By Ozz
haha yeah, we got out there a bit late… wasn’t a bad day fishing, pretty dead over the mid day high and cheers again for taking my pack that last 20m pretty unfit(and u know why) and u realised what i was to tired to realise as well. Pack straps were too loose (don’t use that pack often, the pack swaying on my back was taking the piss out of me)… my god that berley u picked up was SHIT and that’s an understatement!!! blue/green rotten logs of crap!!! I’m 90% sure it wasn’t even fish as well, it smelt like rotten meat, like rotten old maggot filled steak!! not rotten fish… and those pillies I picked up on the way that weren’t even pillies… moral of that story don’t buy southern bait rubbish, make ya own berley, double check there are actually pillies in the bag when ya buy them, or buy the action bait pillies, they were in a class of there own compared to the southern bait ones… they don’t have all the oil/flavour/juice frozen out of them… shit one bag of the southern bait pillies even had some weird flourie shit all over them, almost like salted but wasn’t salt, was flour or something…
lol… the story of the swimmers/warehouse dive gear kids around the corner that made me laugh… we heard voices around the corner so Mark goes up to check, sees these teenagers messing around “oi, OI, hey you guys!! we been berleying up hard!!! we had some big sharks coming threw right where ur trying to dive!!!” almost walking on water out of there and gone… We go back to fishing without Muppet’s scaring off our fish… just like that Muppet in the yak that parked right on top of our lines “duh huk, what are the fishing regulations around here??!?!”
I’ll remember to bring the water when u remember to to take a good 50m off ur calcutta, fair enuff? lol at ur 9/10 casts bird nesting just coz u were too lazy to take take some line off and tie the trace back on, spent way more time fixing the nest each cast then it would have to take the line off… mind u were both lazy fishos, sit back relax and just wait for the clicker to click…

if the wather stays nice like this RF, ignore my txt, i might make the drive up to that place tonight,ill bring the crab and cray and we can throw out big baits over night for 15kg+ grots till first light and hiff the snapper baits out, and if it actully turns 40kt SSE ill have my shark reel in the truck and put a whole live ky or whole 3-4kg skippy out under a rubbigh bag 1.2-1.5km off shore, if the winds like that there aint no harm in trying… and that place we might be is going to be really dirty water, i find it magnets for sharks, the merky warm water…

We started to get the gear ready for the moki bash. A few of the guys had never fished for moki before so I spent a little time getting the Kina/Mussel berley going, along with showing them the best rigs and how to bait up with mussels and prawns. It all happened pretty quick as young Jordan popped his Moki cherry on the first cast, it was a little under size but hey, he got the first Moki. A little time went by and all was pretty quiet until dark when the lice turned up.

Jordan with his Moki

At around 10.30pm Kiwicaster made the call to go so he and Jordan left for the night. We were running a sweep steak of $5.00 per person including a few other bits and pieces like Sakuma hooks, line and lures, that I donated. As Jordan caught the first fish it was only fair that he won the prize so good on him for a job well done.

After the guys left we decided to move down the beach to get away from the lice, approx. 400-500 meters. We got the berley going again as everyone got there gear sorted and lines out. It was like the gods were watching as the next 8 hours was full on. There were approx. 50 Moki caught between us all and they were all between 1- 4+ kg. I managed to land 17 of them and it was one of the best nights I have had targeting them. Mole also did very well with at least 10, while the other guys caught the rest between them. It was also great to see so many guys keen to try the new Sonik rods. I think most of them certainly felt the difference when fishing with them and I appreciate all the positive feedback. Thanks guys.

Early the next morning just as the sun was rising, some good fish caught during the early hours

At approx. 7 am we decided to call it quits as everyone was pretty tired, so we packed up and headed back to carpark. After the standard photos of the fish we headed off when Scattershot and I decided to go over to Oriental bay for a kingy mission. We put out some live baits and then tried to have a snooze. Well we got no sleep so after fishing pretty hard for 24 hours straight we called it a day and headed home. I had a 2 ½ hour drive ahead of me and was pretty stuffed by the time I got home. All an all it was a great nights fishing and good to see the guys catching Moki and a few of them popping that cherry. I will definitely organise another trip and would like to make it a regular event (well every couple of months or so). The next get-together will be in a different/remote location and targeting a different species.

