Quick post

Took JBFC on her second ever fishing trip last Saturday. We launched not really early enough for a dawnie and ignoring the rangi channel headed straight over to the 15 m mark north of Rangi. Sounded a few good humps for future reference, but not much doing. Moon phase just plain awful, big and bold and hanging in the sky. Decided to head wide and look for birds and ended up NE of the Noises. We started to sound bait schools and snapper marks appeared on the bottom, but the bite was feeble. JBFC caught a spiney dogfish which are really good eating. I saw a big blob on the sounder mid water, dropped a soft plastic, and while setting JBFC's rod up my little 4kg outfit started screaming. there was a huge splash and kerfuffle behind us and I turned in time to see a fin disappear - not a fin but the tail of a thresher shark. 10 minutes of tail thrashing drag burning runs ensued. Another boat stopped for a look and offer of assistance ("we have a net") which I declined (I had a big F off gaff). Finally it was subdued and after a bit of a gawk boatside I cut it free. We drifted around and JBFC caught a nice snapper which we released. Then I got a couple of throw backs as well. Not a work up to be seen either, the gannets in view were simply milling around not doing all that much. We came back in in time for lunch, then I took the boat down to get its warrant. Have to say I'm impressed with JBFC's staying power, no sign of the dreaded "I'm bored lets go home" syndrome!

Wheely rough hub... this has some bearing on The Booger's failed WOF

Ok enough stupid puns. I should've installed Bearing Buddies back when I got the boat. She failed her trailer WOF because of rough left wheel bearings. What happens is that as you drive along the hubs heat up and air expands, so when you back it in to the water the air cools and contracts, and can suck water in through the dust cap over time. And yup, that's what happened. I removed and greased the bearings and went back for a sneak at getting through WOF... but nah, they wanted the bearings replaced. Stink, this was supposed to be my cheap weekend.

Warrant $24
Timken Bearing kit $27
Fuchs Axle Grease $16
Bearing Buddies $30

To be fair there was water in the dust cover and a bit of corrosion in there. I checked the right side wheel and it was fine, so I packed it with grease and put the Bearing Buddy on, no dramas.

The Inner Bearing was pretty stuffed

Seal on, and greased

 Oh well, all done and shouldn't happen too often in the future. Better borrow my neighbour's grease gun and pack the Bearing Buddies out...

Up North

It was good to catch up with my old buddy Simon after a space of nearly 5 years. Andre unfortunately was on a yacht returning from Fiji so had to miss the trip. I headed up to Whangarei on Sunday morning and arrived at Si's place at about 9. Had a decent chinwag with Si & Denise, then we sorted out a few bits and pieces and went down and hit Stumpy's Bait & Tackle, walking away with 10kg of prime NZ pillies. We headed north to Si's mum's bach at Oakura Bay a lovely part of the world. We planned an afternoon fish around the falling tide, and with Si having a bad back we could spend no more than 4 hours on the water. We launched at Rawhiti, with Si doing the driving.

The Old Man and The Sea... or just the Old Man!

We fished a reef, having sounded it and found it to be alive. Si predicted the bite time and within 5 minutes of his prediction it came alive. We boated fish after fish between 3 and 7kg, but the big one eluded us. I lost something heavy on a massive strike --- Simon just grimaced. Then laughed. Everything about Simon's rigs and methods is simple and as damn near foolproof as can be managed. Snoods instead of knots. Strong hooks. 100lb trace. Nothing is left to chance.

He also caught a pretty big grandaddy hapuka.

It was pretty lumpy so after the bite died (we were now sport fishing, releasing everything) we packed it in and headed home. We got back on dusk and set about cleaning 18 big snaps. We were both pretty sore to be honest, and one of Simon's mates dropped by with some painkillers. We gave him half a dozen cleaned fish and all the heads & frames for smoking. Cleaning them took a while, so it was good to sit down with a beer after that. Soon I hit the hay, quite stuffed after a big day.

