Garth Planck, TT and me met at TT's house yesterday to go for a snapper fish. I had thought we were fishing a shallow reef off one of the city's main beaches, so was not really prepared for the trip that we ended up doing to the noises. Bags of pillies and burley were purchased, then we gassed up the boat and headed to Okahu Bay. Launching was a breeze, and we headed off on a mill pond like sea. 40 minutes later and we were at anchor, pumping burley. I packed the 6 weight for small snapper action; Garth (world class competition angler) had his 15 weight Gatti on board. We fished baits, catching snaps regularly of small to medium size, as it happened the big boys didn't come out to play. Occasionally kingis would buzz the clouds of piper in our burlry trail and the fly rod would come out - Garth's that is, I'm far too chicken to play with 5kg + kingis on a 6 weight!!! The incoming current poured our burley into a reef system with channels interspersed with rocks, pefect snapper territory. Being a bit bored soaking bait I rigged a small black Clouser and cast it across current, getting a good drift and sink. I caught snapper after snapper in the 20 - 30cm class which was really good fun. Fly was beating bait 2-1 as well, a nice result.
As the tide began to turn (out) the snaps dried up so we upped anchor to chase some work ups which turned out to be horse sized kahawai in the 3kg range. The 3 fish I caught took me a while to land, was wishing for the 8 weight after a while. The backing loop wizzing through the guides reminded me why kahawai shit all over trout on the fly rod.
Fresh fish, a nice touch of sun and a good relaxing day out, man I slept like a baby. :)
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