South Island Kahawai on fly

One of my most indelible fly rod memories is of a dozen or more years ago when I was at the Mahitahi River in South Westland. And it had nothing to do with trout.

Bridget and I were heading on a trip down the West Coast and we camped near the state highway bridge. Nearby in the backwater was a good looking two and a half kilo brown cruising, but I had other quarry in mind. I was out to hook a West Coast kahawai on a fly rod. I had fly rodded for kahawai first in Hawke’s Bay and later in Marlborough, but I just wanted to tackle the West Coast kahawai which are often bigger than average.

The surges of dark green sea water were pushing in up the river. Shags were fishing for herrings and the place had a look of life and action about it. Gulls were hovering, also interested.

Then I saw a fish swirl just 10 metres out from me. It was not a herring. No it was something bigger, probably a kahawai.

I tied on a size 6 saltwater fly and cast it out. I waited a few seconds then began to strip the fly line in with my left hand. Suddenly there was a wrenching resistance and the next moment a kahawai leapt in the air.

The kahawai cleared the water several times and fought with tremendous power taking the line out into the backing, making the fly reel screech.  Zzzzzeeeee!

Away it rocketed again. Twenty minutes later - and several more “zzzzzzzzees” later - I eased a fine 2kg fish in on a wave and on to the beach.

The fishing was fast and furious. I caught several kahawai that evening but it was as much the setting and surroundings that indelibly etched the experience into a memory. The first kahawai had been quickly bled, gutted and scaled for dinner that night over the campfire.

The West Coast is magnificent any time but that particular twilight was enhanced by the soft, purple light and, at one stage, I turned to see Mt Cook and the Southern Alps still catching the setting sun and tinged with a wonderful reddish-golden light.

BACK IN THE 70s

More recently I’ve taken to pursuing kahawai around the top of the South Island. The Wairau River in Marlborough commands most of my attention and increasingly so; in fact it has become a bewitching diversion from trout fishing.    

But then I guess I was hooked on fly rodding for kahawai many years ago, in the 1970s when I had first caught kahawai on a fly rod from a boat out from Haumoana in Hawke’s Bay.

On that bright, sunlit morning we noted hovering gulls and fish were breaking the water all over the bay; not in tightly packed schools but scattered, yet highly active.

The spectacular gannets were doing their incredible dive bombing.

We simply harled our flies about 35 metres behind the boat and it was not long before we had action. Within minutes we were both into fish. George stopped the boat and the kahawai screamed off, tail-walking in spectacular fashion. There were long runs then as they were coaxed within range of the boat they sounded deep and had to be pumped up. They were big fish about 2.7kg (6lb). The sport was great!

Frankly, kahawai on a fly rod make a trout look feeble.

Since those days I’ve used the fly rod on kahawai whenever I can. If there are other anglers spinning, I invariably find the fly far outfishes the spinner.

MATCH THE HATCH

Kahawai are not always a pushover. I’ve sometimes found the kahawai will home in on one particular bait fish type and you have to match that in size, colour and shape.

Take an evening this last summer as an example. Lloyd and I headed down to the mouth, he toting a spinning rod and I the fly rod. We arrived at the mouth and there were six other chaps there, all casting spinners.

In about an hour and a half’s fishing I caught 20 kahawai with several good, chunky fish ideal for the smoker, while Lloyd just three metres away had no kahawai and the other six spin fishers also caught none. That contrast between the success rates was exceptional.

It was explained on gutting the kahawai. They had been homing in on very small bait fish, just two centimetres or so long. The typical kahawai spinner just didn’t measure up as an imitation but a small saltwater fly did. On that day it was all about matching the size of the bait. It is easy to change to a smaller fly, but not so with a spinner. One option for the spin fisherman is to change to a fly rig, with a ball sinker above a swivel about half a metre above the fly to provide weight for casting.

On most occasions, the other anglers with spin gear have caught some. I’ve mentally taken note of their catches, toted them up and mathematically stacked them against my fly rod. Often my calculations disclose I’m registering anywhere between 500 to 800 per cent better catch rates!

If there are other anglers I try and lead my fish by side strain and walk away from where others are fishing. This takes me along the beach away from the river. Also, by getting it into the waves I stand a better chance of using incoming surges to beach the fish rather than be fighting the river’s outflow as well as a strong fish!

You do have to be careful with your back cast with others about. If it’s too crowded, go off to the side.      

THE BACKWARDS CAST

If there are a lot of people about you can reverse your casting by forward casting away from the water and using your back cast for the final cast into the water. In this way you are watching your cast behind where you’re fishing, so as to avoid hooking up some oblivious person.

Or you can pick a better time when there are few people about.

Sunrise during summer is a case in point. If the tide has turned from high and it coincides with the first sun, go down to the mouth. More than likely you’ll have the place to yourself.

