Fishing – Beware the bargain bin

I don’t know about you, but I am a sucker for ‘bargain bins’, especially in a tackle store. Over the years I have accumulated a drawer full of what were at the time ‘must haves’ or ‘might come in handy one day’ items from the retailer’s clearance table that have yet to see the light of day.

I am not a great internet shopper or surfer, but Temu constantly flashes before my eyes a seemingly never-ending stream of must haves in the tackle department. For a long time I resisted, preferring to support my local tackle outlets where I could at least handle the goods to determine their level of usefulness for myself. Recently, succumbing to temptation, a parcel duly arrived, and it included some squid look-alikes of unknown origin, two of which never made it past the must haves’ drawer, the other ending up on board the appropriately christened Tackle Tester.

Entered in the Mangawhai Boating and Fishing Club’s snapper event over the long weekend,  we found the action great numbers-wise over both the Friday and Saturday we fished, but couldn’t nail a big one. No matter, it was a great event and good to see many family crews out there doing it.

Towards the end of our Saturday session we had numbers of fish on ice, but nothing that would challenge the tape measure, so headed for a stretch of promising ground south of the Hen. Coming across dolphins, whales and a bunch of gannets, the latter sitting on the water trying to digest their baitfish feast, we saw some marks on the sounder which we decided were worth greater investigation.

My recent acquisition caught my eye so ‘why not give it a shot’. It was not long before one of the crew was hooked into a solid fish and as I retrieved my lure, it was nailed as well. After a decent scrap on softbaiting tackle, we both had our kingfish in board. A quick measure showed one was 103cm, the other close behind.

The point I am making by sharing the above with you is sometimes you have to think a little outside the square. If the lure caught your eye in the first place, then you owe it at least one swim, and you just might find you have a new ‘best friend’!

Over the last 12 months or so I have been trialling various Ecobait products. These are artificial bait, berley and lure additives. In recent times I have been playing with Fish Chocolate which has been working well for me. The Temu special alluded to earlier in the column was coated in the stuff, as had many previously deployed softbaits. Manufactured and developed in New Zealand, Ecobait is meant as an artificially created replacement for natural bait, reducing the pressure on an essential part of the marine ecosystem. It is difficult to pass judgement on such a product, but the good news is it doesn’t repel fish and at times when the going is a little slow, it gives your lure another element of attraction.