Thread: Deep Drops

Originally Posted by Chur Bay

Good afternoon all.
I'm heading up Whangaroa ways in July. I'm keen to try a bit of deepwater fishing for Hapuku etc.
I've never done it though.
Any advice would be appreciated.
I don't really have any decent gear yet. Probably just make do with what I have for now.
I have s TLD25 with 24kg mona and a Talica 12 with braid. Also a couple of heavy duty eggbeaters.
Would they be good to 2-300m?
I've been thinking about splashing out on a bigget set that I could also use for Gamefishing.
Would a Talica 25 spooled with braid be a good option?
When doing deep drops do you just look at bottom contours?
Live baits or dead? Jigs?
What sort of depth should I be looking at?


If anyone has any general areas to point me in the direction of (out of Whangaroa) that would be appreciated.

Chur in advance.

I've done quite a bit of this kind of fishing in Northland over the years. Rewards are certainly there if you're willing to put the effort in and spend money on boat fuel.

Location is key and trumps all other factors. No one is going to share hard won GPS spots, but there are some well known locations like the Garden Patch which still produce fish on a good day. I would strongly advise getting bathymetry charts so you can find your own spots. If you don't want to pay for a card for your sounder, then the Navionics Boating app on a a half-decent phone would get you started. You're looking for big contour changes, large rocks in the middle of nowhere, or reef systems with steep drop-offs, trenches etc.

I think the gear you have now would be fine as long as there is enough line on the reels. I haven't found deep water fish to fight particularly hard. More dogged than long runs. That said, if you hook a big broadbill, it's game over.

If you think you're going to get in to this style of fishing, buy a quality electric reel. Yes, it's cheating, but whatever. After you've hauled up your heavy gear a few hundred metres, it gets old very quickly.

Hapuka/bass from 100 metres if you're lucky, but usually deeper now. Bluenose from around 300 metres, deeper better. There's also gemfish and ling to be caught. Big terakihi often hang around above these spots, so we sometimes add a dropper with a smaller hook to target them. Greeneye spurdogs (small sharks) can be an absolute pain in the arse. Watch out for the spines on the dorsal fins. If you start catching them, move on. Bigger sharks sometimes arrive to spice things up.

You need braid 100%. Attach directly to dropper rigs designed for hapuka. I don't think it's worth making your own. A light at the top of the trace may help, we tend to use them. Big sinkers up to 2kg. We use steel rebar with a loop welded to the top. No need for finesse! A "rotten bottom" can help save gear. Drop the gear to the bottom and wind up a few turns.

We've found the best bait to be skipjack tuna by far. A lump about the size an orange is about right for one hook. Make sure the hook goes through the skin otherwise it comes off easily. We do use squid for it's toughness, but have found it inferior. We don't bother with livebaits. Bites should come within a few minutes of getting to the bottom.

You need to keep the boat stationary. This is not drift fishing because you will move off the spot too quickly and risk getting snagged up. If you don't have a Minn-Kota, you need someone sensible on the the throttle. Ideally, line should be going down vertically.

In my opinion, run one rod. Running two just leads to tangles which waste fishing time. Sometimes we have two rods setup and alternate them to make the most of the bite time or tide.

Yes to jigging and softbaiting. One of my finest moments was a hapuka on a softbait, but it gets tiring pretty quickly!

Bag limits for hapuka have changed recently. Two fish per person, so keep an eye on that.