b'Lanza Rods who had bought along a The larger 200gm jig would becouple of new prototype jigging rods, suited for big snapper or evenand he was keen to see how they kingfish in deeper water.worked different jig weights. Graeme also had a huge supply of new jigs and softbaits he had landed himself from an overseas contact for us to use and see which produced strikes.He decided to fish using a slim designed 100gm jig that fluttered nicely on the drop, its green/silver colours looked very pilchard-like.So, I decided to fish using his new softbait rod with a heavy 1oz jig head and a large paddler like tailed softbait to see if any kingfish or large snapper were hanging about the baitfish below.With an absence ofI wanted to see which lure produced workups, the largemore interest so started a little baitfish schools werecontest with Graeme to keep track of targeted by dropping jigs and softbaitsall the hits and fish landed between amongst them. us over the next few hours.As soon as Graemes jig had hit the bottom, he was getting interest!They were small fish, but he was soon hooked up to a fish, while I was struggling to get any interest in the large softbait.He landed a pannie which was released, and I kept working the softbait below, I had a couple of small touches when I stopped moving the lure and Graeme was onto another fish on his second drop.This pattern continued over the course of the afternoon, I did switch softbaits to smaller sizes and got more interest and landed a few fish, but the jig was leading the fish stakes considerably.Graemes new jig caught the most snapper, the largest HUNT THE BAIT SCHOOLS forecast to change in the evening,and a gurnard. I preserved with This very thing happened to usbut we only spotted a few gannetsthe softbaits and caught less fish.over two days of fishing off theflying around with the binos or justWhat I did notice about his jig Coromandel in mid-October, sositting on the water.We investigatedwas that the twin-assist hooks we needed to switch to plan B. Wearound these few birds looking atused, had the little white luminous were hoping to locate workups asthe sounder and there were goodfeathers or tinsel on them that we launched at Te Kouma rampbaitfish schools showing on theglow.They imitate a small white just after midday and headed outLowrance.The larger fish sign wasntbait, could this be the difference?of the harbour.The wind wasreally showing up but with such goodThe wind had now arrived, so we down, so we went north and rightbait, we figured it would be best toheaded back in to stay at the Shelly up off the western Coromandelstay close to these and try out theBeach Top 10 Holiday Park for the coast searching for the gannets. jigs and softbaits around them. night and to have another crack at The conditions were great butI was fishing with Graeme fromfinding the workups the next day. /FISHINGINGODZONE67'