The few mackerel visible in the lights did not seem interested in the flies. Ian Smith and I switched to light line with small baited single hooks instead. We then began landing some, not a great number though.
David Wallace, a Tauranga local, had it all worked out. He put a 40 gm blue and white lure under his string of bait flies. That lure must have accounted for half our combined total of 35 mackerel landed.
Jason, David's mate, landed a lone squid on his lure fly set up so I got a proper squid lure out but no takers. I was tempted to put a live bait out but we were in very shallow water, could see the bottom and could see several large stingrays which I did not fancy catching.
We packed the bait fishing in about 11 pm . On some 24 hour charters I've seen people bait fish all night. It was clear though this party had a few clues and understood the benefits of a few hours kip before the serious fishing started.
I was up at dawn with the idea of tossing out a stray line for a snapper, so was Ian Smith with the same Idea. Before we could do it the skipper was up and we were motoring out for our first Hapuka drift. Had a quick bite to eat, baited my line with two whole mackerel then we were there. Fishing in 200 to 270 metres you don't anchor the boat. The skipper finds the fish and calculates wind speed and current. He then turns the boat side on and all those fishing that drift line up on one side of the boat in such a way that their lines go out away from the boat at right angles to the boat and parallel to each others lines. With one of our small party still seasick and most of the deck space unused all of us could fish every drift.
Typical gear used included: 500 plus metres of 24 kg mono main line, 0.8 kg sinkers. A gimble belt, and a harness to clip on to your reel. All fished 2 or 3 large tuna circle hooks on short droppers tied into heavy trace, 100 kg to 200 kg mono. The heavy trace is principally to stop sharks, gem fish, and barracouta biting ones hooks off! Most had illumines beads or tubing next to the hooks. The 0.8 kg sinker is tied to this 200 kg hook dropper via a short length of 15 kg mono so if your sinker snags there is still hope of recovering hooks and fish. Rods and reels all heavy duty stuff. My Penn Senator 9/0 reel mounted on a matching Penn Custom roller tipped 1.66 metre long 12/24 kg rod was typical. Two of the others had the exact same rod and reel set. I have tried this sort of fishing with lighter gear previously and it was not something I'd repeat!
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Rob, a Tauranga local, passes up one of the hapuka from the ice box to be gutted on the way home. |
I positioned myself in the middle of the boat where I could look in on the boats sounder. When Hugh gave us the nod for the first drop we were in 270 metres with lots of fish sign hard on the bottom. The wind though easing up was pushing the boat along. It seemed like forever till any of us touched bottom. With possibly 380 metres of line running out at an angle its a bit tricky to feel the bottom. A bit like feeling a single grain of sand on your finger. This is were the new braided super lines have a distinct advantage as you can feel your sink touching the bottom quite easily even in quite deep water!
This area was quite new to me, and I don't do a lot of this sort of fishing. Surfcasting is more my "thing". I had been instructed to winch my line up two metres as soon as I touched bottom or risk an immediate snag. As the boat drifts over the fish the bottom changes so you must bounce your sinker off the bottom every few minutes to ensure you are near the bottom as mostly that is where the fish are.
When you hook up you reel in as fast as you can so the fish does not dive for cover and snag you. So much for theory! Figure I must have snagged early in the drift, lost the sinker and failed to feel it as the two 0.5 kg baits I had still felt heavy. There were a few whoops and hollers up and down the boat as several rods buckled over with fish half way through the first drift with David, on the bow, Ray on the stern, and Arnold right next to me all beginning the long hard process of winching their fish up.
It was not until the end of the drift 10 to 15 minutes latter that the fish came up; a mix of small bass and bluenose in the vicinity of 8 kg to 12 kg. These are a similar type of fish to hapuka (groper in the South Island) but not actually the real thing. The fish were quickly tagged, so we could sort out who caught what latter, and put on ice. I noted then and on the next couple of drifts the fish were predominantly taking squid baits. We motored back up the reef and again drifted over the fish. It seemed to be on a slightly different part of this large reef system for each drift.
Four drifts latter and I was still fishless and had lost three sinkers and one complete set of terminal tackle. Two of the others Ian and Rob where having similar problems while everyone else had at least one hapuka (groper), bass, or bluenose. Even the skipper had a bluenose, from a brief fish on our forth drift. Arnold , standing right next to me, had three good fish! The problem seemed to be feeling the bottom and then quickly getting your line just above it clear of the snags. I wasn't getting it right. With 3 to 4 hundred metres of nylon mono line out there is a lot of stretch and its not easy to learn to do correctly.
I had a good close look at the others as they bottom bounced their sinkers on the forth drop and it seemed that by watching the line very closely I'd see a tiny bit of slack line as the sinker touched bottom before the drifting boat pulled the line tight.
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