Day 24 – Sea Sick

After such good conditions last night, and a nice clear day all day today, I planned on heading out of Matapouri, and paddling around and fishing the heads between Matapouri and Tutukaka.

Well I got there with the tide heading out, which made getting out through the estuary fun, a bit of paddling and bit of walking towing the kayak behind me, but eventually I got to the bay itself, and I was presented with a strong on shore wind and a ugly swell and chop, not what was expected at all, ah well I’m here now…

So I head out of the south side of the bay and it was a total washing machine, the swell coming in and the reflection from the rocks made for a real mess, and add to that the onshore wind it was hard work trying to stay level and do any fishing.

I paddled out a bit further and got away from the reflection swell and it made it a bit better, I tied my Shimano Lucanus, dropped it to the bottom, went to put a couple of winds on the reel before letting Mr rod holder do the fishing for me and would you believe it, snagged… Tried paddling forward to try and free it but no go, no choice but to break it off, there goes another $20 grrrrrr.

Ok, time to get the soft bait out, throw it around, nothing, but then again with this swell and chop presentation is far from perfect, I try paddling a bit further out, I end up about 500m out from the bay, a little more sign on the sounder is encouraging, well it was until the softbait got down there and it turns out to be my old friends the LeatherJackets, aarrgghhh.

Move again, this time a little further south but still keeping an eye on the rocks as my drift puts me in a direct line to the rocks…

Softbait goes down, half way down the bait takes off like a rocket, flick the bail arm, load up the rod, line peals off the reel, I try to set the hook but the fish lets go, aarrggghhhhhhhhh.

I stay around the same area and try, try, and try again, but nothing, all I get is the sea sick feeling, I actually start to feel real bad. I’ve been sea sick in the past but it’s normally directly related to the alcohol intake the night before, but not this time… It’s time to paddle out of this swell and try to find some calm, I spy a bay on the way back into Matapouri and stop in there to see if that helps and also to have a fish of course!

I wanted to test the theory that I saw in Tutukaka the other night, where that the fish would look for shelter too then the sea was rough, well what would you know, here they are, bite after bite, softbait coming back in one piece so these aren’t LeatherJackets, these must be Snapper, it was long before I managed to hook one, not big, not even legal but hey a fish is a fish…

Time to call it quits, I still don’t feel great and I have the estuary to negotiate yet… I thought the estuary was low on my way out, on my way back I had to walk towing the kayak behind me!

Back to Whangarei harbour tomorrow evening I’m thinking…