Arvo team. Heading out this evening with a mate for a quick blat towards Rangi/ Motuihe/ Waiheke - any intel on where the birds/ anchovies have been?

08/05/2021
Forecast was to moderate to 15kts in the morning. Woke to the alarm at 5am to hearing the wind gusting in the trees. Checked the now casting to see 20 gusting 30kts. Txt crew to sleep in. Woke again at 7am and the trees were quiet. Rechecked the now cast and was down to 15kts. Quick txt and we were off to the races.
Headed down to Tamaki Strait to shelter from the Nor’easter and tried out Sharkbait’s old stomping grounds that way. Anything pink was the go. Coconut ice Zman’s, pink kabura and pink Catch Pocket Rocket doing the damage until the low tide 11am. 7 nice snaps from 32 to 40cms.
Well worth the effort!

Nice work, Mr King of Spin. How good is that - a quick trip in the Smartwave and back home in time for a late dinner. Fishing your feet first, and you got them in the pic too! 

took the family out for the day on Saturday, went to man o war for a late lunch and flicked a few soft baits around on the way home and found a new carrot patch

also how's this for a stacked sounder? shame it was well in the marine reserve haha

Lovely morning to be out, beach launched off bays, not as many parks as usual, very busy and heaps of boats out. We got dozen nice pannies out on worms beds. Bigger fish scarce. Maybe further out. Saw local frewza dinghy come in with couple little boys with dad getting retreival trailer on quad, the young lads (under 10 yrs old)  called me over and proudly showed off their chilly bin,  with a  nice bag of slightly bigger fish all taken on jigs.

Headed out early yesterday, for some reason I thought there might be a few people on the water 

betterthanwork wrote: First post for probably about 10 years after moving the Perth then travelling around Europe until Covid made us regugees in our homeland.  It's nice to see some familiar names still posting occasionally....  Great day and grateful to have this amazing resource on our doorstep.  Hopefully we will see some other members out there.

Made a casual plan with mate to do the full lap around Waiheke launching from HMB. With no expectations and bellys full of bacon and eggs we made it to the boat ramp at 9am as the real fishermen were coming in.

The plan was to softbait the shallows along the north side of Waiheke then around to Man o War for late afternoon pizza. We only got through the Motuihe channel when we spotted a few turns diving so had a look. My mate worked the slider while I cast a stickbait, managed two snaps for the bin on the slider no takers on the top water set.

The predicted northerly had picked up by this stage and trying to softbait the shallows around the northern side would have been hopeless so turned and went through Sergeant channel, cruising the South end of Waiheke in glassy conditions on our way to Waiheke Channel.

Got right up in the shallows 2-3 m and started softbaiting. Had made a plan the night before to softbait with my boys kidstix as mate doesn't have a sofbait rod and I don't have a second. Casting it was a nightmare but got a good 10m on third attempt, it sunk to the bottom and what ya know, snapper on.

This continued for about three hours with us both netting some nice pannies in the shallows and releasing many more. With a full bag of fish within site of Man o War we decided to head home as by this stage there was about 100 boats anchored up all heading for shore on their tenders and we didn't fancy waiting 2hrs for a pizza.

Great day on the water 55 mile round trip, go the the kidstix!

Photos: kidstix doing the damage
             : mate with fish of the day, 50cm
             : full bag.

Are you sure the slow gaffing wasn't a bit of delayed payback for your kayak tutorial outings with the neighbour? 

Stopped At the Hen in Tuesday waiting for the tide to come in a bit at Mangawhai big surf rolling in at the bar.