From Pouto to Muriwai - A hard but fun 16 hour west coast Reel Kiwi Fishing adventure with the Sis.

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Our fun adventure started at 4am, picking up the Sis we headed a little north. The 3-3.30hr drive was going to put us on the entrance of the Kaipara Harbour, a little seaside settlement known as Pouto. The plan was to fish the last half of the outgoing to the half in through the morning, have a break through the day, fish into the evening, stay the night and fish the morning tide again there or head around into Glinks.

I've only fished it a couple times so have never really sussed it out, but the Sis hadn't been there before so we set the plan in motion. We arrived just after light and it was great being back here again. As we passed under the Poutu lighthouse standing hundreds of meters above us, the Kaipara entrance gave way to the open sea. It's just so varse and the beauty is overwhelming. We headed along the stretch of inside coastline looking for a spot to flick a few baits. The swell was small so we wouldn't have to battle much turbulence on the cast. Just after mid way we pulled up where we were going to start. We set up, baited up and flicked out our first baits with high hopes. The sun was still low which was good and it didn't take long for Gen to hook up on to her first fish. It was just the good ole west coast kahawai that we pretty much catch every time fishing the west coast.
I hooked up straight after which I thought was another kahawai but turned out to be a nice little 40cm trev. It was an awesome first fish for of the shore of Pouto which I decided to let go.

After that frustration set in with kahawai after kahawai being landed. Coming into the evening with the sun going down, I thought we might be in for a good evening bite but it was just the one snapper that came by for us. The good thing was it was a solid fish around the 65cm mark. I couldn't believe how hard the fishing had been and it had put doubt in my mind about staying the night for another dawn raid. We decided to pack it in and head home as I hatched a new plan. The swell was dropping out west overnight and even though I was keen to give Glinks a nudge, but it was the pull from Muriwai that was too much to ignore and got the better of me. We arrived back home around mid night, got a good sleep in and was back out off Muriwai the following arvo. I had had an awesome solo sesh out here the previous weekend with some nice fish to around 50cm. The evening was a hard fish but came back for the morning and did exceptionally well on the snaps.

We were back at the spot I had done well at last time but it had changed as it does out here. There was still a little low tide bank to fish off but what I noticed was another sandbar sitting in front of it 70-80mtrs out which was going to make for difficult fishing. I tried our first baits here but after just catching 1 kahawai and a strong right hand pull I decided to shift us where that little sandbar slowly disappeared. With the tide being close to low I didn't have time to drive up and down to find that perfect spot. Finding another little bank where that sandbar got a little deeper and didn't brake in front of us. It was the best I could do for us and flicked out with fingers crossed.

Gen found it a little hard going with feeling the bites but I was once again hooked up. This one was a snapper but only small at 33-34cm which I let go in the holes that formed behind us which ran into a rip and back out to sea. Although small it gave me hope knowing that it was deep enough for snapper. Each bait I flicked out was bitten at and I was pretty much catching a fish every bait while Gen grew more frustrated. I did change her over to my MC which was running the circle but with the fish being so small and not grabbing the baits, she gave up and decided to go for a beachcomb. It had been a long 16hrs for her but I stuck at it, flicking baits and pulling in small snaps in hope something better would turn up.

I think having that little sandbar in front of us made it just not deep enough for the bigger fish to show. After about the 5th 35-36cm fish I decided to keep a few for the bin. Although 35cm is still a small fish. 5-6 of them would make a great meal and a nice sweet juicy one at that. The tide was rising fast but it was hard to leave with every bait being hit within seconds, it was turning out to be a lot of fun. With my very last bait in and Gen ready for home I hooked up to fish of the day at around 40cm. Although nothing big this time it still turned out to be a bit of fun and I did have 5-6 fish in the bin anyway. The west coast adventure changed for us and maybe for the better with having fish in the bin. Although just getting the one snapper at Pouto it was of good size and all it takes is the one good fish to make your day in which it did.

Tight lines