This is the up to date blog written by the Jetskifishing Guy, Andrew Hill from New Zealand. There are many adventures including the latest photos and videos of daily fishing trips.
It has been a while between posting a report and Jetskifishing sessions, so I made a plan to enjoy a session in the Far North. I made the early morning departure from Auckland setting off for a 4 ½ hour drive to the region of Cape Kari Kari. With the long drive ahead, I had plenty of time anticipating the opportunity to fish the unpressured fishery. On arrival, the Police Dive Squad were on a search and recovery mission after the chopper crash while attending the recent fire arsons.
Overly excited with fishing the area, I went for a short session to get me warmed up for the area. It was a 1 hour Snapper session with the Snapper on a frenzy, all fish bar one (kept for the tractor driver assisting the rescue operation) were released and I was amazed to also see the agressive Snapper chasing a Gulp soft bait on the surface.
The conditions out wide were a 2 metre plus swell, with a building 20 knot easterly… We made our heading to an area known as the Shallow Patch to target some Kingfish. Unfortanetly on this occasion it was only smaller Kingfish on the bite and the chop was getting the better of us!
After half an hour of mechanical jigging I decided to have a break and give the soft baiting a go. The area was 30 metres in depth with the fast moving seas, so I flicked out the 2 ounce Nitro – Elevator Hook Rig with a Gulp - New Penny Grub to entise a big Snapper! The bait hadn’t even dropped ten metres in depth and it was hit by a decent Snapper… I was concious of the approaching reef structure and it was an exciting battle on the light gear.
The Snapper was released and then we opted to go back to our launch point of Rangiputa, so we could relaunch over the other side of the peninsula for some Kingfish action. Attached is the video link of the above Snapper and some of the action over the other side…
The Kingfish was what we had been looking for and it was Peters day in the sun, with plenty of action for him on the jigs! We tried a few different spots around the area of Knuckle Point as we came across the menacing razor gang, who cost us a few extra jigs!
The colour jig of the day was blue, with Peters hook up rate being two to one against my orange jig. As with any lure, jigs or soft baits, if the fish aren’t biting, try other colours. There is usually a hot colour of the day, keep in mind scenarios such as what the fish are feeding on and how bright the day is etc. There were a few lessons learnt with our jigging session, including one broken rod tip and the monster that was dropped at the ski, any newbies can watch my videos to see what works for me.
As the day got shorter, we tried one other spot under the bird activity, there were plenty of bait fish and Snapper beneath! This one was attracted to the jig and managed to get foulhooked, so it was taken home for dinner…
With Peter having his Kingfish, we headed back and it was time to make some gear repairs and prepare for a quick next morning session before heading back to Auckland.
Day 3 - Started bright and early, launching off Whatuwhiwhi Beach and heading out in some miserable conditions. On arrival, it was looking promising on the Raymarine sounder at our best spot from the day before.
First drop and my hook up was a beauty, hitting the Daiwa 400 gram jig and giving me a decent work out! (I required a larger jig to ensure getting to the bottom with the fast drift) It was a real battle in the choppy conditions after a tough ride out…
Here is the video of the sharked Kingfish
The fish size weren’t quite the trophies we were after, but still plenty of fun considering the weather that was trying to keep us off the water. Here is the last video clip which includes a glimpse of the not to be missed ride home.
With a couple of fish in the Ultimate Catch Bag, we headed back nice and early, icing our fish at the local tackle store and packed to head back home.
The trip was another epic adventure showing how convienient the skis are to tow to different vantage points when the weather does not play ball. I personally find fishing away from your local territory is always an opportunity to learn more, introduces new people to the sport and always plenty of fun.
Our biggest social trip is coming up in February 2012, with two nights stay at the Bay of Islands, be sure to visit our Facebook Page to secure a spot as there is limited numbers.
The day had come again to see who would earn the title of the newest King of Jetskifishing. With this bi-annual event being the fourth King of Jetskifishing, we decided to try what we would refer to as the spring format, similar to an "Amazing Race" start. The start venue was a large area located at Lloyd Elsmore Park in East Auckland. The concept of the car park start, allowed a central start point for each angler to create their own strategy along with whichever fishing region they preferred, in the limited time window. With the scheduled 7am shot gun start (by hooter) some entrants were eagerly waiting as early as 5.30am! All entrants, on registration at the Yamaha tent received the complimentary King of Jetskifishing Tournament bag full with sponsors goodies.
Each tournament now has the official weigh-in countdown timer on display, this allowing all anglers an opportunity to synchronise their watches… Most important with the event is for each angler to be back by the weigh-in shut off time, of 3.30pm. As with every one of our events so far, that seems easier said than done!
As the sun was rising there was plenty of anticipation as anglers prepared their skis for another fun and exciting start to the comp.
