Our day started bright and early (5 am) to get to our spot on the east coast. We followed the heli sprayer through the gate and had a yarn with the landowner before heading off. We found our launch spot, and as we set up, I was amazed at the conditions and felt excited. My son set up to surf cast and flick lures in the shallows while also collecting pāua in a foot of water.

As I paddled out, I was eager for my dive afterward, as it was 15m on the sounder, and I could see the bottom from the kayak. On the first drop with the jig, bam, one fish, which I returned to the sea as a sign of respect and gratitude. Second drop, another fish—unfortunately, the camera was acting up again, so I gave up on the jig cam and carried on to my spots. Drop after drop, I caught fish. Every cod was over 40 cm, with a few monsters among them.

The ledge I found had 25m at the top and dropped down to 70m at the bottom—it looked good. I could see good marks on top of the reef, and it was even more exciting to watch the jig go down, see the fish follow, and feel the hit on the way down. It was a solid, solid hit and run, but sadly the hook pulled. After a few good blue cods and mackerel, I came in to check on my son, who had caught blue cod, gurnard, kahawai, and pāua in just a foot of water.

As always, I gutted the fish on site to ensure they were in good condition and to see what they had been feeding on. I was amazed to see the crayfish that the cod had eaten or ripped apart, as every cray on the dive had a soft shell.

Overall, it was a great day out on the east coast. We stopped in and chatted with the farmhand, who said I was brave diving with the seals and mentioned it was Kath's area (a local white shark). After a good yarn about the ex-pāua cray farm, which was now a saltwater swimming pool, we headed off to say goodbye to the landowner and gave our koha of cod, pāua, and gurnard to them.

In all it proved a great day out with amazing conditions and excellent footage.

Tight lines and have a good one.

Jason Grimmett.
#catchfishlikeapro
#letthefishbethejudge
#theoceanismychurch