b'Feature T he food and habitat found in the farms means fish will often take up residence in them.When the barges arrive to harvest the mussels, this is when the action really heats up as the natural berley created from harvesting gets the fish fired up.The typical approach is for boaties to tie up to the mussel farm using a rope and cast their baits into the slurry of broken and lost mussels behind the barge and hook up instantly.If the fish are good size, you will have a job stopping them from reaching the other mussel lines and either fouling you or busting you off.Either way, tight drags and heavier leaders can help your cause.Catching a bin full of pannie snapper with the odd trevally or kahawai is usually easily done by bait fishing around the working barges.Although on a recent trip out into the Firth to test new rods with Lanza rod builder Graeme Paterson, we observed the mussel farm fishing Testing the longer Lanzawasnt as productive for the usual softbait prototype rod by casting softbaits aroundhorde of boaties following behind the the mussel farms. working barges.Graeme assesses the current and drift of the boat before casting.22FISHING IN GODZONE MAGAZINE'