Mole with a few of his Moki, caught on the Sonik Bass rod (this is an exceptional rod)

Jaypeegee with his first legal Moki, caught on a Sonik SK3

Rockfisher(me) with some of my Moki caught on the Sonik SK4

Most of the fish we caught were released for next time, while a few were kept for family and friends.

Jimmy with his Moke and Tarakihi caught on the Sonik SK3

A good time had by all I’m sure, until the next fish….Action Bait & Tackle

Some Days you just know that you have got the tide right the day right and the spot right. Other days you know its just bad fishing. Well yesterday was the best day fishing I have had so far (as the title of the post suggests) and all this just in front of the Paraparaumu Boat Club. There was no need to travel to Kapiti Island or fish right on the reserve or even sit in deep water within the channel. The best fishing was had 20 – 30m of water and anywhere along the beach. The essential factor for the day was picking the tide change – when the current dropped and action began.

We took an hour off at work so we could get the boat out by 5pm and headed to Paraparaumu Boat Club. The previous day we had some large takes and a lot of action just as that tide was changing however I think we were just a bit to late and therefore we only got one Snapper. Today seemed different, it felt like we had got the timing correct and although it was quite choppy and rough on the water (well for a small boat it was) it looked good. We had heard that fishing just before a storm proves amazing fishing and also the Maori Fishing Calendar was predicting good fishing. There wasn’t a lot of cars on the beach which surprised me as everything was pointing to this day been good – as well as the fact it was Friday, perhaps most of the fishing is done in the weekend.

We got the boat out through the chop and were faced with a good 1 and half metre swell. The current was strong towing our lines south but we knew this would quickly drop of so we kept our 3 ounce sinkers on with the Snapper rigs – even though it wasn’t reaching the bottom. My brother had done a home job down rigger using a 16 ounce sinker but I don’t think it worked well at all…. it took about 30 – 40 min for our first fish which was a Kahawai and this was large – about 5- 6lb. We weren’t going to keep it and so it was played then let off when it got close to the boat. My brother was experimenting with some pilchard bait this time. Basically on his snapper rig he tied both hooks around the one whole fish. He also used a 50lb rig as yesterday a large fish had cut his line. I kept with the Snapper rig as well only on 20lb line and with a large strip of squid. I had a second lighter rod with 8lb line and two of the Black Magic KL 1-0 hooks (the fish self hook themselves usually in the corner of the mouth) on a standard 2 hook and sinker and the bottom rig. I did this to see if this rig would work on targeting other species of fish. After about an hour of waiting for this current to drop my brothers rod went right into Free Spool. He quickly gave it a pull and was into something large. Most likely what he got yesterday but cut his line – this time he was prepared with his 50lb line rig. It was weird as it felt like straight dead weight. Not like a snapper which tugs down and not like a Kahawai which moves your line sideways. I had thoughts that it could be a Shark or Stingray. Either way I thought it better not be to big nor have large teeth as we are in a small boat with air filled pontoons keeping us a float. Nervously I grabbed the net and starred into the water wondering what might surface from the deep. I saw a long thin shape which could be a Sting Ray or an eel? Getting it closer to the surface the large teeth and thin long body revealed a Barracuda. Are they good eating?? I thought. Well we didn’t want those teeth in the boat so with a turn of the hook remover the Barracuda was off back to the deep. At Least we now know what had previously chomped through his line yesterday, it wasn’t large Snapper it was obviously a Barracuda. We started wondering if they hang out in schools or scare other fish away? Not know much about this fish we decided to keep fishing here. Straight away on his Pilchard bait he got more nibbles – then Whack. He was into another monster. We both knew what this was and sure enough when it got to the boat it was obviously another Barracuda. We decided that was it, we need to move.

