SPIRTS BAY ENCOUNTERS
Fishing up at Spirits Bay in the Far 
North one day in the early morning 
and I could see a bunch of trevally 
lurking in the berley trail. Before 
it got too bright, they would come 
right up to the surface to grab my 
bait, and several ended up in my bag.
On another occasion here, I was 
straylining and schools of kahawai 
and smaller trevally sat about 
60m or so off the ledge. Kingfish 
swam by to snatch a feed and 
as I continued to bait fish, I saw 
a massive trevally which I first 
mistook for a small kingfish. I cast 
a whole pilchard in front of it, and 
it got inhaled. I was about to strike, 
and it suddenly exhaled it. It knew 
something was wrong and fish 
don’t get big by being stupid.
It kept hanging around so I 
presented the bait to it again in 
the clear water and it wouldn’t 
eat it. A decent wave surged onto 
the rocks and as the white water 
cascaded and pushed my berley out 
deeper, I cast the pilchard into the 
white water. I could just make out 
the large shadowy form swim to 
my bait, and I was hooked up on a 
trophy sized Far North trevally. Alas, 
it was short lived as my 20lb line 
was no match for the silver muscle 
that was heading for Cape Reinga.
GULF SPOTS
I have found there are a few 
locations around the Hauraki 
Gulf where they turn up. You can 
often see them slurping plankton 
on the surface in decent schools 
around Flat Rock, Horn Rock, 
and Channel Island. They aren’t 
usually interested in bait or lures 
in these situations but fly fishers 
teasing krill flies can score here.
Little Barrier has a healthy 
population of them around its 
reefy shoreline, and I have found a 
favourite little spot on the Hibiscus 
Coast where they turn up almost 
every trip. They aren’t huge but 
they are abundant when a serious 
berley trail has been deployed for 
a while to bring them in closer.
Schooling trevally on the surface are a 
common sight in the Gulf at Flat Rock 
and Horn Rock but are difficult to catch.
 /FISHINGINGODZONE  33
“…I would go down in hook 
size (try 5/0 or 4/0) and 
instead of using pilchard 
chunks I would instead 
use pilchard fillets.”

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