The quality and bounty offered by the Hauraki Gulf always amaze me. Today, with only an afternoon session available, we chucked the surf casters and Kontiki in the car and drove to one of our best beaches. With glistening white sands, a light easterly swell with a light, albeit cold wind at our backs.
Date – 15/9/22
Low Tide – 5pm
Start Fishing – 4 pm
Bite Time – 3-5pm
Number of fish – 9
Gurnard – 4
Snapper – 4
Hammerhead – 1
We had food on the brain, and only a couple of hours of fishing time meant bringing my buddy’s Kontiki with us, which guarantees a feed, and we’d have our kids with us for this style of fishing. They peak out when hauling the gear back, and the 45-minute soak time is perfect for them to tear around on the beach. It’s a win/win, and I can’t recommend the experience for families highly enough.
Of course, we take a few surf casters with us and try and catch a couple of fish whilst the line soaks. Surfcasting is the purest form of catching snapper and probably the hardest, and you leave a tiny footprint with zero chance of hurting a stock of fish. Catching fish in this method is very rewarding when conditions are right. Top surf casters have my respect for being exceptional fishermen—the best. My long-term goal for toys is a Yamaha ATV setup with Kontiki, surf casters and BBQ. The kids will love it! Not to mention my mates will as well.
I’ve done countless Auckland surfcast/Konitki sessions now. And I can’t recall many that we haven’t lucked out on. We generally always get enough for a feed. Big fish aren’t the target. I dream of an entire string of big fat gurnard!
Gurnard are in my top 5 for eating fish, and I love its sweet flavour. And once you have the knack and the right knife, they are straightforward to fillet.
For a good surf session, we would fish the late afternoon into the dark on a rising tide, with the bulk of the fish coming in that last hour of light and through to darkness as the wary Auckland snapper come and feed hard up on the beach.
Today was perfect, one set with the Kontiki baited with fresh Mullet, we managed four gurnard, three snapper and a small hammerhead shark. The hammerhead was quickly released and was all but unharmed from the experience.
Right at the end of the haul back, one of the Penn surf sets bent over, and we caught a snapper to add to our tally.
A short n sweet session on an epic beach with a few cold beers made for a great afternoon. Leaving home at 1 pm and back home by 6:30 pm with dinner for the family and no boat to clean!
Hard to beat that!
