A new fishing spot.

I was out walking with Judy and her friends on the Kaipara Harbour, near where I and a hundred others launch our boats. We walked through a new (10 years) subdivision and I being nosy walked to the gate of the last property at the end of the road and saw there was a walkway around the house.
This led down to this beach, I had fished a beach the other side of the boat ramp but it was very tacky mud, and hard to fish. This place while looking muddy was quite firm



The channel this side of the rock looked fishy, this shot is about half tide.



The recent heavy rain had caused a cliff fall, and made high tide fishing difficult, no flat place to stand. The "rock" is a very soft red / pink sandstone, you can break it with your hand. The other problem is it sticks like s--t to everything and 2 washes have not cleaned my shorts.



I was soon pushed up the bank hoping no more cliff falls. The mud near the channel is fairly hard, small cockles stick on my line.
Caught a couple of Kahawai and 2 good snapper to 6 lbs plus a few babies.
Sorry no fish pictures, next time
While it looks green and slippery, the rock is so soft plenty of grip.

Thanks for the post Rhod. Interesting pictures. Looking forward to some more reports from that spot. Might need some waders to protect from that mud though.

I don't know about waders, I don't mind getting my feet wet while the water is still warm. I will have to investigate the channel, I ran around there at high tide in the boat and there is no significant depth. if there are cockles the bottom is firm.
The current there is strange, almost nothing on the incoming, sheltered by the Shelly Beach point. The channel to the Kaipara river is to the left of the rock in the first photo. but the outgoing tide directs the current towards the rock and the shore and it picks up quickly, though I have not stayed much after high as the bites slow with only babies around. This seems to be how the upper harbour fishes, the incoming to just after high good, then mainly stingrays and small sharks.

The thing I forgot to mention is that I got bitten by a cormorant, they are all called sh-gs here, and it was a pied one, but the site will not allow the word. It flew into my line and was tangled so I pulled it in to untangle. THEY DO NOT TAKE PRISONERS, It first lunged at my leg and luckily only got my sock, saved by an inch. It kept slipping down the line so I could not hold it up and I did not want the hook and sinker in the mix, so I held my fish sack in one hand and tried to put my other hand behind it's head. It went around the sack and sank it's beak in the back of my hand, so that added blood to the mix. Right, plan B, so I gently stood on it's beak while I cut the line away, It swam off, with a shake of the tail to show displeasure, and it did not even thank me! This wasted about 20 minutes of good fishing time as a tiddler had cleaned the bait from the other rod.
They have a big hook on the top beak and are designed that what it holds don't get away

Thanks for all the information Rhod very interesting. I had the same problem with a Seagull it flow into my line and got snagged and don’t they fight it all ends in a bigger mess than you started with unwinding line from feathers when the Seagull is trying to get away and fight you at the same time you could make a half hour comedy show of it.

The one time I caught a seagull I managed to gently cover it's body and wings with a tea towel. It seemed to  calm down then and understood I was trying to free it. That method would be harder with a cormorant though due to the neck being so long.

Yes, it was all over the place like trying to hold a kite on a yard of string in a wind.

MusselMan wrote:

The one time I caught a seagull I managed to gently cover it's body and wings with a tea towel. It seemed to  calm down then and understood I was trying to free it. That method would be harder with a cormorant though due to the neck being so long.

I like that you had a tea towel handy.

interesting report and pictures thanks for sharing looks a nice spot