We scanned for reports from the gulf as Nik hadn't been out up there for a couple of weeks. Same news from everywhere, the workups were sporadic and brief, over almost as soon as they started. I finished up work on Friday morning, threw the gear into the car, drove to Paeroa and grabbed dad, and we set off at a leisurely pace on a beautiful spring day. As we passed over the small creeks between Paeroa & Thames I made a mental note to come back and explore with a #3 before the water gets too skinny and the fish drop back down into the Waihou. We got over the hill from Manaia and dropped down to Te Kouma, and drove around to have a look at the ramp... full to over flowing and no parking anywhere! Hello, something was up for that many recreational boats to be on the water. We stopped and enjoyed a cold beer and then carried on stopping for a lunch of fish and chips then driving into a very busy Coromandel township. Arriving at Long Bay Motor camp we were filled in on the reason why it was so busy - the "Softbait World Cup" and the Fireman's Fishing Competition events were both on. We set off for a walk from long Bay to see the sights and then came back, enjoyed another ale and then dozed off. Nik arrived at 7.30 and we ate dinner and planned the next day's events. We decided on a gentleman's hour's start, launching at the motor camp and then to go wide and look for birds. We set up the boat (Big Angry Fish's new Extreme 6.5m) and got prepared.
The alarm went at 6 and we got up, ate, got ready and set off. Funnily enough we just didn't see all that many boats out and about, but they were most likely working the pinnacles around the islands. Birds were in the sky but not much was doing on the work up front, however when we saw dolphins working and gannets started bombing we got there pronto. Over the side with the inkichus and Nik hooked up. From a quiet start, the fishing hotted up. Not constant streams of fish coming aboard, but the size and quality was pretty impressive with the majority of the fish between 3 and 5kg. Dad landed the biggest of the day at ~7kg pretty early on, and we knew it would be a hard fish to better.
The work ups were like sporadic mini events rather than sustained bait balls, by the time we got there the gannets would be sitting having come up from their dive bombing, but we still hit plenty of fish. The weather really played ball as well, the niggly little SW dropping away by mid morning so conditions were absolutely mint.
By late afternoon we were ready to pull the pin when the NW came in so set off to clean up the boat and catch. On arrival back at the camp we spoke to other parties who had been out soaking baits for very little reward. I guess sometimes you have to burn some gas to get results. We filleted out 20 very respectable snapper and put the fillets on ice.
Over a glass or 2 of red wine and snapper fillets we planned Sunday's excursion - this time we wanted to launch and retrieve at Te Kouma so decided to be on the water at 6am. We packed that night, loaded the cars and boat and woke at sparrow's fart to be the first boat on the water. The wind had sprung up and was decidedly chilly and cloud shrouded the sun. Definitely not quite as nice as Saturday. The results were worse also, gannets drifted here and there, but not a work up in sight. After a couple of hours of sitting in the chop only catching a few very small fish, we decided to go and swim some soft plastics over a pinnacle. After an hour or so, we'd caught some pannies and were ready to go ashore and find some coffee.
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| I'm cold, I want my blankie... |
Always fun out fishing with Nik.
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