Something new

I decided to try a new spot last night. I had not seen the spot totally at low but new the rock system went out quite a way and i was hoping i could get all the way out. unfortunatly i only got halfway and new i would get stuck out there if i fished to long so i moved closer in to a large rock with plenty of kelp.

I thew in some pilchard and soon had a small kahawai and snapper. Seems to work really well throw in piece and then casting past it and retrive through area that the piece of pilchard was thrown into. I was using a hot pink clouser as water was a bit murky

I ran out of pilchard but the sun disappeared behind the clouds and i switched to a flashier polar flash clouser and caught another couple of snapper both on the pause. one i had thrown in and waited about 30 seconds with no pause and it was fish on.

It certainly worked having bright fly when water was less than clear and flashier fly when sun went down. I had used the flashy fly in bright sunlight and had nothing.

Also i had stopped retrieve so much so that the fly sunk to deeper level and caught more on stationary fly. so I was initially pull 3 strips to get in contact with the fly then waiting 30 seconds then strip 5 times then waiting 10-15 seconds then retrieve again. in between i was slowly drawing line to keep contact as current was creating slack.

I will post some pictures on some of the flies i was using in the flies tab of this blog.

Meola early season

I went out to meet a couple of the guys fishing out here. Being a Friday it was a bit of a mission trying to get out of the house as i had to get home then feed my boy. Then as i got there some random guy was interested in my set-up so i yacked for quite a while so by the time i got out it was near on 7pm. I got to catch up with the guys and have a bit of a yak before i headed further round the reef. I was trying some new craft fur clousers and they had some great action in the water but no takes so i switched to the old favourite polar flash clouser and threw some pilchard chunks in at the top of the causeway. interesting enough there was a clear current line and edge to it. so i stood at top end of it where i had thrown the pilchard and swung my fly round and a up it to be rewarded with a nice 45cm kahawai.

I did the same again but sung the fly round and held it in the current to be nailed again by a 25cm kahawai. it seems always the same time i get hooked up just when the sun has disappeared.

I headed back and realised that i had miss timed the tide and it was past the max i would normally head back and i had no choice but to just gun it through the channels. The water was going up and over my thigh waders making it hard to move. i had to take the waders off and empty them every channel i went through which was three but it never went over my waist otherwise i could have been in real trouble. i think i will take some sandles with me next time just in case.

I think its time to start looking further afield for some new spots.

Pt Chev 3/11/13

this was an interesting night but a bit of a disaster. I had have been here before but not on full of tide as there is a bit of wading involved and i was wet wading. i was unsure on how deep this was going to be. I went out at 6pm and high was 8pm. the water was just about up to my waist before i got to the shell banks and where it was knee deep although i didn't make it all the way to the tip where I would have had to do some waist high wading to get too.

After about an hours fishing and no fish I didn't want to risk any further for fear of getting totally soaked and i was already getting cold. the water was not too bad but my body doesn't handle the cold for too long anymore.  on the way back it was waist high and i wouldn't have wanted to risk it any longer.

I think to fish here the best would be to go out about 3hrs before high and stay there till 3hrs after high so you would need about 6hrs in total. the other option to be to use a paddle board and anchor it at shell banks and then paddle back. my preference would be for the second option but then that means getting a board. i think i will need to add it to the list.

Meola 26/10/13

This was a good place to start for newbies and certainly been the best place for me to get started. i caught plenty of small snapper last year and i am keen to repeat it this year. Trying to get out early so that i have enough time before the sun disappears has been fun as normally i would go at 7pm when my son goes to bed but with the sun going down around 8pm trying to get out of the house at 6pm is still a bit of a mission.

Low tide was at 8.20pm and i got out there close to 6.30pm. i threw in some pilchard and fished my way round till i got a 20cm snapper at around 7.30pm. unfortunately this was my only fish but it does show that the snapper are now coming into the harbour. at this stage there are probably only small numbers but this should become more over the next month. I caught the fish on a craft fur clouser which has some great movement in the water but doesn't last too long on fish teeth so might have to go back to the drawing board a bit to make them a bit more durable. i have just had a package of mirror image arrive that is great for making clouser flies but doesn't quite have the movement of craft fur.

CornWallis 10/10/13

This spot is well known for large kahawai and kingfish but most fish off the wharf as this is the easiest place to be for bait fisherman but this does not work for a saltwater fly-finger so i decided to head round the rocks. i have been here before and seen kahawai round this area and also seen work ups in the middle of the bay on a low tide first thing in morning so i know it can fire off. Low tide was at 8.45am and i got there at 10.30am. I managed to walk right round to the point where the current was pumping and i am sure that a few fish could be caught with a bit o pilchard but alas i didn't  have any so after a good mornings flogging the water i went home fishless again. I even tried the popper which had some great action in the water but no response.

Sometimes i think it takes a little perseverance on spot to really know how it fishes and the best tides/times etc. to fish it. i think i may go back to the low tide first thing in morning and see how i go with a bit of pilchard. there are certainly plenty of baitfish around

Orewa 8/10/13

My first time fishing here but since it was October my thought was there would be plenty of kahawai chasing whitebait. i started at bridge and worked my way down to the where it meets the sea and back up to the bridge. i had started at 10am and high tide was 12pm. I left at 2pm fishless but came back with a few ideas on the next trip there. 1st would be some much smaller flies more imitating the size of whitebait. I would think something more around the sz8-10 might be more the size of a whitebait. 2nd would be to maybe look at the other side of the estuary down to the sea and up round the rocks especially along the edges which is where whitebait would tend to congregate on the outgoing tide. according to one local the outgoing tide is the best and especially at night.