Sometimes the spot is bangoville, sometimes the spot sucks…at least that’s what I say.
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Sometimes the spot is bangoville, sometimes the spot sucks…at least that’s what I say.
Beautiful weather today and my diver is suffering the man flu or whoo flu or something so what better to do than get Dad and my Son out for a flounder drag before it gets too cold.
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Small tides equals big lows and there was water everywhere. I'd be swimming trying to drag my normal spot so tryed a spot I know to have a clean bottom cos it's normally high and dry at low.
A couple of hits then stingray...big stingray....managed to get him out and lost the flounder in the process then imediatly caught another ray...bugged out to another channel.
A wee drag in another spot a few hits then just as circling into the bank I feel ol ray ray hit the net.... not one but two.
Haul hard for shore before they tangle it too much, tip em out and 4 nice big flats.
Spot 3, feel a few hits then another ray....tip it out and lose the flounder.
Finally it starts to push and I feel the hits.... hoping it's not just one lively fish.
Almost had to swim back to the boat side of the channel and we caught two more rays as the net was nearly on shore.
Thankfully managed to tip them pretty much straight out and hauled in a decent rig and 14-15 flounder some of them were massive.
Dad was pretty happy I think.
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Nice one, bloody good to come home with a result :)
Glad the rays didn't munt ya net
watched our son use a cast net the other evening....surprised me how it worked and just how quick and efficent it was at catching baitfish.... I had thought they worked like a purse upsidedown...but nope..it goes out in circle then the weights pull it downwards like a bell,then they get together closing net,the mesh is sized to be like regular gill nets.
thought came to mind how effective it would be from boat in a burley trail.
heck of a quick way to obtain batfish.
in whitianga from local store is as close as can tell you sorry...he has two mesh sizes,the larger perfect for jack makeral,the smaller for herrings/piper.
Got ol stingray out this evening after work( his not mine:thumbsup: )
Plan to prospect some new ground.
Conditions were epic good! Especially for an evening in Tasman bay.
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Dropped the insurance policys.
With fishing so good of late haven't used the longlines but not much fishing gets done on a evening dive trip.
Kahawai were boiling up all over the bay.... Acres and acres of them.
Spot one and two no good other than blue cod we pulled lines, one spiky,some pannies,some gurnard,some stonking big kahawai.
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Back to a known rock and Joe managed to pull out a keeper and got back in just on dark.
Was a beautiful evening on the water....we don't get that many in Tasman bay usually the evening breeze/gale starts up around 3pm.
Great after work dive, even better to have a skipper / boatman that takes care of you staying in close and generally being a good barstard!
Vis was surprisingly averagegiving the weather we have had and it being an open coast, sadly the turf was the same ...on the sounder it looked great on the bottom it lacked holes cracks and holding turf. Plenty of large rocks but not holding structure.
VC was amazingly patient as we bombed turf all over , the weather was unbelievable calm to the horizon apart from the boil ups .
Ran out of light before we ran out of air , old faithful rocks still holding good numbers of crays, from tiny to good keepers , tonight the catching holes were empty but the cunning batstard holes were holding plenty ...a great safe dive.
Amazing evening , so calm you could hear the Kawhai rsssssshhhhhh the surface ..and the goats bleat from the sunny face.
Killed a few fish including 55 cm Kawhai a few delicious half grown snaps, released some keeper pannies and a very solid rig easily 130cm ..
Ended the evening with a sunset and a beer and some yarns.
Thanks VC was an epic few hourss
Fishing yesterday
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Managed to get the oldest lad out of bed before six this morning and into his wetsuit. Actually he had no choice as I can't drag the net by myself [emoji3]
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Did the first couple of drags in the dark expecting a stingray at any minute, which fortunately didn't materialize.
Some nice flats were landed...
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We managed to drag thru a patch of oysters on the second one which took us a while to clear out of the net but eventually we were back in for a third drag. This time the tide was pushing hard but it provided some more nice fish and no oysters !!!
