How to Catch Kahawai Mark Feldman describes techniques to successfully catch Kahawai... If you want to be a successful carnivore you must understand your prey. To understand where to find kahawai you'll need to understand how they live. Here's the basic information you'll need to know to be able to catch kahawai. In the autumn kahawai spawn offshore in deep water. The young find their way into the shallow estuaries of the North Island and the top of the South Island. The young spend their first two to three years in these shallow waters where they can find all sorts of goodies to eat in the plankton. As the young kahawai gain size, small fish become a more important part of their diet. After their third year the kahawai outgrow their nursery and move out of the harbours so they have better access to the schools of krill, anchovy, and mackerel in open water. We are not 100% sure what the patterns of movement of kahawai are around our waters but we do know that, over a period of years, kahawai can wander many hundreds of kilometres. Their movements are not just random. As South Island kahawai grow they tend to move east from Golden Bay towards the Marlborough Sounds and then south towards the Kaikoura area. Around the North Island the pattern is not so clear. It appears that the young kahawai off Northland follow a general pattern of movement towards the rich feeding grounds in the Bay of Plenty. From there they may head up the West Coast of the North Island or join the South Island schools. This is why the largest kahawai are often found off Kaikoura, the Bay of Plenty and the West Coast of the North Island. Since the purse-seiners killed off the massive schools of kahawai in the 1980s the patterns the fish follow have changed. ItÍs unusual to see big schools along our Northern coasts now. The kahawai that survived the slaughter travel in smaller schools or in groups of 3-10 fish. These schools have learned to fear the sound of motors and will often sound if they hear engines coming too close. Because of these behaviour shifts kahawai are more often caught on the bottom now than they used to be. When you do see kahawai schools on the surface it's either because they are eating krill or anchovy. When they feed on krill the fish gather close together and force the krill up to the surface where they become an easy meal. Kahawai that are feeding on krill are hard to catch with conventional lures; a SMALL piece of bait or a fly are much more effective in this situation. To present a fly or small bait you'll have to get very close to the school. The only way to do that is to manoeuvre the boat upwind and allow yourself to drift towards the school. Most people prefer a 4kg line and a spinning reel for maximum casting distance (make sure your spool is full). If you're confident with ultra-light gear a 2kg spinning outfit will enable you to cast a small bait up to 25 metres; just what you need to catch these fish. If you want to use a fly then you can rig a split shot sinker ahead of the fly and use that with a 2kg line to cast 15 meters or so. Remember NOT to cast directly into the school; that'll scare the hell out of them and make them sound. Instead, cast ahead of the school and pull your bait or fly slowly into the school. When the anchovy run in the autumn the kahawai fishing becomes much easier and heaps more fun. Because the numbers of kahawai have been reduced the number of anchovy seem to have risen. The kahawai no longer have to gather in huge schools to catch the anchovy; instead of herding the anchovy like they used to, the kahawai gather in small groups and dash into the enormous anchovy schools, killing and maiming their victims as they flash by. The kahawai then turn and pick up the wounded fish they left behind. At this time of year they're sloppy eaters so a lot of anchovy drift down to make an easy meal for snapper and trevally that follow the kahawai.
You can take advantage of this situation in two ways. You can use a small silver or chrome popper and skip it along the surface to imitate a fleeing anchovy or you can drop down a 50-70mm white or chrome jig into mid-water. There you can jig it in a highly irregular manner but with SMALL movements of 20-30 cm. This imitates the injured anchovy that the kahawai pick up after their initial dash through the schools. When kahawai are not schooling in search of krill or anchovy they are much harder to catch. During these times kahawai tend to travel in small groups of 3-8 fish patrolling headlands, drop-offs and rises for small fish caught in fast current flows. To catch these fish you can take one of two approaches. The first method is to lay down a berley trail along an area that should hold kahawai on patrol. You then have a choice of baits: a small live-bait on a 5/0 wire hook is very effective but difficult to use because they tend to swim under the boat or out of the berley trail. The next best bait is a whole small sprat or pilchard. Sprats are most easily hooked through the eyes with a Salmon-style 1/0 hook. Pilchards are so soft that eye hooking seldom works well; usually you're forced to use a keeper hook rig with the keeper hook through the lips or eyes, and a 4/0 wire Carlisle hook tied onto the body with cotton thread. If you donÍt have any whole baits available, a strip bait made from a fillet of mackerel or mullet will usually work O.K. These strip baits have to be changed every ten minutes or they lose their ñflavourÍ and attract nothing but sea weed. Unless the current is so strong that your bait won't sink down at all itÍs best to use no extra weight. If gulls are a problem or the current is strong, slip on a sliding sinker just heavy enough to hold the bait under water.
The large kahawai often follow the tide into harbours and bays that also hold the young kahawai. If you want to fish these estuarine areas you'll need to position yourself near a wharf or other area that holds small mullet (sprats) or mackerel. The kahawai come into the shallow waters to pursue these smaller fish. In this situation berley is not necessary but it sure can help, especially if you're anchored upstream from the flats and want to attract the fish as they move out of the main channels towards the mud flats to feed. The techniques for harbour fishing are much the same as deeper waters with one exception. A berley trail will attract large numbers of very young kahawai. These fish are aggressive feeders and will take huge baits. To avoid gut hooking these young fish I recommend you use a hook like a Black Magic 4/0 KL. This is an "idiot hook". Any idiot can catch fish with them because of the bent-in point. All you need to do is sit there with a tight line; when the kahawai strikes it will lip hook itself if you DO NOT strike. All you have to do is sit there like an idiot. If a small kahawai takes the bait a simple flip of the hook at the boatside will release it unharmed. Kahawai make a wonderful feed IF they're properly cared for. Either keep
them alive in a baitwell or kill them immediately and bleed them. Then keep
them on ice in a cooler. If kahawai are treated right they make a wonderful
meal if eaten that day. A kahawai thatÍs left to lay in the sun on
the floor of the boat or sits in the fridge for two days tastes so bad it
doesn't even make good bait anymore! |
Another approach to fishing for kahawai on patrol
is to fish out of a 12 or 14 foot dinghy and motor up along cliff faces
and headlands. Drift about 25 metres out from the headland and cast on an
angle towards the rocks. Use a silver, white or chrome jig about 80-90mm
long. Retrieve it fast enough so it looks like a piper struggling along
the surface. You can pick up some large kahawai fishing this way but its
heaps of work.