So far January has been shaping up quite nicely, especially for those fishing late afternoon through to dusk. Our best fishing has been in depths from eight to twelve meters.
Browns Bay
Whether you kayak fish, or are a kite fisher with a dropper rig, the East Coast Bays can provide some awesome fishing.
I usually kayak fish with Peter Vesetolu and we always have a friendly bet on who gets the biggest fish. My latest trip out from Browns Bay was on an incoming tide with slightly overcast skies and a low swell.
I opted for centre of the beach on a bearing with the green marker of Browns Bay Reef, Sky Tower and the boat ramp in alignment. This particular spot has a clump of foul that often produces a lot of solid fish, I was confident the biggest fish of the
day was here.
Pete opted for running his longline 20 meters west of the green marker and along the face of the reef. While this shot can produce huge snapper at times, it is much more difficult to fish because of thick kelp.
On our first sets I was happily hauling in snapper up to three pounds while giving Pete a bit of stick over the lack of fish on his line, and numerous clumps of weed he had snagged.
Pete just shrugged his shoulders saying "It's not over yet mate, lets see who's laughing when the days done".
While hauling our last sets I looked over to Pete and noticed him going sideways. I yelled out to find out why and he replied " Bugger mate, I think I'm snagged up again".
By this time my two biggest fish were around four pounds each. After stowing my gear below I paddled over to Pete who said " I think you have done me again mate".
But once ashore, my jaw dropped and a sly smirk crept over Pete's face as he revealed his catch for comparison to mine. You guessed it! The old fellow had really cleaned up and had caught nine snapper ranging in size from four to nine pounds - ALL were
caught on that final set.
Pete and I have recently been trying out some new kayak fishing locations with alternative fishing methods such as using Paul's new flasher rigs, as well as some with our own colours and variations. We have used this gear on the Kayak Longlines as well
as from boat rods. We have also tested running longer traces up to two meters in length.
It has been a very interesting exercise and we will report on the results here soon.
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