some full on efforts catching livies and trolling, drifting with them etc. I had a few goes with stick baits near the harbour entrance, but just hooked some horse kahawai. Maybe my kahawai livies - about 50cm - were too big? i couldn't get any smaller ones. And there was a lot of sea grass fouling my lines. Oh well, a good reason to go back again.
My little fishing buddy is proving to have lots of patience and enthusiasm, and was very forgiving when daddy banged the chilly bin into the tip of his little X Factor rod and snapped the tip off. Thankfully it could still work okay, as below in the open sea out from East Beach, but a new X Factor is on the 'to do' list.