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
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