To Catch Big think Small

When it comes down to lure fishing there is nothing more adrenaline pumping than targeting fish on light gear. But don’t be fooled, just because you have a drag screaming on what appears to be a never ending run doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. By using top quality gear you can be assured that you have the best possible chance to land the fish, so just hang on and enjoy the ride.

After passing over the Grey River, at Greymouth in in New Zealand, we found a caravan spot located very close to the rivers northern banks. I immediately grabbed my Okuma graphite travel rod, my Okuma Flame F-30 reel and my backpack of fishing gear and headed to a little bank surrounded by water grass on either side. I predicted there would be brown trout in the river, as they are a very common species in New Zealand waterways, so I tied on a 7cm Rapala Original floating lure in the brown trout colour and began casting around the submerged rocks two my left. With no hits or follows produced by the most obvious form of structure, I decided to cast out long to the right where I worked the lure along the inaccessible grassy bank. The grass along the bank was taller than me and some stalks had collapsed and suspended in the water just off the edge. This was a great spot for trout to live, as they feed on minnow type fish (including there young) and some arthropods like grass hoppers and other insects. On the second cast out along that section a relatively small brown trout immediately munched the little Rapala lure and tried to dive back into the grassy cover. I easily landed the little brown trout on my bank before releasing it after a quick picture.



 One third of the way across the grey river is a rock wall which separates the shallow side from the deep fast flowing side. I was on the banks of the shallow side which had no currant and was mainly fresh water, but I could see fishermen who had kayaked out to the rock wall. They were casting metal jigs and spinners out into the fast moving saltwater river and catching Aussie salmon or kahawai as they call them in NZ. I switched to small metal spoon in the hope that there were a few nice little salmon in my section. After casting out in every direction possible without success I cast in the same place I caught the brown trout on the Rapala and reeled in at a speed fast enough to give the spoon a sluggish flutter like a little baitfish. A similar sized brown trout grabbed the lure and jumped out of the water as I was reeling him in. I realesed him back into the water just as one of the fishermen was kayaking back from the rock wall.

The man was a local fisherman and he had a bucket full of salmon fillets. He offered me his kayak so I could get to the rock wall and back, as long as I pulled it up into the long grass when I finished. As I loaded my gear into the yak and started paddling out I realised he had a heavy 10-15kg rod and a 70gram lure while I only had my light Okuma gear. I pulled the yak up as far as I could then tied it, so it wouldn’t drift away. I pulled out my gear than climbed over the rocks to get to the other side. I cast the little spoon out as far as I could and let it sink a bit before I started to reel it in. the flow of the river pulled the lure out to my right pretty fast. About half way in my retrieve I got a very strong hit, a very fast ran and my line went slack. I lost about thirty metres of 4.5kg braid on my first cast and I was getting a little worried. I then tied on a 13.5 gram Tassie Devil lure with a pearl white colour on using 12lb fluorocarbon leader. I used I slightly slower retrieve and got a huge hit. The fish started to dive down and swim out to my right with the currant. I started loosing line of my Okuma Flame F-30 reel but it’s high quality drag helped my to slow the fish down enough to turn it around. Strangely as I turned it the fish did another super fast run taking out over 100 metres of line, but went against the flow of the river. I started to gain line back on the spool as the fish reluctantly zigzagged closer and closer to my rock wall. I managed to get the fish two metres from where my rock wall met the water, but as I did I dove down. I couldn’t get over how far the fish was diving straight down and figured it was a sheer drop off. I managed to pull him back up to the surface and he keeped kicking around in the shallows and darting around near my feet, before darting back out again. I had no gaff, no net and no idea how I could land it I got down to the water surface and just as he came back over the ledge and into the shallows I grabbed his tail and lifted him out of the water. I dealt with the nice salmon and left him with my gear.



The Salmon with the little white lure just near its face



I cast the small lure out to my left and started retrieving it straight away. Almost instantly it got a hit and a nice Australian Salmon torpedoed out of the surface several times before trying to dive down. This one was not as powerful as the first and I managed to get it in a lot quicker. It started to jump and skitter across the surface when it was close to the ledge. Having done it once already I was able to land it a lot easier and pull it up onto the rocks. The sun was getting lower and lower so I packed up my gear, jumped back in the yak and paddled to the little bank I launched off.

From this fishing experience I learnt that to catch big, think small and downsize not just lures but leaders and fishing gear like rods and reels, but always use quality gear.