I too had a jig for Kingfish, we had no trouble finding the schools of fish, yet it was plagued by small ones with the hot bite being over! I continued catching and releasing a few fish that I caught with my favourite being the 250 gram Jigstar-White Alien jig. With the other boys having plenty fish for a feed, they split up closer to home and I continued clocking up run-in hours on the new ski. I headed back in the direction of Waiheke where I fished the edge of Durville Rocks. It wasn’t long and I had a nice sized Snapper hit the Gulp – 7” Curried Chicken. I was fishing in 18 metres of water and to avoid any snags I was using a half ounce jig head, so I could slow down the sink rate. It worked a treat with the slow drift and I continued to fill the chilly bin.
I’m always eager to check if fish are holding in my favourite spots, so I travelled closer to home to fish the four metre pin off Waiheke Island. It wasn’t producing the hits, but plenty of fish sign, this Shag was having better success than me!
With a few in the bin I was slowly edging closer in the direction of home. As heading back up the side of Waiheke I spotted a few Terns and Kahawai schools working an area at twenty metres of depth. I decided to check it out and scouted the area with the Raymarine E7 seeing if there were any Snapper beneath... Looking very promising I cast a smaller soft bait, the Gulp – 5” New Penny which is a colour that has been working very well of late in the Gulf. This day was no different as I soon had another pannie for the bin!
As quick as I could I was casting out for another one, this time the bait making it all the way to the bottom where all the sign was showing on the sounder. As the jig head was starting to lift off the bottom and as my drift speed was getting faster with more tide, I was hit by a solid fish! This fish was peeling plenty of line, really giving me a work out on the light gear, it had me wondering if it was a small Kingy for a moment. Once I finally was able to retrieve some string I was feeling the all familiar head shakes of a Snapper! A great battle against angler and fish, with a well conditioned Snapper fighting well above its weight. The fish and colour being eventually admired at the surface and perfect for my smoker, to be our snack for Friday evening drinks.
After an enjoyable few hours fishing and the new ski run-in complete, it was time to head back to continue a day’s work! Always a great feeling full throttle back to the ramp with a chilly bin full of fresh Snapper.
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Andrew Hill
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