Easter, the time of chaos. Emptying city, traffic chaos,
road toll rising, lunacy taking its grip. We don’t travel on the Easter weekend
for the reasons above, preferring life preservation and relaxing to the road
madness. The full moon can make the fishing hard, but as my snapper guru friend
Simon said to me once, with that knowing tone to his voice “The hour after the
moon drops…. Make sure your knots are strong”.
Jase and I settled into our usual routine without any undue
conversation. Boat launched, motor warmed, nav lights on, GPS set. Our
destination was chosen with tidal movement and terrain in mind. It was cool out
there. In the dark only one other boat was seen on the move. Autumn’s promise
of anchovy fattened snapper in close around the structure, well it’s as good a promise
as the salt water fly angler around here can get. Progressively the smaller
fish will disappear with warmer currents and the larger kelpies will continue
to put on fat for the winter.
First casts were made as the moon dipped behind the western horizon.
The sun hadn’t yet fully risen. We quietly sat on point out from a large
outcrop, held in place by the quietly thrumming Minn Kota. Jase’s rod bowed
over and in the semi darkness I saw a hint of red in the surface disruption.
The bottom was relatively hard and in less than 2m of water the fish’s only
option was to run shallow and wide. We swapped places in the boat as the fish
circled; my job was to get a net under the circling fish and soon it lay in the
rubber mesh, a red and chrome snapper and probably Jase’s PB to date. Camera
flash. The resulting imagery was really nicely composed. A quick debate –
respect Tangaroa by returning the first fish? Or put it in the bin? With a
splash of its tail the fish swam away strongly. Fist bumps. Success.
The hits came with good fly control. The fish would take the fly on the sink mostly; fewer hits came on the retrieve. Some fish were kept. How could we not take some fine eaters? We moved into the bay to see if we could avoid
wind while fishing another outcrop. The
wind had risen (not forecast) and made casting a real challenge. The electric
motor now held us nose on to the breeze, eliminating easier casting options. Three wind assisted long casts hard into a sheer rock face with a clear channel
brought 3 hook ups. All 3 were well better than legal fish and 2 were put into
the bin. Jase had taken another really nice specimen which he iki’d. I moved
us slightly and cast further around the structure. The fly sank and the line
came tight as the snapper charged the sinking morsel. This fish was taken as
well after a stiff fight.
I moved us around and Jase fired a long cast into
some foul – the fish hit like the proverbial prop forward. At no time did he
have that fish under control and when he whooped at its size I knew it was a really good fish. Then it was gone.
With the sun well up more traffic began to appear. Still,
nothing like I would have expected. Perhaps the chilly little breeze kept
people at home? In this distance terns and mutton ducks weaved and dived. The
anchovies were still being hassled. We agreed to go and find some kahawai – I wanted
a couple for the smoker. We set upwind of the widespread bird mass to drift
down into the carnage and killed the motor. Kahawai sign skittered across the
screen of the sounder. These fish are active predators and their sign is easily
distinguished. The hits came early and we each leaned into our respective fish.
Mine was gilled and bled. Jase let his go. We occupied ourselves in this way
for quite some time.
