Day 30 – And Stop!

Here it is the final day, yes thirty days fishing over, didn’t think I’d make it a few times… So where to finish it off? I decided to head for the open ocean rather then the estuary or a harbour.

So I head to one of my regular haunts and launch out of Whangaumu Bay,  head out of the bay into the deeper water and paddle towards the wreck site. The sea inside the bay is pretty calm and there is a stiff breeze coming from the north west but I’ve paddled in much worse conditions over the last 29 days!

Getting to the edge of the bay very quickly shows that the conditions in the bay do not extend outside, the sea is much rougher and there is a big and mean looking swell rolling through, no white caps can be seen so appears to be safe. To get out I have to get past the breakers on the reef, that proved to be harder than it looked and ended up taking a couple of breaking waves over the front of the new Ultra, nothing major but the new higher and dryer seating position wasn’t quite so dry any more.

Out past the reef breakers  the swell turned out to be much larger once out there among it, again not unsafe but it was huge, some of the bigger ones would have been pushing three meters peak to trough! I got into some deeper water and deployed the drogue, grabbed a fresh bait, Gulp Pink Shine, and bait my JigStar jighead.  Hmm now I know you should inspect your leader before you go out but I’d forgotten in my haste . My leader was looking a bit rough, so I pull out some 20lb Asso Flurocarbon leader (Thanks K-Labs) and re-tie my rig. Whilst doing this I’ve been drifting quite comfortably and at least I know now my drift direction.  I seem to be heading in a SE direction, further and further out of the bay, ah well I’ll go with the flow now and see what’s down there, bait goes down, fish comes up!

Followed by a few more, all legal but none really meeting my personal minimum size.  What is my minimum size? Dunno I don’t carry a measure with me, my minimum is a “good sized pannie”, around 400mm plus, all the fish coming up would be in the 300 to 350mm range at a guess, so they were all released. Here’s another one as an example.

I then head out to the wreck itself, with a bit of paddling and assistance from the drift it was much easier tonight! I got there and found no sign on the sounder at all, then found a little patch of fish  but all that comes up is this little guy…

The sun has long gone and the moon decides to make an appearance, a full moon tonight by the looks of it, lights my 3km paddle back to Whangaumu beach.

So well that it then I suppose, the challenge has finished, I survived it, I’ll write up a mini review sometime this week. Will I be fishing again tomorrow..? NO, hehe, I want a day or two off. I need to rig my new kayak, strip and service my reels, get ready for the NZACA Nationals starting March 17th, move me and all my stuff back to Auckland, write a couple of articles for Bay Fisher magazine, and I’m sure there’s stuff I’ve forgotten…

I’d also like to say a big thanks to those that have supported me, such as K-Labs and BayFisher, to my wife and family who have let me do this crazy challenge! And to all of you who have been following my progress on this site, leaving comments, sending me emails, giving me “secret locations”, and those of you who have been fishing with me, thank you! It’s been a great ride, and hope to catch up with you all soon!