With the forecast looking promising, we hit the water early, but by 6:30 am, many others had the same idea. The weather was expected to be a 2-knot wind, shifting to a 5-knot northerly in the afternoon. While the guys dived for crayfish, I stayed close, watching and flicking lures as I drifted, catching just perch and small cod. After retrieving the divers, we headed to spot 2 and decided to check out my puka spot, which I usually hit with the kayak.

I set up the electric reels and gear for the others and baited up. We set up the drift and dropped the electric reels. Once they hit the bottom, I grabbed my spin slow pitch setup (Catch Kensia slow pitch rod and a Catch/IRT 300 reel) with 40lb Tasline spooled on. I chose a 100-gram Catch Squid boss lumo (my current favourite jig) and dropped it. Watching the sounder as we descended the side of the drop-off, I saw good signs and told the guys to watch the rods as I jigged.

I got a hit and had a good little scrap on the 'little rod', as they call it, and up floated a nice pup puka. As we came to the top, I dropped again but this time with the new paua power jig from Catch. It got hit a few seconds after hitting the bottom. It screamed off, and in 100m depth, I was intrigued. After a tug of war, we finally saw colour about 25 meters down and knew it was a good snapper, 75cm. As it floated up, it was amazing. I did two more drops and caught two more snappers of about the same size.

Many of the other guys I talked to at the ramp were catching kahawai, small snapper, and the odd bycatch.

It was a great day on the water, enjoyed by all.

Jason Grimmett
Wellington Kayak Fishing