Hey Smudge
Was softbaiting last night, but normally take both bait and softbait. Left Clarks and bashed over to matakawau, had a fish off the point for about 5 mins in the rain with no bites, I was really only going to run my ski as the battery had just been charged with a charger the day before and wanted to top it up.
It was pretty horrible out there and I hear theres been a few snaps caught up the river, so i headed back up the river and ended up stopping not far from te-toro, on the first drop with a camo 5" jerk shad i got a 35cm snap, chucked him in the bin and back down I went on the same lure, got smacked and another 35cm snap (this is within about 2 mins) after that I got a few bites but no hookups, until I hooked something that felt like a concrete block, but was taking line, my softbait rod was buckled right over and I had to actually start the ski and chase the *******, after about a 4 min fight it bent and spat the hook, Im suspecting it was a big ray. My Arms were sore after that battle and I was having a breather when I heard the lovely sound of a boil up over by te-toro side, i started the ski and idled over, casted my bait at the boilup, a couple of good strikes, but no hookup.
I called it a night as the sun was going down and headed for the Yacht club at clarks beach. On the way up the hill past the golf course, my tractor started making this very horrible noise and the trans was locking up.... Tractor is still there lol...