b'MANGAWHAI The Yamaha 115hp is very8m of water and rocky terrain, he was in economical and we only usedcontrol.We started the outboard to try 10L for the day on the water. and follow him but too late he got around a rock and busted me off!It was all happening in the shallows this morning.I was enjoying myself though with all the action after such a long layoff from being on the water.Scott and I tried changing up Z-Man colours and sizes to mix things up, but we didnt get as much success as when using the Atomic Sunrise orange, but it was late morning now and the southerly wind had picked up making for a decent chop.The sun was out, and we decided to head around the corner out of the wind and anchor as it was midday, and we could throw out baits while we had lunch.We didnt really need any more fish with several on ice, but we warmed up out of the brisk wind and the berley drew in plenty of snapper, rat kings, kahawai, and trevally all in under 10m of water as we had a ball catching and releasing fish.We only kept a few fish that had managed to swallow the large 7/0 hooks.It was now 2pm after all the fun and we decided to head back to the ramp where we were amazed to see no parks left and vehicles with boat trailers everywhere.It was funny because we were the only boat fishing in close and all the other boaties had headed further out.We also only used 10L of fuel for the day, amazing economy from the Yamaha 115hp and proved the old saying fish your feet is sage advice, especially when fuel prices are the highest in years.The shallows hold plenty of fish along Godzones coast, if you spend the time prospecting here you will find a few nuggets.FIGZWebs started the outboard and weof fishing pressure on the area and theThe fish bin was looking healthy circled back south slowly and thenfish were unable to feed here with biggerwith fat pannies coming on came up to the start of our drift again,swells keeping them out. board throughout the morning.it is crucial not to drive back over your drift line at speed and spook fish in theBIG DOG STRIKESshallows with this approach. A bigger fish hit my softbait in only 5-6m On the second drift and exactly whereone of those tell-tale takes when the we marked our strikes, Scott hooked uplure just stops and then it wakes up and on a fish and seconds later I was on too. started to take line, it felt heavy and just We both landed nice fat pannies andas I started to play it the fish spat the Webs repeated the drift and we pickedlure! Dang, that was a good fish, and the up more snapper that were healthyreason I wanted to stalk the shallows as looking fish for the chilly bin.We keptwe have caught fish in the 15-18lb range at this approach for the next couple ofhere before.hours landing and releasing plenty of fish,We moved along the coast further keeping a few more for our families.Theand another solid take with line peeling bite was constant, and I think it had a lotoff the spool at speed as a kingfish had to do with the recent weather and lacktaken the Z-Man softbait and in under 34FISHING IN GODZONE SEP/OCT 2022'