A big snapper day up Muriwai

An oh "BUGGA" finish to a big snapper day up Muriwai

I had been wanting to get up Muriwai for months now and with Stevo keen on a catch up fish, with the little weather window swell and wind wise we decided to go give it a bash with the tiki and surfcasting gear. Swell wise it was a little bigger than I like to fish it, but now into Spring it is a magic time of year to fish it. The big Snapper move in and although the tiki can get right out there where they are you can luck a nicey on the surfcaster also.

We had a low tide around lunch so the plan was to get on the beach around 7, drive and then set the tiki while it dropped - the low tide would allow me to have a shot at a nice Spring snap to. Hitting the beach we made our way north, we like to head more towards the end but midway up we came across a few tiki fisho's that had some stonker snaps coming in. Although I like to fish further up especially for surfcasting my fish fellers were telling me we needed to fish just past them - It's that saying don't leave fish to find fish and although they weren't our fish it was telling me they were in the area.

We stopped about a K further along the beach where we found a nice little hole I could flick a bait into while the tiki soaked - this is why I'm here to surfcast a place that holds my soul. We set up for our first soak with every hook baited with mullet, I always try to get a Kahawai first on the surfcaster but with the fishy feeling we had to get it in the water ASAP...We were hoping a Kahawai would be on our first set so we could do a second with fresh kahawai slabs, we do well up here with fresh bait and the great thing is it stays on the hook longer. We quickly set the tiki and had it on the soak in no time, now it was time to set up the surfcaster. After seeing those big snaps earlier I was amp-ing, I had the new Okuma Kotare with me and was keen to get a good bend in it over the day. I flicked out my first bait into a nice little hole that had formed out in front of us then it was a waiting game.
I had a couple nice hits before I hooked up to a solid fish, if it was a snap it was going to be a good one for off the Muriwai sands. The Kotare was doing the damage and a solid red made it's way into the shallows. Man what a fish to start the day off - it was a goodie and would be pushing that 10lb mark. The tiki had been soaking for a good 30mins so Stevo cranked her up, we had seen earlier from the other guys there was a strong South pull so we had off set it far right. At this time the line had shifted hard left from the Southerly pull. As the hooks reached the beach they were all de-baited which was a good sign then our fist little snap slid up the sand - not big but a nice fish at around 40cm.
Next came our fresh bait in the way of a big Kahawai, another snapper and more be-baited hooks. That's the one thing I don't like about that frozen mullet, it disintegrates pretty easy. The last 2 fish one was a solid fish around 70cm so although we only got the 4 the de-baited hooks and the fresh Kahawai had me excited. I knew with fresh cubed kahawai we would have a whole lot better luck. We baited up and sent the tiki out once more and on the soak after catching that stonker snap on the surfcaster I was keen to flick out another bait. A nice little bank had formed out in front of us and I was able to wade out across to it, this allows me to get my baits out into the channel and it didn't take long before I had my second fish on. It wasn't as big as the last but it was another nice fish around 50cm.
It was a little quiet after that with just one more around 47cm and after a 50min tiki soak Stevo cranked up the winch one last time. We already had 6 nice fish in the bin with a couple 60 and 70cm specimens so we were hoping for just 4-5 more and maybe a couple of carrots to top the day off. Once again the southerly rip had dragged the line down the beach and after awhile we could see a couple of solid fish beach as we kept on winching. Stevo walked down to grab them and then another couple popped out - the first 2 fish were nice size around 10lb. As Stevo walked down to grab another solid fish I felt the line go slack....yep the main line had broke and I could see a hook-less trace just up from it - we had just been sharked.
At first we thought the tiki would defiantly be sitting inside the breakers and was hoping for it to beach in the next few mins. We couldn't see anything in the white water and walking up on a sand dune I could see it was still sitting way out and even worse it was on the outside of the swell. I did try for 20-30mins flicking out a jig in hope to hook up on something but no joy...Although we had another 5 nice fish to add to the tally we were guttered we had to give up and leave the seahorse behind - the swell was going to rise over the next couple days with strong onshore winds so we sit here now in hope we get the phone call from somebody that has found it washed ashore.
Tight lines