Next morning I woke at 6 and got up for a walk down the beach. We cooked some grub and hung around waiting for the shop to open so we could get milk for coffees... we planned the day to be a bit more leisurely. Bite time was 4.15 to 5.30 so we planned our trip, prepared the baits (including salted 'couta from the day before) and made ready for the drive up to the Bay. We launched and decided on some really horrible shitty reefy arseholey territory. We anchored on the mark and then deployed some really stinky burley..... I nailed 2 good fish straight away, and then just on the heat of the bite had the mother of all tangles. SHIIIIT. Simon slowly but surely began to clean up. Then his big rod just bent over and the drag sang... this was a BIG fish. He fought it well and just when he was on top of it the hook pulled. Then the same happened to me. We just shook our heads and carried on. He did manage the biggest fish of the day, a fine male of 8kg.

Just as I pushed the shutter his other rod took off - fish on! The one he was holding ended up in my lap!

We had 15 fish onboard in ice slurry and they were a different class again, nothing less than 6kg... so we hatched a plan to drop fish off to friends, neighbours, for me to bring home 5 (as in about 35kg of fish) and for Si to have some. We got back to Oakura, cleaned up the bach, got ourselves together and drove back to Whangarei. Just as well too as the weather just went seppo, so we got a bit wet. The Booger was full of shit from fish poo, to guts to ground up pillie so a nice bit of rain would keep it from baking on. We unpacked and then I headed back home.

Next day I took the boat to Wash World to clean her, then to testing station for warrant... the trailer failed, but that's another story.

Thanks Si for a great couple of days in Paradise. Its good to be mentored by the best. ;)

A blimmin MAGIC photo

This from the Hunt & Fish forum, its a shot and a half.

Wooooooooooooooooooooooo

Fly Fishers Inc

Fly Fishers Inc is published and ready for reading. I haven't gone through it yet ... will it more of the same? .....

My proudest moment

I'm not fibbing, today the Justin Bieber Fan Club made her dad the proudest man alive. Her 5th birthday was yesterday, and she scooped a rod & reel and a life jacket from her mum & dad. And then pestered me to take her fishing. After breakfast we made sandwiches and a drink, packed some birthday cake, got the boat ready and then off we went. We put the boat in at Castor Bay and I left JB Fan Club sitting aboard while I went & parked the car. She looked quite content and when I got back 5 minutes later was waiting patiently. We headed across to Rangi to put the fish finder to use...

....not much doing, so after a few changes of position we drifted out over the worm beds. Along with 50 other boats.

Finally in 30 odd metres we began to find sign so baits were deployed along with the drogue.

What happened next tickled me pink. JB FC's rod began to buck and she squealed that she could feel a bite. She fought that fish like the AB's fought the French, finally up popped a beautiful snapper.

I don't know who was more excited. The cell phone was pulled out to inform mummy. The whooping could be heard right across to East Coast Bays. I have never felt so proud. Sorry Richie & the boys, but this was better than any rugby match.

She topped off her effort with another snap & a kahawai.

What a day. What a weekend.

Planning

Next Saturday is the celebration of JB Fan Club's birthday. Then, Dre and I are heading up north to catch up with Simon for a reunion of sorts - well over 20 years since Andre & Simon last caught up when we worked together. Our common purpose is to hunt big snaps at the very best time of the year to do so - end of spring, on the new moon and hence the biggest tides. Si "sort of knows what he's doing" - he catches more large snapper in a year than most anglers catch in a career and his living room is decorated with the world record snapper on 8kg line weight. Its'a massive 14.35kg. We've planned our spots and rigs and we're even taking some lighter stuff for fishing over sand. My 4kg rig will be no match for a big guy in tiger country but in deep water over sand....

Really looking forward to this trip.

Black marlin on fly - solo!!!!

This takes skill - drive the boat, tease the fish, put boat out of gear, make the cast, play the fish, tag the fish... this is just plain sick

Ben "notso" Bright of Bright Outdoors shows what its all about. Just added that to my bucket list....

Big Angry Fish!

I had arranged with Nik to take dad on a trip for his 70th birthday. Nik had promised 'some changes' in his life, but hadn't really elaborated. Given that The Gulf is currently firing with fish in the 30 - 40m depth range, and big work ups of anchovies, kahawai, gannets, whales and sharks, Nik made the call that Coromandel would be our destination. Sweet, its been ages since I went there. Got away from work on Friday arvo, delayed for 35 minutes at Kopu Bridge... arrived Coro at 4 on the dot. Well, the sight that greeted me... no sign of Saltflyer, but instead this rig stood out.

