Solo smorgasbord

Far Quirk wrote: Like the Tamure Kid said, that one session contains all the highlights from several seasons for me.  You da boss.  Liked.

Cheers for that Far Quirk. I must admit it took me quite a few years to "figure out" how to get to the point where this is a very realistic, almost average, catch in a single morning solo. They aren't huge fish by any means, but it's still pretty satisfying when it all comes together on the day.

It looks like you do a lot of fishing closer to Auckland city? It is definitely worth the extra effort to fish slightly further north or south every now and then IMO, I find the variety and average size can be slightly better. Though it does look like you really enjoy just getting out there and doing it, I think I make it all too serious most the time lol . In saying all that, my biggest Snapper to date came out of the inner Gulf (Noises) earlier this year, so there are still some trophies still lingering around in close.

Tight lines👍

Another Top report Johnny! Put in the work over the years sorting out spots that hold fish, have quality tackle, and everything prepared ahead you get the results. Exactly wot I do, Anyone on here thats passionate and slightly mad could improve there fishing ten fold if they followed similar steps.

The Tamure Kid wrote: Johnny Watson wrote: Sanchez wrote: freaking awesome. Gives me the jitters.   Haha cheers Sanchez. It seems the Slimey Mackerel in the tank in the bottom pic had the jitters looking down at his fate 😂 On that, Johnny, did you just keep slimeys out of a random collection of mackies from a bait school, or did you target them? - ie they look different on the sounder, or you know a spot or two where they frequent... I went on a charter out of Sandspit once and the skipper was over the moon when we pulled up some slimeys in the live bait gathering at the start of the day. Sure enough they were nailed in seconds out by Flat Rock, whereas the jack macks took longer to get wolfed down.

TTK, I kept some smaller-medium sized Slimey Macs which I managed in between a school of Jack Macs. I left that spot and started heading towards my destination, pretty confident I would mark more bait sign on my way and drop sabikis into (my TM185M shows bait sign as a vertical line at full speed which rocks!). Well I got all of 2-300 meters and marked a solid ball of bait. I marked it then went back around and bingo, an absolute haystack of massive Slimeys. I landed 2 donkeys, dropped 2 donkeys at the boat, and had 2 sets of sabikis smashed to smithereens by the time they scattered.

When you see bigs schools of Slimey Macs they are easy to distinguish. They come up as a very dense ball on my sounder, the brightest colour return your palette setting will give! Very similar to schools of Pilchards in ways, though the individual targets are absolutely bigger when zoomed in in CHIRP. When they are with Jack's you may or may not see the difference in the marks.

I actually prefer Jack Macs or Slimeys as fresh and livebait in most scenarios, but as you found they can be better in certain areas. The bigger ones are good liveys, but the smaller ones aren't as resilient as the Jack's.

Spring time seems to be a really good time to catch them in the Gulf, and they aren't too hard find out off Omaha at the moment. There are actually plenty of Koheru to be caught up there too if you know how, I've loaded up on 20-30 barrels up there some mornings, but those things are a whole different ball game altogether lol.

Muppet wrote: Johnny Watson wrote: Muppet wrote: Yeah boy! Well done mate just another day in the office Cheers bro! Found some massive schools of Snaps out around your haunts last night too 👌 Yep when I ain't there be about right lmao

Don't worry mate I took good care of them for ya 😂

Snappa Geoff wrote: Yep its been rubbish since my last postWesterlies and ugly seas. Bit of a bummer as November the best month here for the big Snaps! At least they putting on weight for next time out  keep the posts coming Johnny!!!!

I'm sure those easterlies will roll through soon enough, and I'm sure you'll make up for lost time when they do! Cheers