Skate-Wear Central

Soft Slacks

Soft Bait Fishing New Zealand

 

Softly, softly

Historically, New Zealand snapper fishing involved mostly natural bait, heavy sinkers and monofilament lines. Drop the anchor and drop the bait. Then came softbaits, jerkshads, swimming mullet and minnow — all terms that, a few years ago, were the reserve of American bass anglers. But the advent of braid (dynema) line has given the angler the ability to get a small jighead (lead-weighted hook) to the sea bed with, for example, a 5 inch softbait, a method that perfectly suits our conditions.
The soft bait looks like a fish, swims like a fish and has scented attractants that encourage fish to keep biting. Snapper, once thought to be scavengers, we now know are predatory — striking and actually pursuing softbaits, which is one of the reasons why soft baits are so effective. Anglers using this method report catching larger fish and in places they had never caught fish previously. 

Here’s how:    

 Most soft bait fishing is done on the drift.

 Cast to where the boat is drifting (generally over structure or rises that hold fish, over the Waitemata worm beds early season or in work-ups of baitfish with snapper feeding underneath).

Find the sea bed with the lure, keep the slack out of the line and give the lure a slight twitch as you slowly retrieve the line as the boat drifts towards the lure.

Fish often take on the drop so an overhead reel, although not widely used, is better suited for this style of fishing.

Most use a small spinning reel with a capacity of 150m of braid, usually top shot with braid and with a monofilament backing; a 7 foot rod that’s not to stiff but with some lift in the butt section; for leader about 1.5 to 2 meters of fluorocarbon trace of 15-20lb breaking strain (fluorocarbon has good abrasion resistance and low visibility).

Go FISH has the widest and most technical range of softbait tackle in New Zealand, and we are always happy with tuition in tackle and techniques www.gofish.co.nz

 

About the Author

Greg Hill, owner of Go fish tackle kicking against the flood of low-quality unreliable fishing tackle on the market, sources here and overseas to hand-pick a range of the best fishing tackle available. Everything is exceptionally well-priced, with absolutely no compromise in quality – guaranteed. “I’ve built the kind of shop that I want to visit,” he says. “Somewhere where you don’t have to trawl through a load of junk to find the good stuff. A place to just swing by and see what’s new.”

Greg has been in the wholesale and retail sports trade since the 70s. He was founder and owner of one of the first specialist tackle stores in the country, in Whakatane, New Zealand’s premiere tackle store 80s and 90s. He developed the original ‘duck egg’ trolling lure, among other products now widely used. He was also the original importer of Calstar rods. He knows what he’s on about. “I’m just into fishing — everything from game fishing to sitting on the wharf with my daughter catching sprats.” He still holds a 6kg NZ Skipjack record and includes many days fishing at the Ranfurly, and Three kings, and sitting in a 12″ tinny at Browns Bay as favourite fishing moments.

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