Proudest catch to date - 44kg bass off a kayak

Fisher Greg Potter has reeled in what he says is his proudest catch to date, with a 44.2kg bass off his kayak.

“I've ticked off a number of really impressive catches from the kayak, but this one meant a lot to me because I'd put in a lot of time out on the kayak chasing bass and hapuka,” Greg says.

“And it takes a long time to get out to the sort of grounds where you need to be to catch these fish, especially from a kayak. On average I was probably pedaling three hours at least to get out to these spots. So when you go all the way out there and come home empty handed, it's pretty hard going.

“To go out there and get straight into a really nice hapuka, which ended up weighing about 12kg, and then the bass as well. It was definitely a really special fish, given the depths we were fishing as well, which was relatively shallow for bass. We were under 150m. These fish are typically caught in depths of 200-350m, making the chances of catching one on a kayak rather slim.

“I was not expecting one of that size to be hanging around those sorts of grounds, so that's what made it a really special catch for me.”

Greg says he got really lucky with the conditions.

“There was a bit of an offshore breeze in the morning as we're heading out, but the conditions were perfect. We had a nice sunny day, next to no wind, and we had current about 2km an hour pushing us on the way out and a couple of kilometres an hour of current pushing us back in on the way back, so it really was a perfect day out there.”

The fight lasted about 10 minutes before the creature exploded onto the surface.

“The whole fight, I wasn't sure whether it was going to be a bass or a hapuka, just given how heavy this fish was at the end of the line. I was half expecting it to be a shark, but the style of fishing I was doing, which was slow pitch jigging, it would be pretty rare to catch a shark,” Greg says.

“As soon as I hooked up, I knew this was a really solid fish on the end of the line. It did some crazy runs to start with. It took five minutes to get it off the bottom.

Greg says he had to play the fish carefully. 

“It was really tense the first five minutes because every time that I'd get it off the bottom, or 5m or 10m, it would just go straight back down,” he says.

“Then finally after a good five minutes I could see it on my fish finder. It was 30m off the bottom and it was just a huge sigh of relief, because once you get to about 30m the chance of it busting off is pretty slim. Although, I’ve got to say, even after I got it to 30m off the bottom, it still put up a really good fight. It did another few solid runs on the way up through the water column.”

Greg says when it did finally breach the surface, the fish came right up by the kayak, and because of the air pressure on its stomach, it just exploded onto the surface of the water.

“And it smashed into the underside of the kayak and just erupted out of the water next to the kayak. It was insane. It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen on the kayak. A fish of that size just popping up right next to you. I was so lost for words and in such disbelief,” he says.

Greg says seeing the bass was a fantastic feeling.

“The whole fight, which probably lasted 10 or 15 minutes, I was going, it's gonna be a shark, it's gonna be a shark. And so when it finally popped up and I saw that it was a bass, I was just completely blown away. And just the sheer size of it was just incredible. I never would have expected to catch one like that on a kayak.

“I’m really over the moon,” he says.

“Just the sheer amount of work that went into catching this fish. The size of it… it’s just such an awesome catch.”

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