recurve

No issue attracting snapper and Kings. They don't seem worried by steel. Stainless Steel cable is for Sharks. I have had them attack it a few times but they only take the mesh and I keep my coil and rig.?

Paternoster rig and fresh baits. They are very easy to catch and great eating. You will need to ask locals where to get them in the sounds. We used to dive for scallops in the sounds and they were everywhere. Very easy to catch on a line. Spearfishing they are too easy and you feel sorry for them as they swim right up to you. Especially if you stir up sand. All over NZ you can get on half day and full day charters. Some are really cheap like $90. I would jump on as many of these as you can.

Get a truck spring (Suspension) or a large spring from a 4WD. Get a mesh bag or make one. Clamp a steel cable to the spring and tie your line to the steel cable. Put your burley in this and drop down to the desired depth. The coils vibrate the burley so it disperses and it also works the burley closer to the boat so that your lines don't get caught. This is the very best Burley distribution method.

Marlborough sounds for blue cod. Loads of them.

You need to be more specific about where your fishing. South Island is a big area. Otherwise just watch Matt Watson on You Tube. But you're a bit early in the season for big Reds and Kings from the Rocks down South Island.

Looks like a Black Spotted Rock cod. I might be wrong but from what i can see it is. Mate caught an estuary Rock Cod snd thought it wad a Black Spotted Rock Cod but was just a Estuary Rock Cod.

Pike is not a bad fish once you skin it. We found battered is very good. I don't keep them as we normally catch enough of what we are after.

I would take the light set up for sure. You could catch anything. Good luck landing a King on that gear though. I fish with the same set up mainly and I get a lot of good snapper but on the occasions i get a decent king they bust me off. You will have more fun going light than heavy.

Snapper are pretty clean fighters. We go after them with 10lb braid and 20lb leader and in shallow water. Very rarely do we lose them. I am a more recent convert to going this light but my mate has been fishing this light for snapper for ages. Is always the leader which gets snapped when we do get busted. No piggy tails are allowed on the boat. This is the tail tail piggy sign that your knot let go. This is a shameful event and the offender not only has to deal with the pain of losing a good fish but also has to tolerate the shame from the crew. There are no excuses for piggy tails. Only cut or worn leaders.

If your reffering to the steering shaft. I had this issue as well. I had a mobile marine mechanic come out and with magic he got it free. Said to get a can of silicon and every week or so spray on the shaft and turn the motor to lubricate. Apparantly was caused by the grease hardening as well as the shaft getting some corrosion. Simple fix was to keep it lubricated as I did not want to overhaul or get a new shaft as was dreaming of a new motor. Thankfully the old motor is gone now and my dreams came true. I was told you had to be careful as easy to damage if you rip, shit and bust. Need to know what your doing.

Looks like a Morwong. I like Morwong, always very welcome on my boat.

Well done. Great catch and that big boy would have been a heart racer.

Hi guys, I am not a Game Fisherman myself but I saw something and my mate tells me I am dreaming. I was fishing for Snapper in 30m of water off the Sea Cliff bridge. Was getting my bait stolen and was getting upset. Saw a big work up of Gannets so i edged over being respectful and I got pretty close. I threw out two 1 ounce jig heads with bait on them (Squid Tentacles). Let them sink for 10sec and then POP POP they were both gone, line cut. They were cut at pretty much the same time. Then i re-rigged and looked down and their was a Mako about 1.2 - 1.5. We have caught one before at the same spot on light gear so I thought I would try. jig Jig and pop I saw him come and he cut the line. Then. I sent down a flasher rig for snapper. On retrieve I wound in super fast to avoid the wee Mako. Water was crystal clear and I saw two fish following it up. One was another Mako, bit bigger and the other turned near the surface and I saw it's tail with the distinctive yellow spikes coming off it. It was a decent size about 80cm - 1m hard to say as i mainly saw it's tail. I tried to quickly retrieve the flasher rig again but the Mako followed again. I only had soft plastic rods with me and I thought I would be wasting my time. So I left to avoid the Mako's. I don't like catching them as think they are too beautiful to kill. Told my mate and he reckons there is no way YF would be just off the bridge at this time of year. What did I see? Chunky fish with clearly visible yellow dots going up the tail. This was yesterday afternoon around 3.30pm. Tell me I am dreamin or verify I am not dreamin and this is probable of possible. if I am right, then look for Gannet work ups off the Sea Cliff Bridge or North of. Is there another type of Tuna or species this could have been

