It’s always exciting getting a new boat, and this one was in the making for about 12 months. It was always going to be a centre console and fibreglass, with so little on the NZ market in the way of fibreglass centre consoles. My sights turned to Australia, where fibreglass centre consoles are well advanced in design and functionality. My choice was a simple one in Haines Signature 543SF CC, powered by Yamaha F130hp and Simrad electronics.
I’ll get into more detail on the boat setup in another blog after 2-3 trips of prop testing. Today was the first fishing day for the new rig. Buddies Darren, Hamish & Noah joined me on the maiden fishing trip.
Launch time was 8 am, and although the forecast was good, there was a shitty 15-knot SE wind blowing. We arrived at spot one after about 45 mins, and the first cast was made. I love the first cast of the day; the anticipation is always enormous. With very little bait sounding, I moved up the coast about 500 metres, and things looked more promising. I seldom cast where there is no bait unless I’m hiding from the wind. Hamish Beesley was last to rig up, and his first cast was pretty good, resulting in a 77cm out of approximately 7 metres of water. The ground was rough, with many bombies just below the surface. This fish would have been close to, if not over, the 20-pound mark. But there was no way Hamish would kill it just to find that out.
Date – 20/2/23
Launch time – 8:15 am
High tide – 8:10 am
Lunar calendar – Indicated excellent fishing
POB – 4
Longest snapper – 77cm
Fish caught – approx 65
Fish kept – 10
Return to the ramp – 9:15 pm
Best bite time – 12-2 pm
Best Lure – Gulp! 7″ Crazy Legs – New Penny & Pilchard
The fishing was consistent all morning through to about 2 pm, with the best bite the last two hours of the low. Things slowed considerably from low tide onwards, but we still picked off fish sporadically here and there. I prefer it when things are a bit slower, as this typically happens when we catch our biggest fish. You’ll take the hectic fishing any day of the week, but often when the bite is nuts and the fish are aggressively feeding. With so many fish in the 55-70cm range. Putting your lure in front of a fish over 75cm can be problematic—tough gig.
We fished through the afternoon and the early evening, waiting and hoping for a monster fish that would eclipse Hamish’s fish from the morning. The XXL fish never came, but we had an excellent day with so many solid fish released to catch another day. A nice swim kept us refreshed and cooled for the ride home to one of the most stunning sunsets ever seen.
Thanks again, Hauraki Gulf! We are amping for the next one!
