We did a lot of fishing without much luck at all (just some small sharks) and the hours seemed to just pass. The good thing was that for about 1 hour the wind did drop and it was really nice. But obviously as it did switch to Northwesterly the wind picked up and the sea got choppy again. It was around this time we decided to head in shallower, we saw some good bird activity up and down the beach. We anchored at about 13m of water and the fish finder showed a lot of activity – probably mainly bait fish, however where there are bait fish there are generally larger fish chasing them. In a very short time we started to get takes and wasn’t long before one held. It was a nice size Kahawai. A short time after that we got another Kahawai and as soon as I dropped my line in the water again, I caught a Gurnard. My brother caught a couple of smaller Kahawai, but just this small amount of activity really made the day. I guess the lesson learnt here is to not always rely on one depth to provide you with all your fish. We saw that there was a lot of bird activity in the shallower water and although we didn’t catch Snapper we still did catch Kahawai which I really rate as an eating fish. I guess in the future, if one spot isn’t producing fishing then we should move on… there are times however when a bit of patience is a good thing and sticking to one spot can bring results… this was just not one of those times

We weren’t expecting much activity till the current dropped and sure enough when it did drop I hooked into a nice eating size Snapper. I caught it on my smaller rod which had a standard dropper rig, using small hooks and small strips of squid bait. Around this same time my brother caught a nice small size Kahawai, by accident, after leaving his hook just over the side of the boat. We didn’t catch anything when the current dropped completely however we did see lots of fish sign at around 12m and this looked like some sort of fish school, however when we did put our lines to this depth we never caught any fish nor did we get any bites. There were some very large trees in the water floating around so I wonder if maybe this was just larger sticks floating around at this depth.

Kapiti Snapper

Once the current started to head north, from the incoming tide, we got more activity. I caught another Snapper the same size as the last one and also I caught another Kahawai. The Snapper this time was caught on my larger rod, which was equip with a Snapper Rig with a large squid tentacle on it.

We didn’t get any action for another hour or so and our lines started to lift higher in the water due to the increase in current. My brother was dealing with one of his lines when suddenly his larger rod bent over quite dramatically. This line wasn’t hugely deep and so he saw that he had caught a Thresher Shark winding his line up a little. He could tell it was due to its large thresher tail. We had to pull in all our lines quickly and also take an ore off our small 8ft Zodiac Boat to prevent the shark from biting into a pontoon or its tail hitting us. Because my brother had 80lb line on he could fight it a little, however we weren’t too happy about bringing this shark too close to the boat so we didn’t try to land it. It wasn’t long before the shark wrapped itself around the anchor and it snapped the line. Unfortunately the camera didn’t take the photo early enough and therefore I couldn’t get a photo of the shark.

to slow to capture the shark

This wasn’t a huge shark, it probably would have gone 3 – 5 ft however its tail was quite a sight as it hit the water. We kept fishing here for a while however nothing more was caught and also there were quite a few boats starting to join this spot so we tried a little shallower at the 20m mark. We didn’t catch anything at this depth however there was again quite a bit of sign on the fish finder.

fish sign

Doing some more tests we went to a depth of 50m in the channel. However there was no sign at all on the fish finder at this depth and after about 30mins we gave up and went to a depth of 30m. At about this time the wind changed from calm southerly to a strengthening north westerly which chopped up the water. It didn’t take us long to catch a really large Kahawai (which we released) and straight after a nice size Gurnard (the first for this summer season). We decided to head in as the wind picked up and what was a nice day turned into a choppy mess (though the fish were still biting, we had enough fish for dinner).

So it was a good day fishing, some interesting things we found was that a good fishing depth was the 25m – 30m mark. We found that at 20m we didn’t catch anything though there was still quite a bit of sign around. At 25m we saw lots of fish sign at about 12m however we aren’t sure what this was, perhaps it was a shark? Or maybe just wood in the water? Either way it was a fun day and glad to catch a good range of fish…

Kahawai and Gurnard caught on one line

It was predicted that it would be an average day for fishing however what we found was that there were plenty of Snapper. Infact previous to this day we had only caught 3 Snapper in a fishing day. They weren’t huge Snapper just the nice good eaters. We hadn’t tried any drift fishing before however I think the claw anchor works really well and from today’s experience it shows it’s a good technique to use when the current gets up. I think the claw anchor works so well that in theory you shouldn’t have to ever drop the sand anchor as the claw anchor seems to move perfectly with the currents and when the current dies it grips in the sand enough to keep you still.

