I'll kick off...

Turned up about 1300Hrs Friday, and was greeted with a 20+kn wind and whitecaps (Time to use the tether ), no yaks out on the water that I could see, but what I could see was a huge workup where the wind had pushed the whitebait up against the coast, and the KY and birds were having a field day. Tough going into the wind and water, but once out there it was one of the best workups I've seen for a long time - Virtually every wave had at least one KY surfing in it and the water was littered with whitebait remains. Chucked out a pink shine and first was on before I had flipped the bail arm. Good fat XOS KY, Lucky first went back (as if I was worried about not catching any more ) After that it was just full-on carnage.
With this going on for more than 3 hours and less than 20m offshore, in front of the campsite I was surprised that no-one else was venturing out for some sport.
Tell a lie - one local came out with his yak to run a net(!) Although I'm pleased to say the wind and fish conspired against him and he only bagged about a dozen KY. If the school had turned he would have had thousands of fish. No need for that sort of thing in my opinion, as a couple of guys on the beach were hauling them in quite happily with rods.
Filled my bag with enough to do several smoker loads, biggest went between 65 and 70cm. Got absolutely taken to the cleaners by a King on a big 7" grub SP, and of course the snaps were lurking as well and bagged three in the 6-8lb range with many more thrown back around 4-6lb.
Called it quits at 1700, and headed home to spend the evening filleting and brining.

Saturday dawned oily calm and sunny, in fact the bay was calmer than I've seen it for a long time.Sea like oil with raging 3 inch surf on the beach, and some yakkers already out in the bay by the time I got there (0630ish)

Fishing seemed to be tough going for a couple of people I talked to, whereas others were introduced rather rudely to the resident Kingy population (no contest)...I suspect some were still geared for Auckland pannies and undergunned. The ones I had hanging around would have gone 20 - 25kg easily but were very cautious on the bite with three dropped hits on a large pogy I was dragging. Changed to trolling a 7" red and green grub which worked with the snaps and had one 7lber hit it as I passed over head at full speed heading home.

Skippies were in residence, popping out here and there, but muggins here left his feathers behind didn't he! Plague of pup Makos in the 1-2m range hanging around as well - followed one for some minutes as he stalked two blue penguins, expecting only one to surface each time they dived, but Mr Bitey obviously wasn't in the mood.

I spent a couple of hours playing musical fish with one nice condition Mako at around 1.5m and I ended up with more than one snapper head in my lap. Tried to get a shot of him munching away at the side of the yak, but by the time the camera had sorted itself out, I only had a pic of another snapper head! I always line my cooler bag with a heavy duty poly bag for this very reason, Found out later that one fish had gone between the liner and the cool bag which probably brought him in.

Had to call it a day early as was placed on standby

Best snap weighed in when I left was 18lb, with a lot in the 10lb area, so would be interested in hearing how Sunday went.

Good meeting some of you people, and would be happy to team up for a fish if you're up this way.

Cheers
PeteYeah, I admit it - I toyed with the idea of bagging him for the smoker as well, but 15kg mono doesn't last long in the mouth

great report,thanks for sharing

unfortunately a visit to the tooth mouse gate keeper kept me in doors for the week end or i would deffinately have made the trip up from auckland to do battle with a kingie or 2.
i noticed your target is a 50pd kingie-how you progressing with this?
I have a similar target in mind ,,,,the bigger the better.......hoping to try out a selection of rapalas at the taranaki for a kingie.

sean

Hooking them isn't the problem It's the bit between there and heaving it onto the yak that I'm challenged in

Sounds like you had a great weekend HLD! Good size fish
Wouldnt really want to capsize with Mr bitey hangen round, could be interesting
Good stuff!

Worlds fastest re-entry if you did

Hopefully Mental will be along shortly with a full and concise report from his side of the peninsula

Yep I'm here...

Friday 9:00am
Pack the car for the drive north 'cause I was too lazy too do it the night before
Packing my strayline setup I notice my braid is all twisted, probably from trolling a popper when last out, so I back the drag right off and start to strip off a few meters of line, couple of pulls into it I go from a two piece rod to a three piece rod...
(If anyone has a spare top to a Tica 82GP Pro-Weave let me know, emailed Kilwell on Friday but heard nothing yet...)



