Author: Nik Key (Snap)
Last 24th of July, I graced Fish ‘N Dip charters with the company of good friends, with super competitive fisherman Paul Senior and Mark Kitteridge. That day, we were to take some marketing photos and videos of the beautiful playground we have been gifted in the gulf. We departed P21 at a leisurely hour of 8am and headed towards the Coromandel Pennisula in glassy conditions, which could typical for this time of year.
It was a bitter cold day on the brine and this made it very hard for fishing. We found the workups as did a few other boats in the area between Happy Jacks and Fantail Bay. These winter workups could be very fickle with lots of action, including dolphins rounding up bait over a large area and gannets ascending into the pilchard carnage.
You would think this activity would mean lots of feeding Snapper taking advantage of the free meal ticket, but sometimes they just would not play ball. Luckily this good sized Kingfish decided to come to the party and provide some entertainment after no Snapper action. It was very frustrating but this was when you need to move away from the workups and try to find the fish elsewhere.
We decided to head around the northern tip of Coromandel and try some softbaiting in closer to see if we could entice a larger Snapper out of the shallows. This has worked for us well in the past and was a good tactic to take during the winter. But alas, no big ones were forthcoming. We did manage some pannies, though, so i was not a total loss. The scenery around this coast line was just spectacular and almost prehistoric.
On the way home, we found the workups again about 6 miles north of where we had left them and gave them another go on both jigs and softbait. This time we only got Kahawai and noticed the other boats around us doing the same.
Guest blogger profile:
Nick Key is a skipper, guide, and consultant at Snap Fishing Ventures snapfishingventures.com.