Kahawai On The Fly

During a recent winter fly fishing trip to the coast chasing sea run trout we managed to get into a few Kahawai. Kahawai are widespread through out New Zealand and can be found in estuaries and river mouths through out the year. Morning and evenings seemed to be the best time to catch them from my experience, they are usually found in large schools near the surface and if you see good numbers of birds dive bombing the surface for bait you can bet that Kahawai will be close by ! They are very mobile and can be there one day and gone the next , always on the move following bait fish up and and down the coast. During the spring months when the white bait are running Kahawai will come right into the river mouths to feed on them.  They seemed to like the brighter-flashier streamers that we fishing and hit them when stripped fairly quick through the surf and deeper channels.