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We were both very happy with that so headed home. Dad quickly appeared to help with the filleting as he says flounder are his favourite fish. Sent him home with a few so he was happy and I was greatful for the help [emoji41]
A primo morning with some tasty spoils..
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Been a bit slack on the photos and reports.
Headed down the west coast wed Thursday, beautiful weather went for a swim and got a feed of Paua.
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Friday evening a drag with @stingray and @ROKTOY.
Stuggeled a bit with rays and rig,prospected new ground to drag. Ended up with some nice flats and a surprise decent panni snapper.
Out this morning with old workmate
Got a big rig before we even had all the net in the water, got that tangeling prick out and one short drag 23 big fat flattys...one of which being a sand flounder.
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Finished at work around 4pm Saturday.
Grabbed wetsuits and net. Threw the lad the dog and my wife in the car and shot out to the beach.
Net in the water just after 5pm. 3 drags in the shallows on the out going tide saw us with 15 flatties and a kahawai.
Got my good lady on the end of the net for a drag and she pulled iin half a dozen fish. I think she was quite chuffed.
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Up early again today and off out the local channel with the boys.
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Beautiful morning on the water with the brim biting hard. At one stage we were just frantically releasing them. The new burly was outstanding cheers VC !!!
One nice trevally amongst the brim which is about to be sashimi lunch !
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Home nice and early with two very happy lads and good bin of fish.
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I enjoyed the above posts fellas. Good to see that everyone is getting amongst it !! Bloody paradise [emoji41]
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@ROKTOY What I'm really want to know is who took the deep end? I need to see this vertically challenged flounder mission in action! :
:thumbsup:
Big ups for getting the whole family out. Great to see you were successful!
Got Dad out this morning and picked a spot where he wouldn't have to get wet and could drag from shore.
17 this morning.
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Shit nice haul, some bloody good eating there
A very relaxed flounder drag this morning. The familiar folks along with a couple of hounds!
Wonderful conditions clear, still, but a high low so water everywhere and deep channels , so we dug what we could, laughed, swam , harvested cockles , watched a flight of swans and feeding birds call to each other be for landing. I think Aaron really enjoyed that.
Once again a bit of experience/ knowledge saw us on the win after dragging logs , weed and a few flats @ROKTOY suggested a spot he had a bit of success with a couple of weeks before and great intel provided the goods with a monk fish and some solid flats.
With young blokes splashing each other and wrestling in the tide ,dogs chasing each other and crashing about and the tide flooding the flats rather than pushing up the channels we pulled the pin.
Another one of life's treats, plans made, yarns shared, Jess broke Rouge again he's a limping sleeping lump, folded up and snoring on his bed.
Thanks guys a perfect catch up
Give a mates your net, they will fill it ….
Made a grand plan to prospect a new reach …but made an arse of myself by over committing ..dropped gear off to @ROKTOY’s place headed to hockey duty.
Got to hockey found out I’d got my weekends wrong, “ bloody idiot” …enjoyed the game being played and away home geared up headed to the happy hunting ground…guys had changed the plan for a spot Roktoy knew and hoped would be a successful introduction for @axeman.
I arrived half way through the drag, it was a great low tide , warm sun on our backs , dogs tearing about …yarns flowing…the drag was beached with plenty of life showing …bugger me 4 large flats in one pocket …ohh bugger 3 rays two side by side in the middle if the net and a beast lying in the top corner ..they were wonderfully calm, we lifted the first free easily the second had the cord net wrapped around its barb …with some ginger moments we freed that one and then over to the beast.. it to a bit of lift untwist then the net off it’s solid barb. Then two of us grabbed a wing each and put the beast back into the tide.
Keeping a eye on the beast we set our drag above it , dogs swimming being yelled at , our beautiful ladies yarning laughing and offering advice we sent @axeman over to the deep side ..drag your feet , go up , go down , go shallow , no deeper than that , the poor bugger had more advice than anyone needs, but as we found the gutter shallowing tails and splash’s appeared in the drag, a boil told a story of another ray so into shore it came ..tails appeared the gang went silent as large delicious flats were beached, a quick and easy release of old stinker, and we were gutting fish.
