Lively kahawai well worth a good chase

Kahawai will be the main target tomorrow on the Waitemata and Manukau. Photo / Geoff Thomas

Fix the right lure or bait to your line to target one of the best fish

Hundreds of anglers will be out on the Waitemata and Manukau Harbours fishing from the shore and in boats next weekend trying to catch the biggest kahawai.

It is the annual Kahawai King fishing contest staged by the Weymouth Cosmopolitan Club's fishing section. Organiser Graham Stanley said tomorrow's contest was open to everybody, and the $30 ticket provided entry to a prize pool of at least $10,000. Up to 250 anglers are expected to compete for the main prize for the heaviest kahawai - $1000 cash, plus a rod and reel.

Weigh-in and prizegiving will take place at the club in Sykes Rd, Manurewa from 3pm. Funds raised will go to the South Auckland Health Kidz First campaign.

Kahawai can be caught while fishing for snapper and other fish like gurnard, but can be targeted with lures. They will be attracted to a berley trail and hooked on cut baits, but trolling is an effective method of targeting these great fighting fish. Any bird activity should be investigated, and the common practice is to troll with green or white plastic jigs.

The fish can often be seen splashing on the surface as they chase small bait fish like whitebait or anchovies, but they often go down and disappear. One productive technique is to use trout trolling tackle. The kahawai may be deep in the water column and a wire or lead-core line will sink down 10 or 15m. Trout lures like a clown coloured cobra or a silver or green toby are excellent for kahawai. If there are no birds around, anglers can look for schools of bait fish in mid-water on the screen of the fish finder and troll around in the area.

Jigs and soft baits are also effective on kahawai, and drifting and working these lures up through the water column from the bottom to the surface can do the trick, and is deadly when drifting through a work-up. Sometimes kahawai ignore the lures. The problem is the size of the forage fish they are feeding on. The solution is to match the size of the bait and use a small lure, and something like a silver smelt fly will be snapped up.

Some people like to bleed the fish when first caught by slashing the throat. The white flesh makes excellent sashimi or marinated raw fish. The gills and guts can also be used as bait for large snapper, so nothing need be wasted.

Fresh waterIn spite of a lack of rain the runs of mature trout in the Lake Taupo spawning tributaries have been impressive, with fish in top condition and running up to 3kg. It is late in the spawning season and the rivers will be holding both fresh-run trout in top condition, and poor-conditioned fish. On the Tongariro River the stable, low conditions result in an explosion of invertebrate insect life, and if there are no major floods to flush out the river the summer should see some great dry fly action as the predominantly caddis nymphs hatch.

More fishing action can be found on Rheem Outdoors with Geoff, 5pm tomorrow, TV3, and at GTTackle.co.nz.