This King of Jetskifishing Tournament has entrants travel from as far away as Whakatane and Tauranga. With the popularity and growth of the event, we may start seeing entrants from around the world taking advantage of the rental ski option, as the local team from Raymarine did. There are always a great bunch of like minded people and is a great way for anglers to make friends with other Jetskifishos.
There were some pretty serious set ups, with the FX series Yamaha WaveRunners being there in big numbers!
After a quick anglers briefing, it was time for everyone to make their way to their cars and start their engines!
As the timer hit 7am, there was the sounding of the hooter, for everyone to drive to their various launching points! Check out the video, it was a rapid exit and it was no leisurely drive… with most keen to be the first to launch at the local ramps… 1 Neil Inns (Sea-Doo Wake), Prize & Trophy - $500 CASH. Weight – 1.30kg Within five minutes the majority of the contestants were launching at the local East Auckland launch options, some making use of the ease of beach launching we have with the skis.
The fishing on the day was pretty impressive with some anglers taking advantage of the new format and fishing as far away as Coromandel, while others hit the West Coast.
The weather was great, with it feeling like an early summer’s day! Everyone enjoyed a fun day on the water and most made an early trip back making sure to be back in time to avoid disqualification for being late.
As 3.30pm arrived, the final hooter was made and the weigh-in queue was officially closed! It was pretty action packed with contestants trying to rush to the queue, sadly a few missed out but as all good sports they stuck around for the Mad Butcher BBQ to see what got weighed in.
There are plenty of photos to view at the Jetskifishing Facebook page, here are just a few…
The prize table was looking impressive along with the prestigious glass trophies, thanks to Craig from Metro Glasstech.
Once again, I thank all our loyal sponsors and welcome all the new ones that have jumped on board with our latest Jetskifishing events. The latest King of Jetskifishing is Grant Roxburgh, who only recently purchased a Yamaha WaveRunner off me for Jetskifishing. This catch of a 10.44 kilo Snapper is now an official Snapper record from a jet-ski.
Truly inspirational, showing a rookie Jetskifisho has as good a chance as anyone on the day! The average Snapper was won by Neil Inns receiving $500 CASH as well as his Heaviest Snapper weighed in grabbing him second place. There was no Kingfish weighed in, so all the prizes for that category were drawn as raffles.
All places, prizes and categories are listed below, thanks to all those who assisted and entered and I look forward to the King of Jetskifishing 5, scheduled for March 2012. SPONSORS EMAIL andrew@jetskifishing.co.nz to express interest for King of Jetskifishing 5.
LOL Heaviest KIDS Snapper
1 Tristan Penfold (Yamaha FX HO), Prize & Trophy – Daiwa rod & reel combo. Weight - 2.76 kg 2 Anthony Inns (Sea-Doo Wake), Prize – Berkley pouch bag & LOL drinks. Weight - 1.64 kg 3 Junior Tomov (Sea-Doo RXT), Prize – Jetskifishing cap & LOL drinks. Weight – 1.36kg
Installer Services (Auckland) Heaviest Kahawai 1 Kirk Davis (Kawasaki STX), Prize & Trophy – Parrot handsfree car kit. Weight – 3.06kg 2 Simon Donald (Yamaha FX HO), Prize – Daiwa soft bait rod and reel combo. Weight – 2.66kg 3 Stefan Orzel (Yamaha FX HO), Prize – Cock & Bull Voucher. Weight - 2.26kg Sharkskin Heaviest "other species" 1 John Henning (Yamaha VX), Prize & Trophy – Sharkskin clothing pack. Weight – .26kg (Gurnard)
It’s always a challenge with school holidays to entertain my children while completing work committments. My kids will take any opportunity to enjoy some fun with Jetskifishing, with my youngest son Cooper being my wing man on this trip. He was understanding of the compromise for a quick fish, then having to join me at work for the day. He was just as eager as me to get out! We left Bucklands Beach just after 8am with both of us prepared for the approaching miserable weather.
The ride out was ok and the trip was also a confidence booster for Cooper in preparation for the next Top Catch King of Jetskifishing Tournament which is Sunday the 30th. He hadn't been out for a fish on the ski since last summer and the thoughts of a washing machine scenario at Motuihe Channel would mean a quick turn around! Fortanetly there was only a small chop and we maintained a 50kph ride towards the Home Bay area. Once we found some fish sign with his assistance of being our appointed fishing navigator, I set him up for his first soft bait drop of the day.
It took about fifteen minutes to get him back in to the understanding of casting his line and maintaining a tight line, to feel the fish strike the bait. For our soft bait colour, we used the Gulp – Sapphire Shine 5" and he got the reward, with these photos tell the fishing tale best!
No point loading with this newbie soft baiter...
Priceless the enjoyment from kids fishing!
After the yelling of encouragement from Dad, the fish was ready to be netted.
