Huge Haul of John Dory
While Rob was away, Paul & I took over the shop.
It was a great opportunity to chat with the kitefishers and find out how their fishing was going. One outstanding report we received was from Steve Miers-Jones. Steve fishes a Flexiwing dropper rig and while kitefishing six weeks ago at Waihi Beach,
he ran one set of 20 hooks.
The winds were reasonably light so Steve decided to set the gear with no weights at all on the line. The set returned SIX john dory, no other fish, just the dory.
It was interesting to note also that Steve had baited half his hooks with fresh trevally and the other half with a salted long life bait. No fish were caught on the salted baits, all dory were taken on the fresh trevally.
Catching one or two dory per 25 hooks set happens from time to time, but to catch six from one set of 20 hooks is extremely rare. John dory don't normally eat bait, as they generally target only live fish, rarely they can mistake the shining skin of
a moving bait for their favoured meal.
The movement of the bait, slowly rising and falling as it travelled mid water on Steves unweighted rig, would certainly have helped create the illusion of a live bait fish and must be the reason he caught so many dory on one set.
Muriwai from Aaron Buxton
I got a phone call early Sunday morning, January 18th, from Aaron Buxton. Aaron had been fishing the southern end of Muriwai beach on the Saturday with his mate Ken. There was a huge swell and light winds so they decided to reduce the number of hooks
set to only 6 and to keep the drag to a minimum Aaron also used his rolling weight for the first time. "It was awesome, I couldn't have set the gear without it." Other kitefishers were getting bogged at around 400 metres out but my gear just
went out with no problems. I set the gear to about 950 metres offshore." Aaron and Ken caught a total of 15 snapper and one 5 to 6 foot bronze whaler shark on fresh mullet bait. All the snapper were a nice pan size up to 2kgs.
90 Mile Beach by Michael Shirley
At last another trip to the fabulous north on January 1st through to the 5th with my new mega air inflatalbe kites.
Day 1: A high over the North Island and sea breezes blowing onshore on both coasts, it had to be out with the rod. I wound up with 1 kahawai which I cut up for tomorrows bait.
Day 2: The high continues and still the winds blow in my face on both coasts. It was out with the rod again and I wound up with 3 very nice snapper from yesterdays kahawai bait.
Days 3 & 4: Fishing was very hard and no fish were caught.
Day 5: Yes, at last, a puff of the slightest breeze and I watched a family down the beach doing all sorts of tricks to get their nighthawk kite up in the air, but alas to no avail.
Out came my mega air 3 and whoosh, up she goes. The winds were there one minute and gone the next. I managed to get the kite just over the water and then nothing, the winds disappeared again completely so I quickly reeled the kite back in before it
hit the water.
I guess it means, they won't fly in no wind at all, which means more time in the Maunganui Hotel. I must admit, the inflatable kite did fly when other kites didn't, despite their best efforts of racing them up and down the beach from their 4 wheel drives.
Never mind, I may go back up north again in April when I believe the fishing, and the winds, are better anyway.
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