It had been a while since Stevo and I had set the kontiki out west. With a nice, small swell window, we packed up the car and headed for a Muriwai Beach adventure.

We were itching to get to our destination and couldn’t wait for our first set to be on the soak. I grabbed a couple of surfcasters as we planned to catch fresh kahawai for bait for the kontiki – my favourite. As a backup, we always grab a couple of frozen mullet just in case I have been unsuccessful by the time Stevo sets the kontiki up.

Several times along the way we stopped at a gas station in search of mullet but we were out of luck. Instead, we had to rely on a couple of the old-school blocks of bait in the little cardboard box. This wasn’t a great start to our adventure but driving north along the beach we spied a big trevally washed up on the shore. This was going to give us fresh bait to complement the old blocks of mullet for our first set. As we continued along the beach, we spotted gannets working sporadically close to the shore and it was looking good for kahawai! We stopped at the first little workup and flicked out the lure.

We were also hoping to witness the yellowtail phenomenon, when these great baitfish are pushed into the shallows and beach themselves so you can literally just pick them up off the sand. We tried a couple of these little workups but had no joy.

With no kahawai or macs for fresh bait, we headed up the beach to our spot. We usually fish at least 10-15km up the coast – the further you go, the better the fishing seems. I spotted a nice little inner gutter that met a hole, opening a bank where fish could come and go as they pleased. I told Stevo to stop – this was going to be our first spot to drop the ‘tiki in. Secretly I was hoping to get a line wet and maybe catch a snapper or two in the little gutter. I left Stevo to sort out the kontiki while I geared up our casters. I was still hoping to get a kahawai in time so that we could use it on our first set. I walked back a bit and flicked my line out into the middle of the gutter, then flicked Stevo’s out to where the gutter widened and met the hole at the opening of the bank.

Five minutes later, Stevo had sorted the ‘tiki and with no kahawai landed it looked like our first set would definitely be the old mullet block and the fresh trevally we had found. Although these baits are not too bad to use, it would have been great to have used our favourite. Its tough skin holds on well and gives you a good chance of some better fish.

I left the rods out while I helped Stevo bait up the kontiki hooks. We set it with a 20-minute run and while it was on the soak I headed back to the rods, hoping to have a kahawai for our second set. After 40 minutes I saw Stevo fire up the winch and I had still not landed a kahawai. I knew I had roughly 15 minutes up my sleeve before I needed to go help Stevo, so I quickly wound in and then walked over to wind Stevo’s rod in, too. I rebaited it with a fresh pilchard and flicked it back into the hole before heading back for the channel further up the beach to cast mine back into the gutter.

My bait had only just landed and out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of Stevo’s rod buckled over. I yelled out, “Stevo, your rod.” Stevo quickly stopped the ‘tiki and ran to his rod. We were hoping and praying it was a kahawai but after a while I could see red in the waves – it was a snapper. Stevo was pretty stoked and it wasn’t a bad fish at around 46-47cm.

After all the excitement it was back to the ‘tiki and Stevo said it was a little heavy, which normally meant fish! At the end of our first set, we had four nice snaps in the bin. Even better than that, we had caught a couple of kahawai for our next set as well. We were thinking of moving if we didn’t get much, but with all the bait gone from every hook it was telling me there were plenty of fish in this area.

The great thing was we now had our fresh, tougher baits and I knew the cubed-up kahawai would do a lot better on the next set. Stevo reset the ‘tiki with new batteries, while I re-baited the hooks. We set it for another 20-minute run. I was chomping at the bit to get another bait out on the casters in search of another hungry snapper. I figured my best chance was casting the two rods back in the same spot where Stevo had just landed his fish.

We were close to low tide, so I knew this little inside gutter was going to stay wet for us. Sometimes we cross over the little inner gutters by wading to reach the outer banks or sometimes it even dries, which was happening 200- 300m to the left of us. Because we had stopped where the gutter widened it wasn’t going to dry for us.

With the ‘tiki once again on the soak, I concentrated on casting into the little hole where there was a break in the bank and the water was flowing through. I hoped the flow of water would help guide the fish in, too. It didn’t take long for a few bites to start, and with the turn of the tide the bites came on stronger as the little inner gutter started to once again fill up. I caught a couple of nice snaps to add to the bin before Stevo cranked up the ‘tiki one last time and I had to go over to help. Stevo reckoned it was heavier this time. As we hit the trace line we could see some nice snaps in the surf – at around 5-6lb they were good fish, too. It looked like our fresh kahawai baits were working a treat as more fish started to hit the sand.

The hooks were de-baited once again but this time we had a couple of fish among every four or five hooks, ending up with another nine fish. Although we had another set of batteries for a third go, we had plenty of meat in the bin as well as the few caught on the casters. We even let a couple of lively ones go.

It was great catching up with Stevo and setting the ‘tiki, while the couple we caught on the rods added to our fun. We can’t wait to be back out on another Muriwai adventure again.