b"Parked up close to the coastline out of the wind and swell is a good approach in wintertime.STRAYLINING baits in the cold. Just be ready forHopefully both these issues will be It is worth having two rods out thea scrap on your hands if the littlecyclic and will eventually correct back of the boat when straylining. Agoldfish you think is attackingthemselves. Northlands east coast smaller, lighter outfit with a cut baityour bait turns out to be a bigand Coromandel this year has had and another line with a larger lumpmoocher instead. poor catch rates overall according to of protein like a whole mackerel. InIn winter I tend to scale the linelocals in numerous places (especially summer it can be difficult to monitordown a bit and use a lighter leader.over the holidays period). People both lines when you get a lot ofA lighter leader gets more bites buthave still caught fish but there hasnt smaller snapper worrying the biggerof course it also breaks easier whenbeen a widespread abundance like bait and then stealing the smallerdragged through rough terrain. Myyou would normally expect.bait. Winter can see less action but18kg leader comes down to 12kg better-quality fish so two rods are aleader, 10kg mainline gets replacedNasty weather that good idea. with 6kg mainline. It's also more fun, The other option is to fish a liveespecially if you don't have as manyprohibits fishers from bait on the bottom for a John doryfish or opportunities so every fishventuring offshore means and a cut bait for a snapper. You maybecomes a bigger challenge to fool pick up a kingfish on the live bait soand hook and play back to the boat. sheltering in close pays off dont fish line that is too light, 15kgThis year has been unusual for- you are more likely to find is an excellent choice to handle aseveral reasons. There have been bigger fish. plagues of small snapper in a lotsome good fishing spots Dont be surprised if the lighter rodof the places I fished and then thebecause you are forced to catches the big fish as well as thelegal ones have sometimes turned small fish. For some reason biggerout to have white milky fleshchange your tactics.fish will nibble and mouth smallerwhich has been a bit of a worry./FISHINGINGODZONE29"