Steps wrote: We intended heading over the wiakato bar on Sunday.. Swell was down thu and bar looked a little choppy for going out.. and in a 5.5m heading out to the 50/60m mark wasnt going to be the most comfortable Then looked like wind wanted to pick up and change direction just before we where due to come in for couple hrs and die back again. So pulled the plug and decided to head up the Waiuku channel and do a bit of prospecting up towards inside the heads/ huia way over the top of the tide later in the day. Dont have much (and thats an over statement) knowledge on the Manukau yet. 1st stop was off across from Matakauau...did a bit of a quick drift and dropped a low 30s snap in the bin... And moved on up. Saw a couple boats dragging for scallops, and looked to be doing it hard. A local told me to hit the side of channels... so went out to the other side of the other boats a mile or so away. 1st drag got 5. So decided to drag longer in the same direction... next 7... But the net was falling apart.. 3 cable ties back in business same direction again 10 and bigger. Same direction Another 10. Another cable tie fix This time decided to go right angles.. pulled in 12 which put us over the limit.. upsized a couple in the tank Dropped over a couple lines and drifted back over the dredge line for a 'long shot'. And at the same time cleaned up the scallop mess on the carpets...just got to have a pressure pump hose on a boat..sorts out so easy. That put another low 30s snap on the bin... and it is surprising how a well undersized snap will hook on a 7/0 when the big bait has been nibbled down. All cleaned up so heading nth to a steep , maybe rock drop off, out in the channels, on the charts.. and drift it. Got to one end and started the drift, not a lot happening, then some terns diving about 1/2 km further nth. So dropped outy a couple KY lures and a SB trolled up there, around the high side and positioned so could drift back thru them. Wife has a standing order for some KY (smoked for pies/ cakes etc), and my salted bait supply getting down due to neighbours and son raiding my burly/ bait freezer. Started casting out the sb rod, m8 with a lure.. he starts hitting , I get one little one. So I go to the bigger rod and a lure and both doing ok. It was a bit of a hassle both on , netting, and these things where full on , and dropping a few at the boat. M8 said he can sort the net and dropping. He was watching an old documentary on catching tuna on lines...guy flipping them straight into the boat. So it was get to the boat, and as they jump, yell "incoming" and the ky would fip over our shoulder into the boat.. and the other person ducking Hey it worked and no one ignored the warning "duck" Heading back up to ther birds diving saw in the distance another bunch and some orka working around them. So trolled another 0.5/ 3/4 km up there. 3 adults a teenager and a youngster. We went the opposite side to the ball they where reforming... then it became obvious they where using our boat top contain the ball on the surface on the opposite side to us.. this was so cool. So we do a couple drifts, more ky in the buckets replacing what already had been gutted out. Then decided we need to gut these out before dropping in the bin, and while doing so , drift the bottom with stray lines see if any snapper. This put another 5 or 6 low to mid 30s snaps in the bin. Now the outgoing tide has picked up...after 3 ish.. or was it 4?? Another typical, very busy, interesting , eventful day, with each family having more than 1 good feed of snapper. Replenished the bait freezer(sort of.. good for another 4 or 5 trips at least) Enough KY for a big bowl of marinated fish (lemon juice chives coconut etc) And still fill 4 of the 5 shelves in the smoker and replenish the frozen vac pac supplies in all families freezer, and give some away. Yep it was a big excellent day.. cant say "long" cause we went out around 9ish cleaned up fish processed by about 6:30pm.. because we where doing what we love with good company without a clock. |
Fishb8 wrote: On the coast, what is the best bite time, high or low? |
MacSkipper wrote:
I prefer morning because I dont like crossing bar in the dark! |
cirrus wrote: great catch macskipper. good to see fish turning up in numbers like that . gather you must have been out early as it didnt take long for the southerly to start blowing strongly. |
smudge wrote: My son was out that same day Mac. It was way too rough to go any further than a kilometer or so from te toro. It's dead calm right now but I don't want to leave my xmas shopping till the last minute so I'm going to do that this morning |
AlexRecurve wrote: Now that's what I called a concise trip report Steps! Great read. Got out on Sunday and had to go solo as all my usual cohorts were busy. Dead calm at dawn but the SW wind soon picked up. . . . and didn't it blow some! Having caught a few livies I scored a frisky king second drift, which put up a great fight. So much so that whilst i fumbled around trying to get a glove on to tail it aboard, it threw the hook and found its freedom. Bugger! Not happy. With the wind increasing against the tide it was getting really lumpy and I was right on the point of calling it quits . . . . and just after the boat next to me had high tailed it off to find shelter . . . I had another good run on the live bait. This time a slightly bigger fish around 12kg and no accidents boat-side, so it came home to enjoy Christmas dinner with our family. |
AlexRecurve wrote: And here's a photo - wide angle lens makes it look a bit bigger than it was! ( tricks of the trade. ) |
smudge wrote: Had a quick fish this evening. Got the scallops pretty easily but their condition isn't the best. Managed around 15 snapper for the 2 of us - all between 30 and 35. Got the fish in 3m on the last of the outgoing to start of incoming. |
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