Day 20 – Bar Work

It’s been a pretty miserable day here in Whangarei today, it’s been raining for most of the day so it was going to be a wet one for sure. The good thing was that the wind was pretty absent today so I thought it would be a good time to head out in front of the Ngunguru spit where a couple of people had advised me to head.

I launched from one of the many boat ramps in Ngunguru and it had actually stopped raining, or so I thought, there was a heavy mist sitting over all the hill tops. The tide was on it’s way in but there was no trouble paddling against the current. Heading out it looked more like 6:00am and not 7:00pm.

I got to the bar and laughed at it as I headed out through it, it was no more that a foot high, I went over one wave through the next, and I was out, a bit wet but hey it’s a kayak!

Out on the other side of the breakers further up the beach I started fishing, I sat about 50 meters from the breakers on the main spit, I was prospecting all over, towards the breakers, out to sea, in front of me, behind me, and even directly under the kayak. Everywhere I cast I seemed to be getting small hits / nibbles but nothing of any size.

I moved further south, parallel with the spit, and kept fishing all the way, and I discovered a patch where I was getting bigger hits, still not huge but bigger, so tried there for a while. Very quickly I ended up with a tail less softbait, swapped it out for a new one, then hit, hit, nothing and all I get back is a jighead…

I move a bit further south, I’m now about three quarters along the spit, again good hits but nothing big, and for my trouble I end up with two undersized Snapper like this guy.

Now it’s about 8:15pm and with the cloud cover it’s getting dark earlier than usual, so time to pull the pin and head back.  All the way back the swell and breakers seem to be getting bigger and bigger, it’s about now that I start to think of all those bars I’ve crossed in the kayak before, hmm, let me think, it’s about exactly zero…

When I finally get close to the bar it’s now gone from one foot to more like three feet… I watch the bar from a distance and try to spy the flattest spot, it seems by far the best is the sand bar at the end of the spit, ok here we go… I’m through and at the sand bank, that was easy, hey I’ll take a photo of where I came through, just as I turn around to take it all I can see is this two foot breaker smashing over the back of the kayak, bugger, ah well no major at least I’m still upright! Then bang from the right, the estuary side, another breaker is coming in, I just have enough time to ditch the camera in my pocket, and grab the paddle to steady myself as the breaker dumps directly into the kayak and I promptly sink to the sand bar, pop up then paddle off as the kayak drains through the scuppers!

Clear of the bar and any breakers I paddle back into Ngunguru and the heavens open, ah well at least it will wash all the salt water off me and my gear! Another day on the water, Snapper, albeit small were actually caught in Whangaumu bay for once. I probably didn’t go far enough south, so I may head back out there another day soon.

I call this one Ngunguru at Night