We released this one as well and moved south about 400m down the beach from the Paraparaumu Boat Club. We were in 27m of water as yesterday we found we got some good takes at this depth. Our burly pot was virtually empty and now the current was virtually all gone – perfect for fishing, unfortunately not much to attract them to the boat. We threw in a lot shellfish we had collected and also a pilchard. About an hour and half had past – we had got 1 Kahawai and 2 Barracuda all released. I think we felt that there was better fish to catch. It wasn’t long when the lighter tackle rod was into what seemed to be a nice Snapper. Well it fought like a Snapper – but this wasn’t on a Snapper rig so I wasn’t 100% convinced and it could be something else. It was a fun fight on the light rod even though it didn’t move much to the side like a Kahawai would. I found this fish didn’t give up like a small Snapper would, it dived back down a few times. Getting it closer to the boat my brother shouted “it’s a big Trevally”. I had to think for a moment to workout what fish the Trevally was…. getting it into the net he said that’s a huge Trevally, I hadn’t ever caught one of these before so I had nothing to tell whether it was a large one or not. He started laughing his head off, “what on earth is a Trevally doing out here” … he was sure they are only caught around rocks. This Trevally measured 45cm and was my fish Trevally caught and what a beautiful fish… very random… in fact this was just really the beginning of a very random few hours of fishing. This was a keeper so was Iki Spiked and put into the fish bin. We hadn’t had any luck on the two larger rods with Snapper rigs and Large bait on them just yet. I put the lighter rod down again and within about 10mins I had another fish on that line. Again it fought like a Snapper and not like the Trevally, so I was sure this one was a Snapper. But again I was wrong. Getting it to the boat it was a nice size Gurnard again well above legal and was the largest one we had caught thus far. We started questioning why this lighter rod was getting good fish numbers, but still gave our Snapper rigs faith that they would get into some action soon.

Sure enough not to long after my brother got nibbles and then a heavy weight. It wasn’t like the Barracuda, it was just straight dead weight – It had to be a shark. We brought it up to the boat and sure enough it was a Dog Fish. Funny thing was it was just holding onto the Pilchard and not actually hooked so it just let go when we got it up. It was a good size as well – over 1m. My brother threatened that if we caught it again he would keep it as they are good eating. Sure enough he felt it on his line again, this time he waited then did a large strike – it was hooked. We netted it and brought it into the boat. To be honest I have never seen such an evil looking face in my life. They are beautifully coloured however. He took the hook out but before we could think of how to kill it my lighter tackle line got into a Kahawai. This was large as well. It made this little rod bend right in half so I had to put on the drag. With this action my brother baited his line and then got it down. With the Kahawai fighting away I looked at the Dog Fish and told my brother we should let this one go, it’s way to much meat and I think we will catch more. He decided to “throw” it back into the water to make sure it didn’t go back down and scare away the other fish. Just after he did this my heavier tackle line bent over and my brother jumped to get it out of the holder. Whatever it was it almost pulled him over board. Struggling to hold the rod and workout the drag he fell from oneside of the boat to the other. It was very large and it didn’t just go up and down it went to the side to side aswell. Seeing that I had a Kahawai on (which I would say I had been playing for about 10mins now – with this lighter rod I could not just bring it in) he concluded this would have to be a large Kahawai. The. My brothers line however was still below us, so I had a thought that this might be a large Snapper. I didn’t say anything as I had my hands full. He started the lift and wind action with his rod to bring the large fish up. After a short while he suddenly yelled out – “its a huge Snapper, get the Net!!” I put the drag on the light rod and grabbed the net. The first attempt I missed this huge fish, then on the second attempt I duged in deep and scooped it up. Even though half its body was hanging out of the net I still managed to drop it into the boat. “WOW … “holly $#$” were a couple of words mentioned. It was the largest Snapper I had ever seen. Not really having much time to marvel at this I still had the Kahawai to bring in. This was about a 15 – 20mins fight so far. We had conversation over whether to kill this beast or let it go. After looking at it we decided that it was a large Snapper but probably not the old breeding stock fish which we had pledged we would release. My brother Iki spiked it and I got the Kahawai in and released (it was again a very large one but we were only after 2lb Kahawai not the breeding stock). We got the weight in at 12lb for the Snapper, again this is kinda strange to be catching this size fish in this location in Kapiti. But then again i’m not an expert at sea fishing so perhaps it’s not uncommon to get 12lb Snapper. I was amazed to see such a large fish and knew that we had plenty of freezer space and mouths to feed to easily eat a fish of this size, so we weren’t worried about keeping this one as it was something we could easily eat.

We continued to fish and started to feel quite proud of ourselves. We did a quick summary of the last 2 hours and laughed about how random it had been. 2 Kahawai – the 2 Barracuda, the Trevally Gurnard, the Shark and now this huge Snapper. What more randomness could happen? Well apparently there was still more to come.

