JRT Building contest 03.04.10

JRT building contest is the final contest of the season.
Good Friday we headed out for a skippy (Skipjack tuna) hunt. We sailed a large 60km loop over all the major reefs for one small albie (albacore tuna). The sea conditions wasn't good with a large 1-1.5 metre swell and calm winds changing to a sea breeze, meant it didn't look good for the 3rd, the first day of the contest.
Day one; We head out from town and head to Arial reef to go stray lining for snapper. Leaving from town adds another 20 km's to the trip but with the swell and forecast sea breeze its easier to get the boat on and off the trailer. The sea at day break is all ready choppy and the shallows at Arial a washing machine but lest there are no breaking waves like yesterday, we set the anchor and put the first sack of berley to soak. The wind and tide are against us but we manage to pull in a couple of pan size snapper. At full tide the tide turns and we have both wind and tide going the right way and we start to catch snapper. I manage a small just legal kingfish, but it swallowed the hooks and blood is coming out of it's gills, so goes in the bin, Murray follows with a nice 8kg kingie and the snappers are getting bigger with a number of bust offs and big fish spitting the hooks. By 3.oo pm our bin is full and we have had enough of the washing machine and head back, we weigh in our largest snapper at 3.95kg.

Day 2; The forecast isn't good but we head out again from town to find the sea has calmed down and there is very little wind "yay". We reach Arial reef in no time, Murray loves stray lining "not" and suggests we go deep for Hapuka while it's calm, but I love stray lining and with a worsting forecast decide to stay here. We set the anchor and yet again tide and wind are against us, we set the sack of berley and we are straight into snapper. The snapper are a lot bigger, with fish in the 2 - 3 kg range and the odd 4kg, I hook a good size one and land a 6.75kg snapper. With full tide the tide slows to nothing and the snapper go off the bite and are replaced by sharks and barracuda. We try for another hour but all we are doing is keeping the fishing shops in business, with the cota and sharks munching through our gear. We pull the pin and head out deeper as the wind has dropped completely. We arrive at baistows and drop down our puka rigs, after a couple of sharks are reeled in from 225 metres Murray catches a nice little 8kg Hapuka, with that we head home.
My 6.75kg snapper wins the snapper section (that's 4 in a row for Gazebo, we are on a roll). The contest season has finished. and we wait now for the new season in October, still the snapper hang around till July and the tarakihi and Hapuka fishing will get better with the colder water.