Maybe there are times when blowing your own trumpet
may prove a point. Hopefully this is one of those occasions.
While on holiday up at the Bay of Islands, (Xmas
1996), a friend confided that he was having all sorts of trouble
catching a feed of snapper.
I greeted this confession with some derision. Plenty of snapper
were being taken, some of them by me.
I was promptly challenged to put some fish where my mouth was, and bright and early, about 10am the next
day, off we motored to one of my ‘fail-safe’ spots.
Positioning on this spot is critical. The trick is to position the
boat so the baits drift back on the current down the two sides of
the ridge. The current flows down each side, on the in-coming tide.
Trouble is at this spot, the ridge, and the current flows, do not
line up with the predominating wind directions. Judging the spot
to drop the anchor so the boat drifts back into the correct position,
can be a hit and miss affair. I have found in the past that if the
boat is not positioned almost to the metre, you can kiss your chances
of taking fish good-bye.
By the time we had tried twice, without success, to get the 38 foot
boat to hang properly in the 15 knot winds, my friend was getting
somewhat annoyed. Mind you he was on the anchor, and the winch was
not working.
"C’mon, Bish, surely it can’t be that critical, " was his angry,
arm sore, lament. Fortunately for my friend’s arms, we cracked it
on the third attempt.
My friend immediately fired out
his 15kg rig with its 100gm sinker and settled back to restore some
life to his nearly dead arms. I set about setting up the berley
trail, and dropping down the BerleyMate.
This chore completed, I rigged up a whole pilchard,
with a 5gm ball sinker running down onto the hook. I was using 8kg
line. The bait was fired out, well behind the boat, to commence
its drift to the bottom.
It never made it. Around a minute into it’s downward drift
to the bottom, the bait was picked up and away it raced. My friend
called it for a kingi
and I was not going to argue. However I knew that at this spot the
snapper hung right up the sides of the ridge picking off the bait
fish as they came past. All conjecture ceased when a good 8kg (17lb.) snapper
finally showed under the boat, and was soon gaffed.
At this spot the fishing could not be described as fast and furious.
It holds good numbers of bigger fish, however they are fish that
have got big by being hook shy.
Over the next hour I had caught another three fish, all bigger than
the previous one. My friend had yet to break his duck. It was finally
broken by putting my light gear, lightly weighted, in his Hands.
His fish was probably the biggest for the day. I have taken quite
a few people to this spot, and each time it has yielded some good
fish. On the occasions it has not, one factor has always been true,
we were not anchored on the right spot. It is hard to insist on
moving the boat when the boat is not yours. Most times I guard my
spot ‘x’s’ with more diligence than most, but I am less concerned
about revealing the location of this spot than some others. The
reason is very simple, most fishermen will not spend the time and
trouble anchoring in just the right spot.
Anchoring in this context is a two part activity. Anchoring the
boat is the first and critical part, and "anchoring" the
bait is the second, and just as critical part. But the second part
is entirely dependent on the first. It is also a fact that achieving
this type of anchoring accuracy is virtually impossible without
a sounder. But even a sounder can be useless in deciding where to
anchor if you gather incomplete information.
Merely finding some territory that may hold fish will not necessarily
maximize your chances of taking fish from that territory. Once you
have found some promising territory it well worth the time to crisscross
the area in an orderly fashion to get some idea of the bottom contours.
This bottom shape, combined with observation of the current flows
gives you the best information to position the boat correctly.
One of the hardest parts to placing the anchor in the right position
is that it is very hard to tell just where you want to end up. There
are very few markers on the water, usually even less on spot ‘x’ but here is a good marker
buoy for this and other purposes now available. As you pass over the spot just drop
the buoy over the side and the weight drops to the bottom. (This type of marker-buoy is easy to make). It is a good and precise system. Less precise, but pretty effective,
is to drop a sheet of news paper over the side. It does not move in the wind and is
easy to spot. A few drops of glowbait in a squeeze container filled with cooking
oil makes an effective and visible marker.
Persistence is a key to anchoring in the right place. If it not
right first time, try again, and again, if necessary. Once the boat
is anchored, the next problem is to place your bait in the right
place. It is just about useless to anchor the boat in a position
where the current will push your berley trail back towards where
the fish are holding, and then to drop your bait under the boat,
under the berley trail and away from the fish.
The old advice of using the least amount of weight to drift your
bait down to the fish as naturally as possible, is still good advice.
Trouble is that ‘least amount’ varies from none to a tonne.
There are spots I know where just enough is 2.5gms and less. There
are other spots where a kilo or more is light tackle. The key
to getting it right is good judgment and observation. Having a good
idea how far back behind the boat the fish are is the start point.
Pull off the line in arm lengths, around about a metre each pull,
allow about another third to cover the angle, and you can get fairly
close. A thin small rubber band looped around the line at this point
gives you a good guide for how much line to let out, next drop of
the bait.
Anchoring is too often not given the thought and precision it requires.
If you really want to maximise your fishing results, spend more time and placing your
boat and bait in the correct place.