How to fish with soft baits

It was chaos! the pack of Kingfish erupted on the surface splaying froth and panicking baitfish in every direction. Words can’t even describe the sight as I grabbed my topwater gear and belted a quick cast into the riot. Fish were flying all over the surface and after a couple of winds ‘booom’! As line peeled off the wailing Stella all I could do was watch and hang on. With 15kgs of drag locked on it was one of those moments where the sheer excitement was overriding the pain of every muscle screaming to hold fast. After a tough, twenty-minute tug-o-war the fish finally turned, and I was able to coax him up. Kingfish are brutal on any gear, but on the longer topwater rods they have a leverage advantage and as an angler, you get to feel every bit of the fight even more than on normal jigging gear. When the fish appeared it was as much a relief as anything, and I knew this was around a 30kg PB straight away. Such a magnificent fish deserved to go back to get even bigger, so after a few snaps he was back over the side leaving me with that exhausted and elated feeling. Did that really happen?

Watch now: Grant 'Espresso' Bittle and Catch pro angler Edward Uhai Lee share some expert knowledge with hints, tips and technique advice to help you with your artificial bait game. Recorded live at the 2019 Hutchwilco Boat Show. Enjoy.

Slide baiting is an awesome way to target big predatory species such as kingfish and snapper from shore. Beach, rocks or even from the wharf, this is a very effective and clever way to get you live bait out way further than you could normally cast. Check out our Aussie mates for a few pointers.

Trolling live baits is a great way to target kingfish. The same techniques applied here can be used anywhere, so check out Yamaha School of Fish with our mates at Family Boats and Yamaha Marine NZ.

If you're familiar with vertical, or 'mechanical' jigging for kingfish, did you know that the same technique can be applied to working mechanical jigs both from a boat or from shore? Here's a quick breakdown on how it works from the Aussie boys at AdriftByNature...

The ability to bridle rig and deploy a healthy skipjack tuna live bait is an essential skill for any serious game fisherman.

Are you looking for an outdoor activity for your kids these school holidays? Why not try fishing? North Canterbury Fish & Game has released around 200 catchable sized salmon into the Groynes children’s fishing lakes. The salmon have been kindly donated by Mount Cook Alpine Salmon and The Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust.

How to catch squid New Zealand. Egiing for squid NZ off the rocks. Michael Walkley shows some EGI techniques and tips as we have an epic land based squid session throughout the night.

Yamaha has launched an amazing new digital boat control system that holds you over your fishing spot or sets up a controlled drift, hands free! Applicable to single and multi engine craft, this is a world first and should be very popular if you like holding over pins, deep drops etc.

Milan, Nathan and one of “the boy’s” Toby, are on board Savoy headed to great barrier island and they are going to use the tender on the front of Savoy to go land based fishing at Great Barrier Island.

In this video Dave from Fergs kayaks Wellington NZ shows us a few tips on how to get back into your sit on top kayak in the case of a capsize...NOTE: this video is just a quick reference, it is highly recommended that you take a course to get the full understanding of how to self rescue quickly and safely.

A nice video showcasing some awesome freediving from Ritchie Johnston down in the deep south west.