We fortunately had the drift logged on the Raymarine A50D, so we reset the drift for another go.
The next fish was a bit much for him in the shallows, so I got to have a play with another Snapper from our fishing area of seventeen metres of water.
With two nice fish in the bin, we headed back for a day of work. Not bad with our two hour round trip, smiles all round and he is now ready to have some fun fishing the Jetskifishing comp.
I hadn’t been out for a fish for a few weeks now and was eager to get some time on the water… I squeezed this quick session in between work and a short weather window. Before heading out I had one last listen on the Now Cast weather conditions and it was a definite go with a reading of fourteen knots at Tiri. The only down side, was an increase to twenty plus in the arvo, so I best not muck around. After a quick beach launch, I was on a fast trip up to the area of Tiri, where I was eager to see if the Kingfish would be keen on the jig… wasn’t long and I had my first one on!
I released the Kingfish and continued with the jigging, which soon had me on to another fish. The whole time while fishing I was eagerly watching the bird activity heading out to deeper water… I couldn’t resist any longer and decided to go chase the work-ups! I followed the bird activity on a ten minute ride out towards the fourty five metre mark, where I spotted the action I was looking for in the distance! The Gannets were having a feeding frenzy and that is always a huge adrenalin kick… I made a quick stop to prepare my fishing tackle for some soft bait action. As fast as I was removing the reel covers and attaching the soft bait, the birds dispersed! I couldn’t believe it and still approached the area in anticipation of some more activity. I missed the moment on this occasion, as all I was left with, was the Dolphins and the fear of all the surfacing Whales!
The Whales were a little intimitading, so opted moving a couple of miles further east to the spot I had fished a few weeks ago for a nice Kingfish on the plastics. This trip had the same activity, with the Kingfish there again and me dropping the first one I hooked up. Lesson learnt “when mechanical jigging, be sure to wear your jigging gloves”, I soon had a nasty blister that made the jigging action uncomfortable! This had me switch to the Diawa – Pirate jig, on my Sol rod and reel. I know from past success the Pirate jigs attract the Kingfish easily, my technique is dropping the jig to the bottom with a rapid retrieve! As expected a strike, and I was prepared, by not having too much drag applied so the fish could run, rather than bust me… At this stage I thought a small Kingfish was on, as it hit high in the water column and only made one strong run. As I spotted the colour I was excited to find a reasonable Trevally that I would be taking home for dinner.
In between snapping an image of the fish, I spotted the wind was quickly getting up as forecasted, I was a good thirty kilometres from land and decided to head back before it became a tougher ride on open water.
It was definitly the right call to head back, the sea got lumpier by the minute… I made a quick stop at the Ahaaha’s, fortunately to land another fish, this time a Snapper on the Gulp – 5” Nuclear Chicken.
The weather had set in and as you can see, I was well overdue to make the ride back to home, being safe than sorry!
The ride back was made easier having the luxury of cruise assist, which allowed me to maintain a constant speed to navigate through the choppy conditions, without any unexpected throttle while wavehopping. When arriving back to Bucklands Beach, it was a quick retrieve of the ski, to head home for the quick wash down. It is always an amazing feeling after a day on the water, to reflect on the miles covered with experiences in such little time, with the day still ahead of you.
The next Jetskifishing report, will be the lead up to the Top Catch King of Jetskifishing Tournament and will be about fishing with my 9 year old son, Cooper...
Cheers, Andrew
This is a contributors report from our Jetskifishing forum, written by Kirk.
Looking at the forecast before going to bed, it was showing five knots easing to two knots during the day. The plan was set to head out wide, somewhere in the vicinity of the top of the Coromandel Peninsula to look for big, double figure snapper, and maybe a workup or two.
7am rolled around, so I headed down to the local ramp at Maraetai, and launched.
Heading around the bottom end of Waiheke I decided to head past Shag Rock to check if there were any workups starting there, before heading up the middle of the Firth towards the top of the Peninsula. All around Shag there were thousands of birds, but nothing of any substance happening underneath.
So I headed on my way, on my original plan and after half an hour of smooth motoring, arrived at some likely looking sign. I did a quick drift to work out direction, and even though there was no wind, the huge tides had me drifting at almost two mph! This was going to be a little bit of a challenge in fifty metres of water, so I put on a ¾ Ounce Jig head, and a Gulp - New Penny Crazy legs. It wasn’t long before the reel was screaming, and after a short tussle up came double figure fish number one!
With the video footage recorded, I released the 10lb snapper to swim another day, and quickly reset the drift. Before long the drag was singing again, and this time a just legal kingfish was landed.