We started getting more and more nibbles – by this time there was no current at all and the chop had virtually died. It was about 7:15pm and we only had shellfish as burly, so knowing this day was coming to an end we threw them all in the water around us. Sure enough the nibbles turned into another fish on my lighter rod. “Dammit” I said…. it’s another large Kahawai. Knowing I was going to be into another 15min fight I got comfortable and poured a coffee while the drag went nuts. I gotta say now, Kahawai I respect a huge amount. They are beautiful eating and have amazing fighting power. I played this very much like a would a trout on a fly line – the small reel on this light rod also wound backwards so I could let go of the handle and it let out line. During this time my brother got a nice pan size Snapper – it was dwarfed by the large Snapper but still great eating. Sure enough a few minutes later he got yet again another Panny. All this while I was having another huge battle with this large Kahawai. Finally after a 15min fight I got it and released it, without taking it out of the water (thanks to the great hook removing tool). I have to explain the reason I am telling you about these long fights with Kahawai, the next fish I got on this rod was the biggest surprise of the day. Maybe it was irony or perhaps it was just preemption, but as I was releasing this last Kahawai I said to my brother this was a large Kahawai and he said to just check to see it doesn’t have a yellow tail as King Fish are large and have yellow tails. It was obvious to me that this was a Kahawai. But now I had in my head that a yellow tail means King Fish. Also something earlier in the day – one of my friends from college mentioned to me that his mate had caught a 22lb King Fish earlier in the week at Pukerua Bay. Maybe it was the alignment of the planets or just plain irony all this talk aboutKing Fish.

About 15mins after letting that Kahawai go I got some nibbles on yet again the lighter rod with 8lb nylon and the small hooks. Whack – another Kahawai. Well that’s what I thought. In fact I was so tired from my previous 2 battles with the Kahawai I wasn’t to fussed if I just played this one half heartily. I was going to let it go anyway so doesn’t matter if it gets off. I took sips of my coffee and let the drag loose and started to show off a bit as this was such a successful trip – why not take this one without a care in the world. I let the Kahawai wind its way around the other lines which it tangled up with and with some laid back untangling with the other rods it was clear again. I got a bit cocky and started holding the fish rather than letting it run, just to test this light rod out and see if it could handle the flex. Sure enough like the strong fish Kahawai are I had to let the reel go at points just to take the strain of the rod. After about 10mins fluffying about with the fish – letting it run and testing different strains out, I got it to the surface. At quick glance I assumed it was a Kahawai. Then at second glance it had a yellow tail – I yelled out “it has a yellow tail” my brother totally surprised had a look – “it’s a bloody King Fish”… “how on earth did you get a King fish up on this rod?”. We netted it and measured it at 65cm. We took a quick photo then released it – as the legal size limit is 75cm.

The King Fish I caught on the light tackle rod using 8lb line. It measured 65cm so was released

Conclusion:

We caught a total of 5 large Kahawai (all released), 1 large Dog fish (released), 1 Trevally (kept), 1 Gurnard (kept), 3 Snapper – a 12lb one and two Pannys (all kept), 2 Barracuda (all released) and a 65cm King Fish (released). Not bad for 3 hours fishing just off Paraparaumu Beach at the tide change. I would never have thought such variety nor number could ever be caught just out here at Kapiti. We haven’t even tried any other spots yet, just Paraparaumu Beach from about the links tower down south to about 400m. It’s my belief however that this fishing will occur all the way down the coast in water between 20m – 30m and best fishing is an hour of either side of tide change – mainly due to the fact you don’t need heavy sinkers. Our next spot we are going to try out will be down at Raumati Beach – which I suspect will produce some incredible fishing. The large Snapper we caught had Crabs inside its stomach so they must feed on Crabs and Shellfish as the Shellfish we throw into the water did attract the Snapper and other fish. The Pilchard does attract some different fish and Snapper do like that. But they also love the squid I had on my rods as well so I can’t conclude a lot from this trial. The Snapper rigs caught the targeted Snapper but on the light rod, the simple two hook then a sinker, caught a larger variety of fish. My heavier rod which had the Snapper Rig with one large strip of Squid only caught 1 Kahawai and the large 12lb Snapper, but nothing else. I think it’s therefore important to vary what is on your rods and the different rigs you have on. The lighter rod caught 2 Kahawai, 1 Trevally, 1 Gurnard and 1 King Fish. It also caught the only Snapper the previous day. It could be the light nylon on the line or it could be the smaller hooks that are the reasons this rod is producing the numbers it is. Remember I am using the Black Magic Red KL 1-0 hooks, these hooks are incredible in the fact they do self hook and also seem to always get the fish in the side of there mouth. This i great when you are attempting to release a fish, which we do a lot of. We now have a fridge filled with fresh fish and i’m excited that Kapiti has some of great sea fishing – I owuld never have thought we could have caught the volume we have just off the beach. I think that it might be grossly overlooked as a fishing destination but all I can say is that yesterday we caught enough fish for dinner for the whole of next week and with Snapper selling at the Supermarket for $30 a Kg then we just caught about $300 worth of fresh fish. This is only about the 8th time I have gone out sea-fishing. I have learnt so much and though it does seem a bit hit and miss to begin with I can now safely say I am hooked and there is so much fish out there to be caught. There is also so much information and if you read and follow what people have to say then apply this practice, you will be successful. Happy fishing all and best of Luck…