We binned the net headed back down to the honey hole ..another quick drag had a few more beautiful flats , a count up and a sort out we binned the net , cracked a beer. @axeman and Aaron selected a feed of cockles, the sun set, we ditched wetsuits for warm cloths, sat on Ute trays and shared out fish , young Aaron doing duty.
With the chill in the air we said our goodbyes, everyone with fish to share and plenty of homes to gift them into ..another slice of life with wonderful folks.
Shared knowledge saw another successful outing.
Success
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That's how you get a guy hooked on floundering, what a nice afternoon.
With Stingray lending his net and a wetsuit for Axeman, we were set.
Once drag done just as Stingray arrived, and then I got kicked off the shallow end of the net.... Just as well there were fish to gut.
Its a bit rough when the fish you catch have already been chewed on by something else. bloody Rays.
Big, fat fish and damned tasty to boot. Dropped off a couple of flatties to a fellow form member who was stuck working a night shift.
Cheers @stingray, @axeman. Tonight's tea was a very nice feed of fresh cockles steamed with honey, soy sauce and lots of butter. with a delicious side of fresh flounder.
Epic weekend on the coast, sea flat calm !!!
Hopefully @screamO you were rampaging [emoji41]
No shortage of surf casting action for us, just simply feasting on Kia moana [emoji106][emoji106]
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Great to see you you guys got @axeman on the drag !!
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I get up Saturday at 0400 to sit on the hook for 7 hours and nothin. Take the lucky ladies out mid day today for 2 hours and shablamma!!!
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Nice, what type of salmon is that Matt?
Our spring chinook is the holy grail in the NW US and my life's work (you'd think I'd be better at catching em), they're endangered and the #1 reason for salmon research in the hydropower system on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. This was a hatchery fish but the truly wild ones that I work with/on are headed to Idaho headwater which are 1500km from the ocean and 1800M in elevation.
@Joe Schmo bring your knowledge …we had a magnificent salmon ( introduced) run down south Canterbury and south wards .. but recently it has fallen apart I’m sure your knowledge will be helpful !
One of several contributing factors.
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our salmon no longer have a big long un dammed river in the waitaki to run up.....there are still fish there and if the hatchery keeps poking out small stuff there will always be SOME fish to return...in the 30 years I have been living in south canterbury Ive heard endless bleating about how its the trawlerss off shore,its boats too close to river mouth,its too little water in rivers,its fish going into irrigation canals and getting lost,its chemicals in water,its cow shit in streams.....very seldom do we hear.....maybe we catch too many.....or there are too many dickheads driving souped up 4X4 through rivers.
if you look back far enough the very best salmon river was actually the ashburton...yip that is correct...Ashburton...and they had a fish trap to capture and KILL trout to ensure salmon had better chances.....its in the older magazine article's if you look hard enough.
funny we hear the same things about the Taupo trout fishery too.... simple maths at play here...more humans =more demand on the same sized resource=less to go around.
I have waited all my working life to retire and salmon fish.. My take on it.
1. Lack of fish screens and lack of effective fish screens and ECANs complete lack of willingness to ensure fish screens are either in place or working.
2. Ocean warming.
3. Removal of water from the river for irrigation causing the river to be warmer and lack of flow causes silting of the river.
4. Poor genetics in the form of hatchery bred [farmed fish genetics ] fish being added to the wild fish genes that have evolved to run our rivers.
Well all my nieces, nephews etc had no issues catching salmon this year. They reckon was the best season on the Rakaia for ages.
Yes mikee it was a good season on the Rakaia and no doubt the pick of the rivers. One could fairly describe the other rivers as a disaster though.
Hey, I’m uneducated on the salmon so what are the best months please guys?…, there is a season right?
I plan to come down next year and take the jet boat up the Rakaia (or any other recommended river), to hunt and fish and look about for a bit.