Snapper Taps

Well last saturday nights fishing was interesting. i have been getting into leaving my fly to settle more in between retrieves and keeping the retrieve to a few small strips and found that i have been getting strikes while the fly is stationary but i have also had a few where i felt the fish on so i struck and nothing.

One thing that i have a bad habbit of is the old trout strike where i lift the rod up and pull the line. When there is nothing on you then have a situation where you have taken the fly out of the zone and away from the fish. on making some enquiries on the saltwater blog there is a consensus that leaving the fly in the zone and then a small twitch will bring the fish back on the fly again and what i am feeling is the fish nipping at the tail.

Thus the best thing I can do is not to strike and let the fish take the fly on its own and once this has happened strike by pointing the rod at the fish and pulling on the line. if the fish doesn't take off wait and after few seconds give the fly a small twitch.

sounds easy but years of trout strike in competitions gives you a gut reaction to movement on the line and it may take a while to wean me off this.

Pt Chev

well this was an interesting night. turns out that an incoming tide and north westers turn the water so murky i don't think the fish would ever see the fly even if it was right in front of them. would have been better to try somewhere other than the harbour

Whangamata

I had the opportunity to got to Whangamata for new years and was keen to have a go salt water fly in the estuary. i had not been here since i was a kid and had no idea about the area and how to fish it. As we were staying with friends that didn't have kids we decided that we would get out of the house early each morning to hang out at the estuary have breakfast and entertain our 14 month old son.
The mornings were the best part of the day and the beach was stunning first thing as the sun came up.

I fished my way to the mouth and found the kahawai were sitting in the wash and were keen to have a go at my fly. I managed to get 10 kahawai on the first day and 4 on the second. some small kids were interested in what i was doing and got all excited when they were able to touch a small kahawai that i had caught.

For anyone wanting to go to Whangamata and fish the area here is a quick low down on what i found while i was there.
 

















1. There is a pippy bed right in the middle were the boy is if you can cast as close to it as possible.
2. On the incoming tide there is a current line that carries on past the tip of the sand point in picture that holds fish but this changes when tide starts going out.
3. the was at the mouth has fish sitting just behind it.
4.i saw some fish jumping right on the far side so if you can manage to get across there you could fish all round the rocks to the point
5. i didn't manage to fish in the surf at the mouth but i am sure kahwai would be there cruising along picking food out of the surf.
6. i have had read that the harbour inlet at the northern part of Whangamata is good but will have to try this next time.

Even though i only had a small amount of time to fish this and learn as much as i can much more time is required to fully learn the whole area and the best spots.

Auckland Flats fishing

went out at high tide to a spot that i had fished plenty of times before but had not had much luck. I went there this time with some of the guys from the fishing club. I now know the easy way to get across to where to fish.
I managed to get one small kahawai on the mirror image interceptor pink and noticed there were loads of kahawai following my fly when i retrieved so i switched to a crease fly and had a great time catching 20cm kahawai. got 5 in total before switching to polar flash clouser and got another 5 on a fast retrieve.

one of the other guys managed a couple of snapper and something really large that managed to bust him off.

interesting i think what is possible from this spot.

i think from this experience what i have learned is that it is best to fish a couple of spots continuously until you know them really well and know how to fish than fish different spots all the time and never really get to know how it fishes. i now have 3 good spots that i now know like this.

Flytying Videos

I have recently found the Oregon fly fishing blog site that has some great videos of flies including this one for a craft fur clouser and other salt patterns on http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/fly-tying-videos/saltwater-fly-patterns/

New Spot 2

i thought i would head out to my new low tide spot. on getting there the tide was right on low and the best is a few hours after low so i moved round the rocks and tried up to another point that looked like it had potential but to get to the furthest part of the rock you needed to get along a channel and the only way is along a pipe so getting back is a bit dodgy if the water levl gets too high.
anyway i headed back to my spot and found the water level a little higher than i liked and i only had 20min till i needed to head back through the water that starts building round the other side of the rock. after catching nothing i figured that i was retrieving too fast because i was trying to cover the water to quick.

i headed down the southern end of the beach and there was some interesting current where two currents met creating a very strong current that i was able to cast into and swing my fly around in. i threw in some pilchard but still nothing. I left at 8.45pm which is usually the best time but today there was nothing. the southern end of the beach is a bit barren and i think the northern side is the best but would be good to get a water craft of some sort to get to the furthest rocks

this spot may be better in January when the snapper come inshore in larger numbers.

Salt fishing club day

On arriving at 7am we headed down to the most beautiful little bay with the sun steaming over the hill to ripple over the water.
we headed round the northern part of the bay to where some small kahawai were jumping around and fished our way round the rocks. The water was crystal clear but no sign of any weed structure and no sign of any fish.
Further round there was some great ledges and better weed beds but still no fish. I dropped some pilchard in to see what would come up but nothing. Further round again and there was a definite drop off where the weed finished but was too far to cast but certainly looked fishy(At low this became castable).

By the time we reached the point the wind was starting to whip round and make casting difficult. I threw in some more pilchard and within another 20 minutes i started strip faster and a group of kahawai started busting it up trying to get my fly. I managed to catch one small kahawai before they moved off and were not seen again.

Besides the Kahawai i also managed to catch some fishing line and find an old fishing reel

We headed back to the car park and had an afternoon BBQ and some general fishing chatter.


One of the guys metioned that fishing from shore for snapper is generally better on incomeing tide as they are more active right up to the top of the tide whereas on falling tide they drop back to their holes so you can still cath them but you need to focus your casting into the right places and get it right in front of them as they will come out to grab your fly and head back to their hole.

I also managed to get a few ideas on some new flies including some interceptors and shrimps.

Even though it was a slow day. i quite enjoyed and learned a few things along the way.