This is the Snapper Rig we use. Notice the two hooks are at the end of the rig while the sinker sits above the main connecting swivel allowing for the line to run through the sinker.

Story

Went out fishing off Paraparaumu Beach again last night about 5:30pm. The Tide was pretty much low however there was a decent amount of chop on the water and the waves getting out were quite annoying. After filling the zodiac with water and bailing it out on the beach we decided to take our time getting out and waiting for the sets to die for the second attempt. We got the front up and managed to get out – a few other boats couldn’t get out due to the nature of the waves. We were contemplating as well about getting maybe some sort of front hood on the zodiac just to repel some of the water that comes in over the front. Anyway back to the fishing. There was a large south swell and the chop on the water did make it quite dodgy – especially when we dropped the anchor down and the chop occasionally splashed over the front. We were in the magical 20m depth mark (thanks to our Trade Me cheap fish finder). It was stormy water and I wouldn’t recommend anybody in a small craft have gone out last night, unless they waited till quite a bit later when it got calmer. I didn’t drop the sand anchor down far enough and with the current (which was heading north) and southerly wind we got blown towards the reserve – we didn’t go in there but it’s worth noting to always watch and workout if you are drifting. Anyway during this drifting we decided to give our specially made (by ourselves of course) snapper rigs a try. They had previously worked well in our last fish but my brother hadn’t tied any that time and really wanted to give it a try this time. We also found a great function on our reels which we had stupidly overlooked. It’s called “free spool” and basically puts on a very loose drag allowing a fish to pick up the bait and swim away with it (it also alerts you to the fact you have a fish – previously we were relying on bites before pulling). This is very important if you are after Snapper. We had previously thought that sea fish were not brainy and basically would eat anything with bait on it. However in our readings and from our small amount of experience we now know that there are plenty of larger fish which will look at your bait and if its not moving in the correct way they will most likely not take your line. They are also test baits out – especially Snapper. They will put the bait in there mouthand swim away withit. If there is anything not right they will spit it out quickly – I can only imagine in previous fishing trips out on the coast we must have missed so many Snapper because of this. So we attached our snapper rigs (a great one can be found in the latest NZ fishing Mag) and used just straight squid. At this point I have to reiterate that we are in a small zodiac and the swell was a decent size with chop occasionally coming over the front and we didn’t know we were drifting. Our lines hit the bottom and we assumed the current was in fact heading south (it was actually us drifting). We started organising our boat to minimise the water coming over the front and then my brothers free spooling started to pull, he pulled and disconnected the free spooling which in turn lead to a fish – this was within a minute of dropping our line. Now for some unknown reason his reel would not reel in and we couldn’t get it moving. At this time my free spooling starting to move however I wasn’t paying enough attention on it. I took my brothers rod and he pulled it up by hand hoping that the fish would stay on – unfortunately it came off, we started speculating that it must be Snapper by the way it didn’t fight side to side – more up and down. Putting his rod down I relised mine was free spooling and gave it a pull. Sure enough it was a fish and I wound in. Unfortunately I to lost my fish and put it down to letting it run to much. Again we decided this must have been a Snapper. At this point we also relised we were drifting at a good pace. I don’t know if we had gone through a small school or if the drifting was the key to these quick hook ups.