Your quite right. Couta Cape Snoek Fish Thyrsites atun, the snoek, is a long, thin species of snake mackerel found in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere. This fish can reach a length of 200 centimetres SL though most do not exceed 75 centimetres SL.Wikipedia

I went out but was overwhelmed by Baracuda. I landed three Snapper between 37 and 40cm. I attempted to foil the Cuda by putting a huge garfish on a strayline/bait runner and drift it out. Instead I had a big run and I thought i was on, turned out to be a monster squid which I landed! How good was that! Normally Squid avoid getting hooked. The next two attempts at stray lining saw me bitten off which was too much for me to take. i wrapped it up after that. Got very at about 8.30am. Weather forecasters don't seem to be on the ball this week.

Launched Wednesday at 5.30am and headed off to spot x. Was a very pleasant morning and was cold but not too cold. Things started very slow and I was worried. However as usually is the case things came in spits and starts. First up came the biggest Pike I have ever seen, and then in came a Barracuda....Ohhh Nooo!!! However after that I caught a 50cm Snapper and then one after the other they came on board. Largest was 58cm on 10lb gear. Screaming reels and racing hearts, great fun. In total we brought 9 snapper aboard. We have a rule that if it needs to be measured it goes back and none needed to be measured which was nice. Had a very pleasant session before work and was nice to only catch 11 fish of which 9 were snapper. I hear people are catching snapper in 30m of water at the moment, however we were in only 10m. So not sure where your best trying. I think success depends on your approach. A boat launched the same time as us and came back just after we did, they were fishing very close to us and got nothing so they claimed it was sh*t. They were packing pretty heavy gear. I think that if you go shallow you need to have really light gear and be able to present your baits or lures as naturally as possible, especially as the water is so clear at the moment. Shallow water and light gear does raise the risks of losing good fish but you would not be in with a chance if you didn't go light. If your fishing with broomsticks then I think your best going deeper or you will no doubt claim that the fishing is Sh*t and you would be wrong. It's just getting started. I'm going to have a go tomorrow as well and will be going shallow again but in a new spot. Will update if I land another good red.

That is a cool boat. This time of year I would not give up my hard top though. Staying warm is too important to me. Old man has a 7m Stabi with enclosed cab. That is a go anywhere boat and have been in some terrible conditions in it fishing for BlueEye and never ever doubted its worthyness. Bangs hard though, not good for the knees or back and they are expensive boats. Always a compromise with any boat.

Hey Wellzy not sure but would have been around 60. My mate caught it and thought he was on a big snapper. His disapointment was devastatingly obvious

I caught a pike......no Jewys. But that's Jewy hunting. Was a very pleasant evening though.

Put them straight in a bucket. Not in the Esky!! That one is a bit smaller than the one we got. They get twice as big as that and then some.

They are the best Snapper bait. Take the back off them. comes off in one big triangle piece. take the Candles off (Very best part) We cut into long slivers thin on one end and bait up. They hit this hard.

