A trip to Okiwi Bay Marlborough Sounds
Eleven of the Canterbury Kayak fishing club went to Okiwi bay for the weekend; we woke up to the sound of heavy rain poor visibility which ruined our plan of heading out of Okiwi. Plan B was quickly organised and we headed towards Admiralty bay around the corner from French pass. After driving for what seemed to be never ending we arrived to a spectacular spot just back from Cigar bay, rain had stopped no wind and mussel farms 100m off shore.
We all split into groups and headed out clipping onto the large buoys deploying some burley and the bites were instant mostly small snapper and spotties cleaning the bait. Blue cod on the menu for all taking home our limits and Richard taking the largest blue cod for the day. The secret with fishing round mussel farms is to keep moving along the lines at 5m-10 metres each time otherwise bait will be chewed up with unwanted species.
Sunday morning had us on the water at 8.30am with many of us nursing sore heads, sun was shining 5knot head wind and a long paddle out to the mussel farms to the right of Okiwi bay fishing was slow Craig caught a teraki and several members saw kingies chasing bait fish close to the surface and beneath their kayaks a fantastic sight to see. Dean, Ollie and I moved off to a reef with Ollie taking the catch of the day 5lb snapper. I would recommend this trip to anyone who is keen on fishing, there is a camp ground and several holiday homes available to stay at.
We all split into groups and headed out clipping onto the large buoys deploying some burley and the bites were instant mostly small snapper and spotties cleaning the bait. Blue cod on the menu for all taking home our limits and Richard taking the largest blue cod for the day. The secret with fishing round mussel farms is to keep moving along the lines at 5m-10 metres each time otherwise bait will be chewed up with unwanted species.
Sunday morning had us on the water at 8.30am with many of us nursing sore heads, sun was shining 5knot head wind and a long paddle out to the mussel farms to the right of Okiwi bay fishing was slow Craig caught a teraki and several members saw kingies chasing bait fish close to the surface and beneath their kayaks a fantastic sight to see. Dean, Ollie and I moved off to a reef with Ollie taking the catch of the day 5lb snapper. I would recommend this trip to anyone who is keen on fishing, there is a camp ground and several holiday homes available to stay at.