We drove the boat back to 20m of water and just north of the links tower. Dropping our lines this time we noticed the current was in fact very strong and heading North- the opposite of what we had just fished when we were drifting. With the Anchor this time firmly in place we dropped our lines down – this time I used a similar rig to my brother. It meant the two hooks were closer together and you could put one large piece of squid from one hook to another (thanks to the latest NZ fishing mag for that advice). It was around this time I tightened the free spooling as it was constantly moving with the current. We placed our rods in the handles of the zodiac (they are kinda like a natural rod holder – just more tinny). My brother grabbed a third, smaller, rod as he had read about another technique which is used for gurnard. You place a Kahawai lure (one of the heavy silver ones) with some squid on the bottom. You cast the line let it sink to the bottom then retrieve, stopping and starting. I believe the key is to keep the lure virtually on the bottom in aim to catch these bottom feeders. We had no luck with this – i think the current was just to much to get a lure like this down there.

Anyway while he was fluffing around with this, his line went into a free spool and sure enough he had a fish on for a very short time. I think the distraction of the other rod lead to him not turning off the free spool and striking. A short time later he had another take – this time he struck earlier however his line went slack, thinking he had lost the fish he decided to bring it in. About halve way through winding he worked out he had a fish. It didn’t seem to be to large but he still played it like a large one. Bringing it to the boat it was a nice pan size Snapper about 35cm long. We measured it just to make sure and it easily went over the minimum size, which I must admit seems very small. Being our first Snapper of the day we kept it. A short time later (after about an hour of fishing) my line finally got some action, it felt much larger. I brought it up and it turned out to be a larger Snapper – the largest I have caught so far (I’ve only caught 4 now in my life). It would have gone about 3lb which is quite nice. I mentioned to feed the family with fish and chips we need another Snapper jokenly… by this time we had proven to ourselves that this Snapper rig is essential. Without it you are most likely not attracting the Snapper to your line, or they are taking and just getting off. About 30mins later my brother got another Snapper and this one was just a bit larger than my one. The sun started to set and the currently got stronger so we decided this would be a good time to head in.

Here are the 3 Snapper we caught with the Snapper Rig. As you can see the 2 larger ones. Up until Now we were only catching the smaller ones like the one on the left

Conclusion

We concluded that the strong current ( I had previously hated) infact proves to be really good fishing. The Snapper rigg is essential to catch Snapper at Paraparaumu Beach. The best depth, at this time of the year, for Snapper is 20m. We caught the most Snapper just before the sun started to set. In total we had 7 takes and landed 3. We had maybe about 2 hours of fishing. The current was heading in a northern direction. The larger piece of squid on the two hooks proves to work well, attracting Snapper – we also had a large lumotube just above the hooks, so that could have also attracted them. Free Spooling is by far the best technique, allowing the snapper to run with the bait before striking. An alternative, if you don’t have a free spooling reel, is to just loosen the drag or perhaps control it withthe bail arm or place your rod into reverse to allow line to freely go out when a Snapper takes. All in all I’m very happen with our new rigs and I’m now feeling a lot more confident that there are a tonne of Snapper along the coast at the moment – getting the technique right will mean you will catch these fish. If you don’t then you will most likely only catch the odd small one and miss a lot of fish going past your line. Strong currents don’t effect fishing in a bad way, it might actually even make it better. From what I have read fish will sit at the bottom when there is a strong current as it’s not as strong lower down. Another thing on the current is that I had no idea that the currents on the Kapiti Coast are this strong. If you fell into this current I would imagine you would not be able to swim against it at all. When we are in our boat at anytime we always wear life jackets and I have seen a lot of boaties out there without them on. I know they are in larger boats however from what I have seen of the sea I would recommend this be worn at a minimum. Once you start getting out past the beach and into that channel the currents are strong. We also have a portable marine radio and cell phone. These also should be a minimum requirement. Anyway this is just from what I have noticed when out in the boat. I think last night we had our best fishing so far with 3 Snapper. The Snapper we have caught are larger than the previous ones (with the exception of the Panny) which means the new rigs are working really well.

The Snapper Rig

It consists of putting the sinker above the main connecting swivel on your line. Then you attach your rig to that main swivel with two hooks about 40cm from the main swivel. What this allows your sinker to do is essentially moves up and down your line. It allows your hooks to float without been weighted down by a sinker below the hooks. When the fish takes the bait they can grab it without any force holding them back… allowing them to test the bait. This is the time the free spool activated and the fisherman flicks it over and strikes. This rig has proven itself to us and I can only recommend using this over standard hook – hook – sinker rigs (or dropper rigs).

This is the Snapper Rig we use. Notice the two hooks are at the end of the rig while the sinker sits above the main connecting swivel allowing for the line to run through the sinker.

