Went out the Kaipara yesterday for my first west coast mission of the season.
Worked our way out to the 250 mark where we found a cruiser on the surface. We were cruising round doing a few puka drops at the time so now lures out. Deployed the dredge and ran up along side it with a Livie ready to deploy... Dredge worked a treat, no hesitation in coming straight into the boat for a look see..checked out the livie ...then ....nothing Oh well..
very cool to see it all happen in such calm conditions.
Heading in for the day came into what was a local gannet convention at 85M..a few work ups happening here and there, followed them south a few clicks before getting to the last one and ran over a nice solid bait ball. 30 seconds later Mr stickface was in the gear saying hello. Had a look at the BM lumo on the long rigger before coming back around to ambush one of my custom made Ron Akana "Big Reidies" on the shot gun.
A solid stripey at least 120kg tagged at 1615 80M straight out the south channel. The third marlin to fall for that lure now.. not bad considering its meant to be a YFT lure. 9/0 Bonze light gauge hooked cleanly in the top jaw
Heaps of bait out in that depth, I wouldnt waste time going deeper unless your after puka too. Sounded like plenty of action in similar depth north side of the harbour too.