After dispatching this back in to the ocean, I reset the drift one more time, and this time hooked something very solid. I was fishing over a very small reef and hooked up right on it. After the initial “snag like” feeling of a very large snapper, line was now starting to scream from the reel. I did everything I could to keep it out of the reef, and for a couple of minutes the fish stayed hard on the bottom. With one large run the little Daiwa really started to feel the pressure, and then bang, he was gone! In my dismay I was about to show my disgust to the camera, when amazingly, another one that was obviously following the first, grabbed the Soft plastic and hooked up!
As the fight continued, this fish was obviously a lot smaller than the one I had just lost, and before long a beautiful 14lb specimen arrived at the ski to get its two minutes of fame, leaving me to wonder whether “the one that got away” would have gone the magical 20 pounds.
So, I released this one to fight another day, knowing that I would be back to tussle with him and his mates again.
The action then slowed down a little, so I headed back in towards Shag Rock area, to get some smaller snapper for dinner.
This trip was a spur of the moment social ride leaving from Bucklands Beach to the top of the Coromandel. We left the ramp just after first light with four skis. All the riders had done plenty of Jetskifishing hours and were familiar with such a long range trip. The conditions were forecasted to drop, yet the marine forescast was still saying it was blowing seventeen knots at Channel Island as we were leaving... Our fingers were crossed that it would decrease, to make for an easier ride over. The ride across took fifty minutes to the top of Coromandel and started with Neil, Dave and Buzz enjoying some soft baiting in the deeper water.
I tried a nearby spot for some Kingfish activity with no success... then decided to have some breakfast while enjoying the surroundings and catching up with the guys on the water. This was a good time to post some live Facebook updates on the Jetskifishing Page, fans of jetskifishing can do the same by sharing their live experiences at our Facebook Page.
For my softbaiting on this trip, I used the Berkley Lumo 4oz Elevator Head, as I was fishing at fifty plus metres of water. To setup for my drift I scouted around the area using the Raymarine charts to fish on the edge of the contour lines, finding the fish sign which was not far off from the surrounding bird life. With not much current and plenty of weight, first soft bait of the day to be used was the Gulp Squid Vicious – Nuclear Chicken. In my experience, with these heavy soft bait rigs, there is no need to cast, just drop below the ski while keeping in touch with the line. You should constantly be ready to strike the line, as the better sized fish could hit the bait at anytime. As with my theory, the bait was hit and after a few minutes of string pulling action, I had my first Snapper of the day to add in the chilly bin.
I was wrapped with the quick start and next spotted some activity with some Dolphins and Gannets working the area. This is always a good sign for the possibilities of a feeding frenzie! I moved a bit closer to the active area and made a quick change of baits to the larger Grub, in hope of entising a mooching Snapper beneath. Today was another one of those dream days of Jetskifishing, magic conditions and fish to go with it! As I dropped the next bait I could feel the occassional hit to the bait, this time the rig made it to the lower depths. While manipulating the bait with the flick of my rod tip, I soon had another taker, this fish giving me a better run for my money. The fish had more weight to it and fortunately with fishing over the sand, I had no worries with the line it was taking. I was patient and have learnt not to get too eager by tightening the drag with too much pressure, that when the fish makes a run it can bust your line. After a few minutes of the long retrieve from fifty metres depth, I soon had another nice Snapper to add to the chilly bin.
We all had some fish in our chilly bins, so we left in pairs with a heading of the middle ground in search of a larger work-up. We didn’t seem to find the bird activity that we were after, but sure was the perfect conditions to be out there covering the miles.
We also tried a bit of jigging at this area after seeing some nice bait sign on the Raymaine. With the mechanical jigging it can get quite exhausting if you are out of practice, so wasn’t long and I was back to my soft bait fishing.
It seems to be murphys law, the larger fish hit your baits when least expecting! As I was retieving my bait from the depth of fourty five metres my bait was hit by a screamer. I was totally caught off guard and it was all on, with the fish pulling me straight to the bottom. There was plenty of solid head shakes and it was too early to call whether a heavy Snapper or a Kingfish. With at least fifteen minutes of playing it and plenty of encouragement from Buzz, we finally could see the fish’s colour coming through the water. The visibility was brilliant and I could soon spot a Kingfish before it completed another couple of short runs after seeing the ski! I wanted to be sure the fish was well legal so we had a challenge of netting it, seeing it was caught on the lighter gear... The Kingfish was definitly a keeper and after adding it to the Ultimate Catch Bag it was heading home for the smoker.
With the day still ahead of us and most needing to go to work, we called it quits and headed back for home. Along the way we were joined by the Dolphins.
The Dolphins are a tranquil sight and just another exciting experience you see when going further a field on Jetskifishing adventures.
With making it back to ramp in good time, it was a quick wash down of my WaveRunner and off to an afternoon’s work.
More reports to come soon, in between me organising the next King of Jetskifishing Tournament, to be held 30th October 2011. We hope you are all registered and are part of this next exciting event.
