Another windy but magic day in the north - setting the tiki in paradise

*WARNING BAD PICTURE QUALITY IN THIS ONE*

Over the past couple days Stevo and I had been fishing in 25-30knt winds in the little Osprey. Even though it had been offshore winds for us, it was time to give the ole sea-legs a break. The wind had changed also to a S-S/E onshore, so the plan was to go and set the tiki and flick a few baits on the surfcasters somewhere. Although the tiki is probably the last on my list of fishing styles I love to do, the great thing is you can just about kontiki fish no matter the wind/weather - which is great for a fishaholic like me. Now being stuck on land due to the weather, Stevo and I still get to head out on a Reel Kiwi Fishing adventure and even better we will be doing it in paradise.

We had the perfect spot in mind - I knew the surfcasting would probably be a little challenging with it being bright and sunny and the spot holding crystal clear water, but I have caught snapper and Trev's here on days like this. S-S/E is semi cross onshore so it pushes waves in and stirs the shoreline up a bit which can help a lot. There is plenty of food like shellfish, bait fish and paddle crabs here so our chances of landing a few looked good for us- maybe more so the tiki. As usual arriving at our spot I quickly geared up the Kotare and flicked it out, I do this for two reasons. One I try to catch us fresh kahawai to use on the tiki and second it tells me what sort of rip we may have to deal with - this helps us to know if we need to offset the tiki or not. By the time Stevo had set up I hadn't caught a fresh kahawai to use, it didn't matter to much as we had some already cubed up that we had caught the day before - I do prefer fresh fresh but a day or two old cubed kahawai normally still works well for us.

It didn't take long for us to bait up and have the first tiki set on the soak - Stevo had set it for a 20-25min run and the plan was to let it soak for 40-45mins. We normally do a couple of sets, with the first set determining the plan for the second. Sometimes we do a short run and short soak then the second set would be opposite, if the sets not to fishy for us. The surfcasting would be pretty quiet for me over that time, which I did expect. After 45mins Stevo cranked her up. The tiki is a great way to catch a feed, perfect for a family get together and works a treat for that older generation or guys that love fishing but are unable to keep up their surfcasting due to injuries - overall it works pretty well for fisho's. We have it due to more of a back up - if we need a break from our boat fishing or the weather packs in we still get to get a line wet.

Our first set was like my surfcasting, pretty quiet and we had most baits coming back untouched - which is never a good sign. We did manage three and the good thing was they were all about 45cm, which is a nice fish. We were tempted to reset and do a short run but most times just a 2-300mtr shift can help a lot. If more of the baits were gone we probably would have stayed put but we knew a shift was needed.

At our new spot it didn't take long for our second set to be on the soak, most of the baits that weren't touched went straight back out - we just touched a few up with some more of our cubed kahawai. Now with it on the soak it was time to get back to my surfcasting - and as luck would have it (well a little too late) my first bait was hit pretty quickly by a kahawai. My next bait was hit soon after but this time it was a nice little snap - it definitely seemed a lot more fishy at our new spot, so hopefully the tiki would provide a few more fish for us this time. I was keen to flick out another bait but Stevo had cranked up the tiki already. As the leader hit the sand we could see our first hook had a fish on, and most hooks were de-baited this time as they came in - which was a good sign. This was telling us this should be a better set. Up came another snap then another between the bait-less hooks - it was a lot better set and in the end we ended up with another 7-8 nice fish.

The tide was getting high and it was time to pack up, call it a day and get off the beach. In the end it wasn't a too bad a day - the great thing was we had rested our sea legs and we had caught a few nice fish in paradise.....

Tight lines