Wednesday 7th & Thursday 8th January.
Its going off in the Tamaki Strait Shallows.
Get up early & get on the water before the Sun comes up & You should be into them, hungry angry Snaps that is with the chance of a nice King as well as there is so much Bait around at the moment with KY busting up the Bait schools right throughout the Tamaki Strait.
Left the boat ramp just as the Sun was coming over the Coro hills, stunning Sunrise on both days.
So started the day with My heavy outfit (6lb) & second cast was straight into a nice Snapper in the mid 50’s, bloody good fun first thing in the morning, strong scrappy fish, fighting well in the shallows.
The Zman Bleeding Banana Curlytail on a 1/2oz Ocean Angler Pink Lightbulb doing the damage & must say it has been a stand out performer in the last couple of months along with the small Zman 3.75″ Shads in Smokey & the Shiner, to top softies.
So I started to fill the bin with some nice eating fish in the high 40’s to the mid 50’s & lost a few stonkers along the way, but hay thats fishing for ya, ya win some & ya lose some.
All done & dusted by 8.30, what a morning, just epic.
The next morning I hit the same area & even tho the bite was not as full on there where still plenty of angry Snaps willing to accept My offerings.
Was more of a catch & release day with most returned unharmed to fight another day.
Got smoked by what I think was a good size King, no stopping it & as the spool started to empty (300m of 4lb) at pace & no time to start the boat & back up on it it was hold on to the spool & hope for the best, luckily for Me & the fish it popped My 15lb leader so got all My braid back, bloody good fun while it lasted.
So with a few low 50’s in the bin & the Sun starting to get high in the sky I decided to call it a day.
Just a couple of magical mornings on the briny with plenty of fish on the chew.
This is the area I have been fishing over the last couple of months & has been producing some bloody good eating fish, no 20lbers but good table fish upto 5 to 6kg & have lost bigger, so give it a go & be patient as they are there.
The tackle, well thats pretty simple really as I like to keep it simple, light braid (4 to 6lb) on long rods 8′.
Light Jigheads from 1/4 to 1/2oz, the Ocean Angler Lightbulbs are the bee’s knee’s, short shank so lots of movement from the softies & strong, bloody strong plus the added UV blast to attract the fish, do they work you better believe it they do, I don’t use anything else.
The stand out colours for Me have been the Zman 4″ Bleeding Banana(red & yellow) & Coconut Ice(pink & white) Curlytails the 4″ Nucked Pilchard Paddletail the small 3.75″ Shads in Smokey & Shiner, just deadly & the 5″ Bruised Banana Shad.
Fluro leaders, try to keep them as light as possible for fishing the shallows, the lighter the leader the better the action, more action means more fish, I use the 15lb & 20lb if I’m getting busted off a few times.
And lastly don’t forget your Ocean Anglers Secret Sauce just for that added incentive, I like & use the Drag Juice & Anchovy & Garlic.
Alls these little 1, 2% x factors add up to a great productive day on the water & I have never been let down by any of theses products, if anything they have helped Me to become a better Angler, always learning different ways to fish them., always learning full stop.
So get out there & get into them Folks as there is plenty around.
Happy Days.