W ith the mid- year school holidays in July, I wanted to take my boys on a road trip from Tauranga up to Northland to my hometown to catch up with their relatives and get them out in the countryside fishing and hunting. With a mild spell of weather and little wind, on the first day there we enjoyed fishing on the Kaipara harbour, and they had fun catching gurnard and kahawai only five minutes from the boat ramp. On the second day, the swell was dropping along Ripiro Beach, and the plan was to go on a surfcasting mission with local Brian Snooks down Godzone’s longest beach to Pouto. The boys decided to stay with grandma while I went fishing, as they weren’t keen on another long drive. With a low tide around 3pm, we wanted to fish the last hour and the change of tide, which is often the best period, and it allows us to get our casts way out near the big mussel rocks where the fish feed. Arriving at our spot below the lighthouse, the conditions were summer-like with clear skies, little wind and hardly a wave breaking on the shoreline. As it was a huge tide on the day of the new moon, the water had really sucked out, and we only needed to get out feet wet when casting. NEW HYPERGLIDE 13X BRAID I was going to fish with two rods and quickly cut up a kahawai caught from the day before for fresh baits and rigged up my first surfcaster and cast out to leave it in the rod holder. While I had one rod out, I respooled my second reel with new Black Magic 30lb Hyperglide 13x braid. I had written about this line in the previous July issue and had found it excellent for casting when softbaiting using 20lb line and was eager to try it again in a heavier line class. When surfcasting on the west coast I prefer 30-40lb braid as we encounter a lot of big rays and sharks, so you need the firepower to help land them. With a big new moon phase sucking out the water on the outgoing tide, the fishing was surprisingly quiet. Feature 10 FISHING IN GODZONE MAGAZINE
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