Report 072 Jetskifishing with my junior Jetskifisho... 17th of October 2011

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.

Report 071 Checking the fishing grounds before the Top Catch King of Jetskifishing Tournament… 13th of October 2011

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

Report 070 Double figure Jetskifishing... 28th of September 2011

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.

Cheers, Kirk