I had tied a Snapper rig – well what I read snapper like. It is a running sinker rig, basically you put the sinker above your swivel then attach the hooks to the rig. So the hooks are at the bottom and the sinker above them. I tied on 2 black magic weird shape hooks which are suppose to hook into the corner of the fishes mouth.

I used squid and my brother wanted to try these scented baits. They are made from a protein therefore they break down and apparently they are suppose to catch more fish than bait, yet I can’t see how they can clam this – let alone test it to make such a comment. Anyway we thought we would test these out while I put squid on my hooks.

At the 30 m depth we felt like it was too deep and we noticed another larger boat come in from Kapiti had parked up closer in. We gave this depth about 10mins before we decided this was not a good spot. Plus we hadn’t seen any fish on our $90 portable fish finder – Kinda cheap but gives off a good depth reading and does show fish. We wanted something cheap and they had some interesting cheap ones on Trade Me. We pulled up anchor and headed closer to shore, in-line with the larger boat. This was about 20m of water and earlier in the day someone had told me that the Snapper were in shallower at this time of the year. It felt better and the chop on the water was starting to die down. Within 5mins of dropping our lines I had a small nibble. Followed by a quick nibble action. I pulled and had a fish on my line… Not having caught a lot of sea fish I just reeled up hard and didn’t really play the fish. Getting to the boat I called out “Snapper!!”. We netted it and we quickly killed it. I struggled to get the new type of hook out of its mouth – which was hooked in the side of the mouth like the box said. I rushed to get my line down there and my brother didn’t seem to be getting a nibble at all. Rebating my hook I dropped it down and again within a few minutes and some small nibbles I had another Snapper. I made the call perhaps we have hit a school of Snapper. Again I struggled to get the hook out of the mouth, so these are great hooks – when I find the box I’ll let you know what they are called. After this we didn’t get anymore bites. My brother got a small shark and I got a small Kawhai when we went trolling. It was not a bad effort for a couple hours fishing, even if we only got action for about 10mins… it seems to be what happens with sea fishing. I really do need to work out what currents do here in Kapiti – when is a good time to fish and how do fish feed…

The Fish depth tests we did was done in a spot straight out from the links tower. It’s not overly tech we basically started at 30m and headed towards shore at different depths. It’s nothing conclusive but we got no fish at 30m, 2 snapper 1 shark at 20m and nothing at 15m 10m and a small Kahawai at 5ms. Its more of interest to me to test the different depths when i go out, i’m not concluding anything – just interesting.

I think snapper at this time of the year do seem to be getting caught closer in. The ones we have caught have been in depths of 20 – 30m. I’m not to sure what the Snapper are feeding on. Is it Pippies or crabs? are they coming in closer for the warmer water or the spawning fish? I have been catching them on a mixture of squid and pippies. This new Snapper rig is really good, basically the way I see it works is that Snapper pick up the bait normally and test it out – usually swimming away with it. If it doesn’t seem right they spit it out. With standard rigs they can feel the weight and tend to spit them out quickly. With the Snapper rig they get the chance to take the bait and swim off without spitting it out. Anyway the weather looks a bit dodgy at the moment, however if the wind doesn’t pick up I might get out tonight. See what happens over this weekend, if the weather is good i’m definitly going out and tonight i’ll be having snapper fishing and chips!!