So finish packing and nip into The Bait Station and pick up a cheapie rod for the weekend

Get up to Whatuwhiwhi about 4:00pm after stopping in Whangarei for a bit of lunch and some other bits and pieces.

Got the tent set up, cracked open a beer or two and settled back for an easy evening (learnt that taking it easy the night before is a good idea after my Beach and Boat morning after experience) no fishing for me on Friday.

Saturday 5:45am
Alarm goes off, get up, get in the car and drive to Matai Bay, launch off the beach at about 6:15am



While paddling out the water directly in front of me gets broken by a dorsal fin heading straight towards me... followed by another and another, ah dolphins... Phew!



Kept on paddling out to the far south end of Whangatupere Bay, Skippies were jumping around all over the place chasing bait, paddling conditions were perfect...



Fished the flat rock face for a while picking up a few small (for up there, big for Auckland) pannies but no monsters so I then headed north and into the bay itself and fished in and around the rocks where I hooked into something nice...

This fish went against what everyone has told me so far, if a fish is caught against the rocks, it'll run out and away, yea right! This fish ran right along the rock face until it found a cut and in it went then a bit further right behind another rock! All I can feel is the line rubbing on the rocks, feeling this meant I had to juggle between putting pressure on the fish to get it out but not too much to over load the now damaged line, after about ten minutes I managed to coax it out from behind the rock and I thought at this point I had tired the fish out... NO, this fish then heads DEEP directly under the kayak, I'm sitting in about 12 meters of water and my guess is it went right down to the bottom, so ensued another ten minutes of pulling from both of us until I won and at last had the fish on the surface, yay!

Now how to get this in the kayak... I don't carry a net only a gaff, and well to be honest up to this point I've never used it So it was a new experience for both me and the fish

After all that, here it is



A nice 12lber, this is my biggest Snapper on the kayak so far, so I was very happy

I carried of fishing along the rocks slowly heading back towards Matai Bay, picking up a few smaller Snapper and this thing, what is it? Feisty little thing and very slimy...



Picked up another nice snapper, 8lb, and decided to head back in to weigh my fish, hit the beach with several tourists there and my fish, and me were very quickly celebrities with many photos being taken of the fish, me and my yak

Fish in the bin



Headed back to the camp for a feed, beer, and to clean the fish. Got a txt from HLD and met him down and the beach for a brief introduction (I'll be back for another fish, a beer, and a yarn soon!).

Saturday 4:30pm
Headed out off Whatuwhiwhi for a fish but by now the wind had picked up to a good 15 knots so made for a very slow paddle north along the coast, picked up heaps of pannies on the sand but nothing around the rocks, I had a feed already so back they all went.

Sunset over Whatuwhiwhi



The wind picked up and the rain came down of Saturday night, getting up Sunday morning the rain had subsided but the wind had hung around so the day was pretty much a write off.



Most started to head home, I decided to do the same BUT... hmmm I have a flat tyre, simple fit the spare, yea right! I have a spare it's round, tyre is inflated, the wheel has five holes in it BUT IT'S NOT OFF A SUBARU LEGACY!!!



Thankfully the local mechanic was working on a Sunday and offered to fix the puncture, even if it did take five hours, so I spent the day hanging around the camp catching a bit of sun burn

BUT after all that it was FANTASTIC and I WILL be back again, hopefully in less than a years time, I'd like to see what the winter Snapper look like up there..?

Photo of the weekend, sunrise while heading out of Matai Bay



Cheers, Mental

Nice fish and really good pics shame about your spare Cheers

Some excellent shots there I must learn to take more photos, now I'm waterproof (too used to hiding the camera away below decks, wrapped in many plastic bags), now it sits happily in my PFD pocket, completely forgotten

Mr. Slimey is a Sandagers Wrasse, although the colouration is a lot more faded than normal (maybe past 'that' time of year he's all worn out)

Good meeting you on the run and glad you could go home with a new PB

Nice photos Mental,the dolphins were a great bonus for the mornings start up they swam around us for a moment as well.The kahwai were sure there in mass and made for a fun fish on light gear.Is that a parrot fish in your foot chocks?At least we enjoyed a full days fishing in a great part of the Far North I will return and hope to catch a snapper over the 10lb range next time,make that 20lb [dreams are free]

Nice pics and great report