Went out fishing for Jews on Friday night from 5.30pm to 8pm. Home by 8.30 so was able to claim a day Snapper fishing for Saturday morning. Getting that leave pass was touch and go but I held fast and I got it issued. Without losing giving a compromise as a trade as well. Launched Bellambi around 6am and slowly headed off to one of the spot X's. Was actually really lumpy and we were being thrown around a fair bit. We were side on to the anchor as the wind and current were equally as strong. Sent the first plastic out and let it flutter in the current for about 5 min and then paid the consequences as was on the bottom.....wait, no its giving me line. Think I might have a Cuttlefish. Was a slow retrieve as fishing an 8 foot 2-4kg rod with 8lb braid but after a patient retrieve there was the Cuttlefish. Very happy about that!. Not a massive one but had to be 5kg. Then we had a big whale of a tail flap about 40m from the boat and another minute later there was a big booming splash 30m from the boat....oh shivers....can they see us? Was shallow, lots of chop and we had big whales sploshing about us, had thoughts of them hitting the anchor rope. I put Spotify on the stereo on and blasted some tunes (Sail, by Awolnation) so they knew we were there. Maybe I was paranoid. Anyway it worked as one of them came and surfaced right behind the boat very close to our lines. Raised his back and 'Sailed' off. Wow!! Maybe he liked the music, is a great song. Back to fishing. We caught a few Reds 2 were good sizes and one was ok. The biggest Sergeant Baker we have ever seen came on board as well as a tonne of Slimies and Barrcouta. Now here is the greatest moment of my fishing life thus far. I was looking up and over towards the shore and about 60m - 80m away I saw a clip from Shark Week. A huge Shark, easy over 3m easy maybe 4, I am not kidding or exaggerating!. This was a substantially Sized Shark.It was very dark on the top and very light like white on the bottom. It looked Black and White. It left the water entirely, went on it's side, I could see it's jaws open and it fell back to the sea with a mighty big splash. It would have cleared the water by 1.5m - 2m. It was exactly like the shark week footage with the Great Whites. I don't know what it was, but it looked just like the Great Whites on Shark Week breaching. My mate was adamant it would have been a big Mako. I don't know but it was one of those two species for sure. It was pretty well bang on where Shayleys is off Bellambi Reef. So I was completely buzzing out and would not shut up about it. That is hands down the most epic thing I have ever seen while on a boat. Whales saying hello and massive sharks jumping in front of me what could happen next. There are big Sharks off Bellambi Reef, I am an eye witness to it. Settled back into things and we were getting nailed by pickers. I gave the jig head a tug tug and BAM!!! Yupp I was on a red and it was a good one. I have not fished for Reds with such light gear before and it was all on. I was convinced I was going to lose it as the drag was way to tight and the reel I was using was a crapper so was very jerky. Some fiddling and i wound to far (Crappy Reel) and line was flying off so cranked it back, fumble fumble. Got it right and had an epic fight. In it came and attached is a photo of her all prepped. She went 61cm. Don't know the weight but very happy. The clock ticked 8.45 and I called it. Back home before 10am. Happy wife, happy life. Especially after a treat of session like that. 1x 61cm Snapper, 1 Whale, 1 Shark Jump and the biggest Sergeant Baker you have every seen. Oh and the best Snapper Bait you can get (Cuttlefish)

That's what happened to my old motor 1994 Yamaha V4 140 . The throttle cut right back but the overheat alarm was not going off. Had everyone in a spin. Finally found a part time mobile mechanic who worked it out in 30 min and charged me a couple of Hundred. Had been to three big shop Outboard places and wasted money and time with no results and all sorts of wild diagnostics,

I would rather have something bigger than a 4.8 to go to the FADS. If you have not been offshore before as a skipper you may want to bed in some skills confidence before you venture too far off shore. Even just a couple of k's out things can be very different than what they look. Of course there are days when you will be able to go but EMO a 5.2 or above boat designed for open water is best.

Not much shelter from Swell around the islands unless you are close to them. Lots of Squid close to the islands, you have to move around to find them. There are lots of different species in Port. We have caught Jews, Flatheads, Squid, Kingfish, Tailor, Kings and Sharks. You can't anchor in Port so if there is any wind your Surtees is going to scoot along pretty quick. If you have not fished there much and don't know the spots and best methods you may end up having a very very slow day. Have never had any luck against the inside of the break wall. But on the outside I have worked the washes against the breakwall for Salmon, Kingfish, Tailor etc. But no good if the wind is blowing you towards the wall. Port is best fished in an Estuary type boat.