I felt so much better about launching the boat here, even if it was just a 8ft Zodiac. Incredible there were hundreds of cars lining the beach and the club tractor was very busy launching all the boats. But where were all these boats that belong to all these cars. We could only count about a dozen around Kapiti. My brother mentioned that there was some channel out deeper and we should try there. Having no idea where this channel was we headed out and watched as other larger boats powered there boats to get off the sandbar – quite a good way I thought, revving the motor to full seemed to work well. We shot out to what we thought was deep and in line with other larger boats. We assumed we must have been in the channel as it seemed deep from the different colour water. With no depth sounder it was hard to tell whether there were any fish or even what depth we were. We stayed well away from the marine reserve as we knew this was the one place you weren’t allowed to fish and also we didn’t want to drift into this area. We again got even more excited because now we were fishing truly deep water – well from our perspective it was. At Pukerua Bay we were fishing at a depth of perhaps 4 – 5 m whereas out at Paraparaumu we must have been about 15 – 20m. We baited our hooks and because it was a sand bottom I put on a large sinker to get to the bottom. This time it was a good idea and my line easily got down there without any snagging. We tied the burly bomb to the anchor to get that right down to the bottom – a good idea I thought. 50mins pasted and not a single bite. Then out of the blue a pod of dolphins surfaced briefly before diving back down. I have heard bad things about catching fish with dolphins around but i think it was kinda cool to see them up close. After a small discussion over whether Dolphins do scar away fish we decided to head south towards Raumati Beach, we also headed into shallower water (about 5 – 10m). The chop started by now about an 1 hour into fishing and we hadn’t caught anything. Trying our new spot towards Raumati I soon got into a small Kahawai. It was a lot of fun to play and bringing it to the boat it was about 40cm long, a nice young one. We decided to let it go even though it was probably the best eating. Not to long after my brother also got a large Kahawai. We decided to keep this one for dinner. On the same line we decided to head out a bit deeper as there were workups happening out deeper and when you see a workup you know there are fish around. We went to a depth of about 20 – 30m and by now the chop was picking up, it wasn’t dangerous it was just the odd small bit of chop would splash us – a problem with a small boat. We didn’t get any bites for about an hour, even around this workup and it always seemed where a work up was we would got there and then a work up would occur just where we were. We really were chasing our tails. We saw hundreds of birds on the water not active so we decided to anchor amongst them. Its quite amazing been amongst these large birds as you can get quite close to them. Dropping our lines we started to get tugs and excited I made the comment I don’t think these are Kahawai, they must be another fish like a Snapper (hoping comment I think). Then before we knew it we both had fish on our line and they felt a decent size. My brother got his up first and it was a large Kahawai, I think were were slightly disappointed yet he had to net his then give me the net for me to land this one. A bit of fumbling with the net in the boat and eventually mine got off. He kept his Kahawai which was a nice size. We had read that Kahawai also make good bait but it needs to be fresh. We decided to take a fillet and use it as bait to test this out. Sure enough we dropped our lines down again and I got another Kahawai, this one we let go as we had plenty for dinner. But as soon as this fishing had started it was also quick enough to disappear. We must have hit a school of Kahawai from the work ups that had just occurred. For those who have no idea what a work up is – its basically a school of smaller fish been chased by larger fish (quite often Kahawai), you can tell a workup by the large number of birds hovering over the splashing water. After a few hours of not much activity we decided to head back into the chop, because we would have to go slow we decided to do some trolling on the way back. We used a silver coloured Kahawai lure and just puttered back. we didn’t get anything till we went a little shallower and I got into a small Kahawai. It wasn’t a keeper so I decided to put it back. Nothing else was caught that day but I felt the area between Paraparaumu and Raumati was a really nice place to fish, I rated it better than my earlier in the day experience at Pukerua Bay.

Conclusion
I learnt a good lesson early in the day today and that was to trust your instincts when out in the sea. If it doesn’t feel right then turn back and head to shore. There will be other days to fish and as I found out there might be a more calmer spot just down the beach. I found that Paraparaumu was a great place to launch a boat, it didn’t feel dodgy like at Pukerua Bay and was a nice sandy bottom, so bring the boat in was easy – not to mention you can drive the car on the beach right to the water. There is a lot of sea to fish around Kapiti and finding good fishing spots will take some new equipment (like a depth sounder/fish finder). Also I think we might have to get a chart to see the different depths and make up of this channel that runs through Kapiti. Considering we were fishing with out any equipment to find fish I think we were quite productive getting 6 Kahawai – keeping 2 of them. I would like to have caught a different specie however the more I sea fishing the more I realise there is a lot of sea and catching targeted species, without luck, will require a lot of research into techniques and also finding good spots – there will be trail and error. I realise that this will take sometime to get a good fishing chart together from our own experiences and also what others around have to say. I do know of a spot around Waikanae which I will try out one of these days that apparently never fails for snapper. I was told about this spot and it sounds really great if that’s the case however I do know that in my experiences with trout fishing that everybody has there own spots and techniques that suit them. Often if you try to copy them you aren’t as successful. I think what tends to be lacking when someone does work on advice is the ability to know that spot so well that if its not biting here then it may be biting just around the corner, what I guess I’m saying is that often those who have great knowledge also have a great ability to read and adapt to the different situations that may arise. I take on board all advice and will try it out, but I also have to learn about situations and built my ability to adapt and work out what works for me.