RBC - "Winter Fishing" Trip Report for Hauraki Gulf (18.06.16)

Trip Report: 18.06.2016 Winter Fishing Inner "Hauraki Gulf", "Tiritiri Matangi Island", "Kawau Island", "Flat Rock" & "Otata Island".
Plan A: Head Northwest of Gulf in search of "Work Ups"
Plan B: If weather pick's up then head for shelter in local common grounds
Goal: Only take catch over 40cm in length using "Micro Jig's" & "Softbait"
8:00am
Well after a late wake up call and missing the 7:30am meet up with other fellow Jetski Fisho's at Maraetai, I finally convinced the Mr's to drop me to HMB ramp just in case the car park was full.
Just as I hit the water and set to leave a couple of poor souls had an accident where their boat rolled off the trailer as they were backing towards the water and didn't have the man power to winch it back on to trailer. There was a little bit of a language barrier but it was obvious what needed to happen. After 20mins we sorted the issue and I quickly headed Northwest towards "Kawau Island".
9:45am
On my way I couldn't help but want to actually try "East of Tiri" after all the comments the NZFC fam stating it's "The Spot X" (lol),
Sure enough there were fish and plenty of them ranging from 27-35cm and all caught using the "Ocean Angler - Weazel Orange 60g" but todays goal was 40cm and over only so I quickly packed up and headed Northwest towards "Kawau".
11:00am
20mins into the ride and I couldn't help but hear a faint knocking noise so I stopped to take a look and found the Transducer mount had snapped clean off from the mount screw's. At this point I decided to fish and I was just 2km shy of "Kawau". after an hour of the same result as "East of Tiri" but using a "Ocean Angler - Weazel Green 60g" the wind's started to pick up and were now gusting 10-12 knot Westerly so after a quick look around with still no sign of a "Work Up" I decided to go with Plan B and headed to "Otata Island"
1:15 pm
After 45mins of hard knock's to the nether & rear end against what turned into 15 knot South West winds I was happy to finally reach shelter next to "Otata Island" and pulled out the recently purchased drift anchor from fellow NZFC fisho "Alton King" and a quick Jig change to a "Ocean Angler - Knife Pink 80g" hoping a larger/longer profile jig would lure the larger Snap's. Also setup a Zman - "7 Red Bone Softbait on the 2500DL BTR and left in the rod holder just incase.
2:00pm
Sure enough with a few Wounded Flick's after 6-8 winds from the bottom I started to feel slightly heavier nod's on the rod and the Nether & Rear pain quickly vanished after finally landing a 42cm Snapper, soon after the 2500DL BTR started clicking and nabbed a 54cm Kahawai which put up good fight and got the body warm in the cold conditions. At this point in the day the bite's were really picking up thanks to the Drift Anchor slowing down enough for the fish to get a good chance at hitting the Jig & Softbait.
It wasn't long till the BTR snagged a 46cm Snapper but forgetting to stop recording from previous fish I ended up not recording (Knob Moment). Anyway after 3x fish over 40cm I decided to pull in the BTR and concentrate on snagging a 50cm+ moocher on the micro jig....
3:00pm
After a few more snap's released under 40cm and a long sigh of Jigging & Jagging motions I thought to try the Wounded Flick's again. After 3 wounded flick's the jig found it's way into a 58cm 8lb Moocher that gave short but steady head nod's. After a grueling day of cold weather, a rough 45min ride standing up & winding up a total of 58x fish I felt it was time to head back before dark and clean the "Donkey" (Jetski).
Overall my experience of winter fishing with lure's went very well and looking forward to next trip, thank's to my loving partner who has put up with the early morn drop off's to the ramp and always
contact's me to make sure im ok.
Hope you enjoyed the report & video and stay tunned for 27.07.2016 trip coming soon. Cheer's Fam

[@rdhbuildingltd8980]

awesome mate.