Patience can be essential when casting lures. Some days are red hot, and others, hours between bites. Luckily, we don’t encounter too many slow days, but when we do, we keep to the game plan, trust our instincts and fish hard.
If all the right factors are present. You know the target species will lurk in the shadows of current, bait, and disturbed water. They just aren’t feeding for whatever reason. It may have just eaten; it may only feed in the last hour of the tide; one thing for sure is if you land a Gulp! in front of its face. Chances are it will trigger a bite.
Today was like this, an afternoon trip with only 2-3 hours of fishing planned. The sounder was alive; big sharks were visibly present, shags were diving down, scoring bait fish, and a warm northerly wind was blowing. We were catching kahawai every half hour or so. But the snapper were notable by their absence.
Date – 27th March 2023
Anglers – Darren Marmont, Tom Harley, myself (Alistair Arkell)
High tide – 12:32 pm
Launch time – 3:30 pm
Number of fish caught – two snapper, five kahawai
Moon – Waxing Crescent (half-moon)
Lunar calendar – indicated hot fishing, with the best bite at 6:45 pm
Back on the ramp – 7 pm
Sunset – 7:23 pm
And so it was cast after cast, into the shallows and dropoffs with only kahawai taking our baits. We had one colossal shark cruise past the boat, a bronze whaler of approx 150kg.
After 2 hours of casting, it happened; Darren hooked a banger in only a couple of metres of water on the edge of a drop-off into deeper water. Tom and I immediately stopped fishing, pulled the Haswing in and got after the fish. It’s essential not to create any slack line in this situation, and if you drive up to fast on the fish, that’s precisely what happens. I prefer to drive on a slight angle, which gives the angler a better ability to stay tight on the fish. Then once close enough, edge the boat in front of the fish and stay between the fish and the shoreline, forcing it deeper. Then position the boat so the angler is straight up and down on the fish, so it can’t bury its head into the kelp. I can’t stress this part enough. You have to be fast. If you take your time, the fish will be in the kelp, and chances are lost forever. We do have some tricks to get them out. But the stakes are against you.
This fish was a PB for Darren, and although we made a successful release and will never know the weight, it had every appearance of a fish over the magic mark.
Sure enough, we kept casting, but this only resulted in an excellent eater of about 50cm. So with time getting on and wanting to be in before dark, we headed back to the ramp—a quiet but memorable afternoon.
As always, we are amping for the next trip!!
