A fishy start off Tokerau in the far north - out fishing the kontiki on my surfcaster

It was time to head north for our annual far north trip where we spend 5-6 days hard out fishing. We mix our days up fishing from the sand or boat depending on what the weather throws at us. Arriving at the top 10 in Whatuwhiwhi mid afternoon, we took no time to unpack the car & boat then load the car back up with our surfcasting gear and tiki. We like to waste no time on these trips to make the most of them. Most days we fish for a good 15hrs from sunup to sun down.

With a strong westerly wind blowing, our destination was a 3-4min drive along Tokerau beach. I don't get to surfcast Tokerau much on our trips so I was keen to give it a good jam. Stevo was keen to do a tiki set as well so the plan at first was to catch fresh bait for it. Hitting the sand just after 4.00 it was a great time to arrive and not a bad tide for us being roughly low in an hour. I do prefer to fish this beach on the low to be in a bit deeper water and among the shellfish beds. As we were driving the beach there were birds working in close, close enough to throw a lure and try for that fresh bait for the tiki. I was keen to just get to our spot and set up for the evening and start flicking a few baits, but I knew Stevo was keen to do a set. He flicked out a lure for 20 mins with just one hit so I said let's just get up the beach and get the surfcasters going. We did stop on the way here and grab a couple mullet so we had that as back up anyway - I just didn't want to waste those magic hours not having my line out. Around 5.00 we had set up for the evening and had our first baits out. I waded out a bit to get a little more depth due to how shallow this beach is. We had a couple things going for us with it being slightly overcast, odd showers and a small swell running.

It didn't take long for my first bites to start and after a couple mins in I was hooked up. Stevo was stoked thinking we had just caught his fresh bait for his tiki but with the little head shakes I was feeling I knew it was a little snap. My first fish four our Tokerau adventure was a little 37-38cm snap which I decided to let go, not knowing how good the fishing would be. I do hate keeping the first incase that's all I get. After that it went a little quiet so we decided to just use the mullet we had and do a tiki set. While cutting up the bait I got a nice hit on the Kotare so I was keen to sort the tiki out and get back to fishing.

I hurried cutting the rest of the bait and we had the hooks all baited up and ready to go. 30 mins later the tiki was on the soak and I was back flicking out a fresh bait on my rod. With the half pillie settled I put the Kotare in the holder but minutes later the rod buckled over and I was hooked up once again. This was a little better fish than the last, this one going close to 45cm. Having a few bites between the first one and this one I decided to keep it knowing there was a good chance the fishing would heat up as darkness was only around the corner. Once again it went a little quiet and after 30 mins of soaking Stevo cranked up the winch and the tiki was on its way back in. Our first little snap hit the sand which was only around 33cm. Most hooks coming in were debated and that's why we try our best to get a fresh kahawai. It is our favourite bait to use as it's pretty tough and stays on a lot longer than the old mullet from the gassy.

After more de-baited hooks rolled in a nicer snap broke the surface, this one being closer to 50cm then another around 30cm. A couple more empty hooks came in then a kahawai which would have been nice to have for this set. That was it for the tiki, there was definitely fish out there with most hooks coming back with the bait gone. We packed the tiki away and settled in for the evening. I hooked up again moments later and it started to look like the fish were in close to. The sun was setting and the bites started to increase and soon it was starting to be a nice little hot bite time. I couldn't even put the rod in the holder anymore. After casting and walking back, they were pretty much hitting my bait as soon as I had the reel in gear. Next fish was a trev then it was snapper after snapper coming in.

There was nothing big being landed but there was also nothing under size hitting the sand. I couldn't believe how much fish was sitting out in front of us, and I couldn't believe I was out fishing the tiki. Yep I was hooked up again and again, and although the fish were still hard on the chew we decided to call it and pack it in just after dark. The surfcasting had been pretty crazy and I was still thinking how insane it had actually been. I didn't want to leave but we had only just begun our far north adventure. We still had to sort out the cabin a bit, have some tea and figure out what our next few days were going to look like - but it was definitely off to a good start.
Tight lines

#reelkiwifishingadventures #farnorthnz #tokerau #surfcasting