You can catch some good fish just by letting yourself drift, especially the times when fishing from a fixed anchor is just to challenging with strong currents. One other thing we noticed was there was a fish down there that was nibbling all the time but wouldn’t easily hook up. It was taking our bait, which was Mackerel. A good strike pulled up a Gurnard. So if you are finding on the sand that something is nibbling but not taking then its probably a Gurnard. Also we noticed that out from where the river enters the sea at Raumati Beach Pools the sand below seems to catch your sinker or perhaps there is weed down there. It seemed like there was a clay bottom sticking the sinkers, however because this was just out from the river it might have just been foul. But we did have great success with Snapper at about the 20m depth just off the Raumati Beach Swimming Pools. As a small surprise just as we were pulling in our lines for the day my brother caught a 1m long Shark. It had a good set of teeth on it, but we released it as we had already had plenty to eat. A great days fishing with perfect conditions!!

Friday Fishing

Friday was forecasted for bad weather, however by the time work ended it actually looked not to bad. So being new keen sea fisherman we decided to head out. We got to Kapiti Boat club around 5:30pm. The high tide time was scheduled to be at 6pm that night so we thought that we would get out in perfect timing for the current to drop. There were a lot of boats out so we decided to head down south a bit. The sea had a bit of chop on the water but like most other evenings we predicted this would drop. Having not fished a lot when the tide was high we weren’t sure if the fish would be found at the magic 20 – 30m mark or shallower. On Thursday we did catch the Trevally at 16m so we decided to tryout in the 20m mark for something different. Something strange occurred however, by the time we got out the current seemed to be already averagely strong. Considering that the tide changes day to day by about an hour later, we didn’t quite understand how this could be. Not too phased we decided to drop our lines – I went straight to a standard dropper rig while my brother used a Snapper rig using his homemade downrigger. I got into some heavy action virtually straight away, sending me from left to right, to right under the boat. It was obviously a large Kahawai. Sure enough after a good fight it was a large 5lb Kahawai. We decided to keep this one as we weren’t sure if we would have anymore luck. My brother had a whole pilchard on his Snapper rig and from previous experiences it seemed to attract Barracuda.

He was using his homemade downrigger again and it seemed to unclip every so often. We couldn’t tell whether it was fish doing this or whether it was just the current unclipping it. This wasn’t a bad thing as every time it came out he would get good takes as his bait drifted to the surface. What was bad was that his line would get bitten off once he felt the take. A sign that it was obviously Barracuda. They were stripping his 50lb without much effort. However you can’t be 100% sure it was one till you actually see one. So one of the times he pulled his bait just above the surface, a large Barracuda jump a metre out of the water and took everything – so that settled it. He didn’t get one in and that was about the only good action we did get, I did catch a nice Mackerel towards the end of the evening. I heard that Mackerel makes great bait so we decided to keep it. We headed in and later for dinner we ate the large Kahawai, battering it similar to Fish n Chips. It actually tasted no different to Fish and Chips which surprised me as I thought you would taste the stronger Kahawai flavour. This could be due to the fact that we bleed all our fish straight away by simply cutting there gill plates. It is actually very important for meat flavour to kill the fish very quickly, then bleed it. Killing the fish quickly means it doesn’t stress the meat and bleeding gets rid of the blood in the meat. Not killing a fish quickly or bleeding it will lead to that fishy taste and also the white looking meat. The meat should be almost translucent. Another issue is bruising of the meat. The Mackerel we decided to fillet and would use this for bait the next day we went fishing.

The nice 5lb Kahawai caught. It made bloody nice Fish and Chips - but they need to be well bleed straight away as you can see it has already been guttered and bleed

Conclusion
It was a nice day fishing on Friday, the current was just to strong however to get the rigs down deep enough. Perhaps we will try drift fishing when this occurs again. We did also get talking to some local experienced fisherman. They had a really nice Zodiac Boat which gets right across to Kapiti Island, something I think we might try later on but not right at this time. One of them was a young guy who had taken the day of School to go out fishing. I think it’s fantastic to see young people getting out, really enjoying and learning to fish. He was saying that he loved fishing of the sand over fishing of Kapiti Island as you tend to catch larger fish off the sand. Reefs tend to house a lot of under size fish. This has also been our experience from reef fishing when trying it out off Pukerua Bay, where we only caught small reef fish. However I did talk to one of my friends recently who told me you need to anchor just of the reef within the sand and try to attract the fish out from of the reef. So we definitely will be giving Pukerua Bay another go sometime soon. The young guy also mentioned that one of his friends had recently caught a 20 odd kg Kingfish from off the sand – which is bloody huge when you think about it!!

