The legends at Pure Fishing wanted a trip out to catch some hapuku and smash some snapper on the way back in. Plans were afoot. This was going to be a big day with an early start and a late finish. The lads were frothing for this trip! It took a few weeks for a high to align, and with the boat packed, we were off!
Date – 8th November 2021
Launch – 6:15am
High tide – 10:30am
Low tide – 4:45pm
Return at the ramp at 7 pm
Sea conditions – Glass out, with some swell.
Leaving the ramp, the only chop encountered was in the first hour of the trip. From then, it was variable flat calm for the rest of the day. We ran into workups about 40 mintues after leacing the ramp, with many gannets, dolphins and snapper going pshyco. We caught six fish pretty quickly up to about 4.5kg on sliding lures before carrying on our way. Workup fishing wasn’t the order of the day, but when you bump into one going hard. It’s impossible not to stop and have a drop! This was a solid start to the day.
From here, we steamed out to the Puka grounds to smash some puka in the face and get a feed of some of NZ’s finest. My favoured depths for Puka are 200-250 metres, but we do fish for them shallower and deeper.
The shallowest I’ve caught big puka in is 45 metres, a hefty 20kg fish that devoured a live bait meant for a kingfish. And the deepest I’ve encountered hapuku is approx 350 metres. Quite a variance. We’ve even been lucky enough to experience them stray line fishing at the mokes in 40 metres. These little 2-3kg size fish made quite a pleasant surprise whilst drifting pilchards down the burley trail for snapper. These days I would release such fish, but back then, they went straight into the slurry and eventually my fry pan. Upon arriving at our marks, everything looked promising. However, the Moon Calander indicated a terrible fishing day; as it turned out, the hapuku was slower than we would have hoped or expected. The first drop resulted in a stunning 15kg fish, and the following drops only ensued gemfish and sharks. It felt fishy, and all the indicators pointed to a good harvest. Perhaps the calendar picked it proper, and the fish had their mouths shut? We shuffled around the reef and rubble, trying each side, hoping to turn things on. But alas, our chilly bin only contained one nice fish. With time dragging on and the boys wanting to catch more fish, we headed back to the Hauraki Gulf and got into snapper on soft baits.
Once again, the crew were frothing at the thought of sending Gulp! into the wash for big marauding snapper. The bite was good with someone catching a fish every four or five casts. And the fish were all solid. The fish ranged in size from 45-75cm, and anything over 55cm was released to catch another day. The beautiful thing about fishing lures in shallows is every fish makes a good release candidate, with every fish hooked in the mouth or lips, and the shallow water means no chance of barotrauma.
The glass out got better and better as the day drew on, and we were treated to an absolute stunner ride back to the ramp.
Thanks to the lads for an epic day on the Hauraki Gulf and sublime fishing!
We will be back!
