The day started early to beat the Easter holiday rush onto the water.

We started out deep but only found sea perch, which I kept as they were of a good size.

Moving into shallower waters (30m), we targeted snapper. At a newly discovered spot, we anchored, set the berley, and fed the baby blue cod for a while before the snapper arrived. They came in slowly, the smaller ones first. As they gradually increased in size, my son caught a nice few snapper and was thrilled until Shayne landed a solid 91cm snapper, which we released. A few kahawai also came in and were brought home for dinner.

I had a sizeable bait soaking, but it only seemed to attract carpet sharks and a huge 2m conger eel. I’ve been trying a new type of snapper rig, similar to a John Dory rig but larger, and it has been producing some nice fish too. I cast the double trouble paua power 200-gram out the back to work the area back to the boat.

After the third cast, I got a hit and, my, did it hit and run. I decided to try the new reel’s dual drag (30kgs), tightened it up a little, and began the fight. The reel and rod worked well together, and the Tasline held up nicely, spooling on silky smooth to the reel.

I rose to the top of the gunnel to fight and land the fish solo, as everyone else was busy removing fish or unhooking sharks. The snapper was 82cm and bloated, so it was taken home to feed some families. Interestingly, the snapper had what looked like a healed spear injury, with the scales around it being particularly tough.

All in all, it was an amazing day, and my son had a fantastic time.

Tight lines and have a good one.

Jason Grimmet