Saturday Fishing

The weather was a bit stormy which brought up the chop on the water, however it also brought large workups

It was a bit more stormy on Saturday and there was a lot more wind. The sea had a small swell however there was a lot of chop on the water. This meant that we would get the odd wave swamp the boat and yes I happened to have my back to this and I took the full effect of been soaked on a regular occurrence. We got out at about 12:00pm and predicted that low tide should have been about 1:15pm, so we would get that tide change nicely. As we predicted the current was fairly strong and heading south, but knew this would drop fairly quickly. I decided to put on a 10 ounce sinker with a standard dropper rig. This got me down however it felt like a lot of weight for the rig and I wasn’t sure if the bait would be well presented to the fish. I used 2 large pieces of squad for bait on large hooks (I would use the special black magic mouth hooks however I have found them extremely hard to get the hook out due to there shape – not easy if you are trying to release a fish – they do however hook in the side of the mouth, which is a good thing) . After not catching anything for awhile I decided to check my bait – sure enough it was still all intact. I dropped it down again and virtually straight away my line went into a freespool and I was into a small 2 lb Kahawai. This is a great eating size for Kahawai so we kept this one. Unfortunately it also snapped of the 10 ounce sinker which was costly. Seeing my $$$ literally sink to the bottom of the ocean I decided to revert back to the 3 ounce ball sinker. Surprisingly it actually got to the bottom, so i quickly mentioned that the current was dropping – right on cue. I also should have mentioned that my brother was using his downrigger again. He was using a very large piece of the Mackerel on a Snapper Rig. After about 40mins the current had dropped to virtually nothing. We had both changed our rigs to Snapper rigs with 3 ounce ball sinkers. My brother was still using the Mackerel and I was using a large strip of Squid. My brother started to get some good bites and started to explain to me how it was the Mackerel and he had read how good it was for Snapper. I shrugged this off as just speculative blurb, as the Squid had proven itself already. So while he kept getting bites and loosing his bait, I remained silent and biteless. Feeling a little desperate to get into the action I decided to give in and see how this magic bait would work. Sure enough when I pulled my line in there was still a huge piece of squid still on my line – it hadn’t been touched!!! Talk about picky fish. So I took this off and replaced it with a Mackerel fillet. Mackerel has weak flesh so you need to wind and thread your bait well with the hooks – if you have rubberbands then these work well. Sure enough I got nibbles almost straight away. I waited for a bit before giving a good strike. It felt on however it came of straight away. We started to wonder what sort of fish this was – could it be another shark? or perhaps a Barracuda. I pulled my line up and found my fillet of Mackerel was gone. This wasn’t Barracuda because you would expect your whole rig to have been cut. Our focus turned from the nibbling to wondering what on earth was down there. My brother started getting nibbles again as I placed a new piece of Mackerel on my line. This time he gave it a good strike once he felt the fish on. It was well hooked and we eagarly looked over the end of the boat to see what on earth would surface, would it be a shark? No, from the deep came a very bright red fish. My first thought was a nice size Snapper, but then as it got closer to the surface we saw it was quite obviously a huge Gurnard. So big it was hard to get it into the net. This must have been what was eating all our Mackerel. We got in on board and quickly whacked it on the head which killed it instantly. Then it was placed on our bait container as you can see the photo from above. We bled it and also guttered it but didn’t see any of the other Mackerel in its stomach so that still remains a mystery. I can’t think of what else could have eaten the large pieces perhaps it was Snapper? This was definitly the catch of the day.

This was a HUGE surprise catch. We were wondering what was taking our Mackerel bait. Turned out to be the largest Gurnard I have ever seen!!

Through the rest of the day we also caught a few Kahawai (released) a nice pan size Snapper and also another smaller Gurnard. The waves and wind picked up quite a bit so we decided to head in but not before trying some drifting through workups – unsuccessfully however. Throughout the whole day there were lots of work ups, tonnes of bird activity around. Some people drove there boats through the middle of these towing Kahawai lures through them, I don’t know how successful this was nor what they were going for.

It seemed to make the workups disperse and then rejoin at a different place. I would have thought simply parking your boat up and casting into the kahawai would have proven to be a better option rather than motoring through them with a large boat. Anyway I know when we chased a school of Kahawai a few weeks back by far we caught a lot simply by casting a rubber lure wherever they were jumping. Almost one everytime we casted. We headed in and met up with the young kid from the previous night and he was amazed with the size of the Gurnard. He said we should have entered the fishing competition, however we didn’t know there was one on. But I don’t think we would have entered anyway due to the fact that we are still very much new to this type of fishing. We headed back home having caught 2 Gurnard, 1 Snapper and 4 Kahawai (2 Released). A nice catch for about 4 hours of fishing. One thing we did notice, and it seems to happen all the time, is that we caught all these fish in about 1 hour and there was about 3 hours of no fish action. We are almost at the point where we might head in one the fishing dies – however how can you ever tell that this has happened. Perhaps this is why we end up staying out longer than we should, the possibility that you could catch a fish at anytime….

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…