That change of light period either at sunrise or evening can be the most productive. So a half out-going tide at first or last light can be ideal.

I like an outgoing tide for fly rodding for kahawai, about half tide a bit before and after, even down towards low tide. Fishing a saltwater fly is best when the out-going flow is substantial; the current is assisting the fly to work and ensure you have some speed in the retrieve. The key is to strip the line fairly fast. Indeed some fishermen tuck the rod under the armpit and strip two-handed to get maximum speed. I don’t use two hands, but strip quickly with one hand while the fly swinging in the current adds to the speed.

I always wear polaroid glasses and, apart from the added advantage of seeing fish, the sight of a big kahawai or even two or three rivalling each other in pursuit of the fly is exciting stuff. Kahawai can go nuts over the fly and in their eagerness to nail your fly, sometimes miss. In those circumstances you need to get your fly out instantly. Often a short roll cast flicked out to where the kahawai last swirled is all you need.

Sometimes you’ll see a kahawai just following your fly, almost akin to trout behaviour, and not taking. When that happens, I make a change, perhaps to a smaller fly or in colour.

THE TACKLE

Saltwater flies can now be bought in shops. Or you can tie your own.  Buy some saltwater fly hooks about size 6. To facilitate catch and release I crimp down the barbs on the hooks, converting them to barbless. Fly colour can be important. I find yellow-green colours seem to have that bit of extra attraction, and on occasions fly size becomes important particularly when kahawai are taking very small bait fish. If you tie your own flies, don’t over-dress them. And in late winter or early spring when whitebait appear, kahawai are quick to move into river mouths to prey on the delicacy. Obviously a small fly, preferably size 6 or perhaps a 4 but no bigger, lightly dressed and with white calf tail or bucktail wing, perhaps a silver tinsel body and a tag of red sparkle is all that’s needed.

You can buy saltwater fly rods and they’re undoubtedly good and a must if you are going to get serious about saltwater fly fishing. However a trout fly rod will do. Use a floating line or a slow sinking line and strip in the line fairly quickly.

You can buy combo sets of a budget-priced fly rod, reel and weight 6 or 7 floating line for about $150, more or less – ideal for saltwater work rather than using your Sage, Loomis or Kilwell top drawer trout fly fishing rod and reel and line.

The leader doesn’t have to be long nor do you need a tapered one. Two metres of say 4-5kg mono suffices for a trace.

If you can rig a shooting head of perhaps five or six metres of fly line, it is so much better for casting. For backing behind the shooting head I bought some Amnesia mono -i.e. no memory line and hence anti-tangle/kinking in character.

Using a fly rod on kahawai means you get maximum excitement per fish. Just one kahawai is memorable.

VALUABLE FISH

Practice catch and release too. It’s a good ethic. If you wish, keep a couple perhaps for the fish smoker or fish cakes. I immediately gut, scale and bleed a fish I wish to keep.

And a hint on playing a kahawai. On it’s first run the reel will do double or triple time. Don’t try to grab the handle of the reel. You’ll get your knuckles whacked!

Instead palm the reel to slow it down.

Kahawai are sadly a prime example of fisheries mismanagement.

The tragedy is that successive governments have been and are oblivious to the sporting value – and the tourist angle - and the economic value of the fish.

Saltwater fly fishing is big sport in the US and other countries. Anglers travel the world to chase bonefish but the kahawai is arguably just as good.

Ministry of Fisheries officers seem utterly ignorant of the economic value of the kahawai as a sports fish and money earner for the country. Instead, corporate purse seiners plunder kahawai shoals and they are exported to Australia to be canned and even used as crayfish bait.

That’s what the Kahawai Legal Challenge was all about. They won the High Court case but the corporate fishing companies appealed – such is their arrogance and greed. The outcome is awaited but let’s pray that commonsense prevails and the Government and its ministry are told by the Appeal Court to heed the Fisheries Act which decrees that the public’s cultural and recreation needs in fishing must be looked after.

By the way, have you contributed to the Kahawai Legal Challenge with a donation of say $20 or even $50? Fly rodding for kahawai doesn’t require a licence as with trout but in lieu of that, how about joining the fight?

I have taken American fly rod fishermen after kahawai. When we have found the kahawai – and today no thanks to officialdom and corporates that’s not quite so easy – those anglers have been ecstatic.

What is more they catch and release. The kahawai they catch is recycled. It has earned a few thousand dollars for the region and country which that tourist has spent on accommodation, charter boat and other items.

The kahawai should be earning $1,000 a fish for New Zealand instead of just $1 or so to be killed and sent to Australia for processing. Besides, because it’s catch and release by US fly rodders, the kahawai is recycled and capable of earning another few thousand dollars.

Areas like the Marlborough Sounds could become a sport fishing mecca, if the fishery and adjacent open sea were restored by proper management.