A Hard Fighting Rig and First Kahawai of the Season
This fishing trip started with a very hard fighting rig and I landed my first kahawai of the season.
🦈 A Hard-Fighting Rig Shark
I arrived at the beach just before 7 am. The first thing I noticed was that the sea was a bit chopped up and discoloured — a bit worse than I had expected. I wasn’t overly disappointed, as conditions like this are often good for rig shark, but generally not so good for other species such as gurnard, elephant fish, or kahawai.
Paddle crab baits were my bait of choice initially, with rig in mind or maybe an elephant fish if I was lucky. Not long after casting out my second rod, the first one hooked up, and it didn’t take long to realise I had a decent fish on.
Rig shark hookup
The fish put up a really good fight, and I was expecting either a big rig or an elephant fish. After a solid battle, I landed a rig just under 1 m — a bit of a surprise given how hard it fought. I was expecting something around 1.2 m or above.
First fish of the morning - a decent rig shark
The rig measured in at 97cm, which is about as big as I would want to take one as a table fish. Over 1m, the eating quality isn’t quite as good — it can be a bit tough, and personally I notice more ammonia, even if handled properly (trunked and iced immediately).
🎣 Dropped Fish and a Quiet Spell
Not long after landing the rig, I hooked into another fish, which initially felt like a rig, but unfortunately the hook pulled.
I kept persevering with the paddle crabs for another couple of hours. The fishing remained very quiet, but in some ways I was happy to have the quiet time rather than be pulling in bycatch (dogfish, carpet sharks, etc.).
Later in the morning, I had another decent strike, which resulted in yet another dropped fish.
🐠 A Change of Bait and a Surprise Catch
Around midday, I decided to change over to salted mullet baits, hoping to catch a gurnard or maybe a kahawai. After a short wait, I looked up and noticed my line had gone slack — often a sign a fish has taken the bait.
After winding in the slack and applying some pressure, I saw what looked like a kahawai thrashing around on the surface. Not long after, I landed my first kahawai of the season, one of my favourite fish to catch.
My first kahawai of the season
The kahawai was in superb condition - nice and fat. It ended up supplying sashimi for multiple meals.
Kahawai sashimi (ginger, wasabi, and soy sauce)
🎣 More Dropped Fish
Soon after, I had another kahawai on, as I could see it up on the surface again, but unfortunately the hook pulled. Kahawai are masters of escape, so it wasn’t really much of a surprise.
After another quiet spell of around 30 minutes, I had another fish on. It felt decent, but then the line went completely slack. I wound in to find the leader badly frayed, with the rest of the rig gone — it looked like something had bitten through the leader. My best guess is a sevengill shark somehow got the leader in its mouth.
I got the feeling luck wasn’t on my side on this trip, and with a decent rig and a kahawai in the catch bag, I decided to call it a day.
📓 Field Notes
- Location: Canterbury
- Target species: Rig shark, elephant fish, gurnard, kahawai
- Landed: Rig shark, kahawai
- Conditions: Moderate to strong winds, 0.6m swell, coloured water
- Best bait: Fresh paddle crab, raw banana prawn, and salted mullet
- My gear: Shimano Xitus Pro 13'6" rods (x2), Shimano Ultegra CI4+ 14000 XTC reel, Shimano Ultegra XSD 14000 reel
🎥 Watch the Full Video
The full mission is available on my YouTube channel.
Got any feedback or questions? Feel free to drop a comment on the YouTube video — I read them all.
— Dan