Fully sponsored, Nik & Milan are now filming a TV series which will appear next year in prime time. 4 years of planning and hard work have culminated in them being able to do this - hats off lads. With the skills these guys have it will be top notch action. Didn't have time to unpack, we needed to launch the "Blue Cockroach" quickly as the tide was receding. We got out at Te Kouma, on an outgoing tide in the face of a stinky SW breeze. The plan was to find some snaps for our dinner.

We were doing something a bit different to how I'd fished before, using "Pirate" jigs on medium braid (7kg). I threw back my first snap; that almost came back to bite us as we struggled to hit a fish after that. Finally under a setting sun I snuck another aboard to keep Nik's snap company - dinner achieved! We pulled the boat out at the Long Bay Motorcamp where we were staying - easy as. That was Friday - fresh snapper for dinner washed down with Heineken. Nice.

Technoviking is my hero

Saturday dawned a bit calmer, the wind coming from NW. We got out about 8, and headed North to look for workups. We headed North.... and further and further... finally after a couple of hours we saw the first gannets working. What followed was more or less consistent fishing and for the next few hours we were hooked into good solid snaps.

Arrrggghh me hearties, them Pirate Jigs are deadly

Feelin the love

Dad with a good fish

We fished on and made pigs of ourselves... been a while since I killed a limit of snapper to be honest. We got to 27 spiked and iced fish and then got the biggest work up of the day...

From where this guy emerged...



That was the last fish of a great day, and he went back to do his bit for the snapper polpulation. It was 2.30 and we were fished out, so decided to head back in, pack up and get on the road home. This type of jigging really opened my eyes - years ago I got hooked up when the metal jigging craze first took off. That craze gradually tapered off and of the past 8 or so years soft plastics have been the rage. The pirate type jig is an elegant extension of the old reapers, lethals etc, and reminded me how efficient a style of fishing it is. No smelly bait, no chewed up soft plastics, easy to control, snapper love them.... but I walked into a shop today and was horrified at the price of the Shimano ones....

Thanks Nik for a great trip, and happy 70th dad.

Watch out for.....

April 2012

What Trout Want

While digging around the 'net as you do, I found this article by Bob Wyatt. Bob's a thinking man's angler and I'm lucky enough to have a signed copy of his "Trout Hunting" that I won in a fund raising auction.

Now, if you believe in Anthropomorphism then stop reading now. (As in the rainbow jack felt his heart break as his life long mate was dragged from the pool on a cruel hook...). But if you want an insight into why trout gobble stuff, fill your boots.

Trout opening

Oct 1 is opening of the trout season. As usual it was windy, and most likely wet in other areas too. Harking back to last opening just reminded me of how crap trout opening weather normally is. Unlike duck opening where we get hot days, blue skies and sun burn. NZ in spring is wet, no secret there. Í'll leave my trout opening a wee while yet, until I see some sun at least.... got a txt from TT saying that Tarawera had its usual large flotilla. Didn't mention anything about fish though.

.... Just in from TT

Some fine fish from Lucas & TT Snr's.

"If not for the courage of her fearless crew, The Minnow would be lost (The Minnow would be lost)"

"Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster; and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you."
Got that Tim? No more catching monsters. As for the abyss, well at 5.30 am I sat watching a large low tide combined with a torried NE pounding sharp waves into the Takapuna ramp. Bloody abyss.

Had been a good start to the weekend, with me, Dre, Jeff and Tristan going to the SA Vs. Samoa match. What I can tell you from the TV replay is that none of the atmosphere or tension in the ground comes across the airwaves. It was a stunning second half. Bus transport was superbly organised, the crowd was big and jovial and I thought the match was great.

So hauling ass out of bed knowing that a 25-30Kt NE was howling in was a bit of a call. Sitting at Taka ramp I figured this was going to be a real mission. Called Dre and we made the call to drive to Torpedo Bay inside the harbour and launch there. Tim turned up and off we went. Good call too, even though the ramp was only ankle deep we launched easily and made the turn left... out of the harbour towards Rangi. To the theme song from Gilligan's Isle we set sail and bashed over the the lee of Rangi. It was relatively smooth and we anchored in 7m, deployed burley and got baits in the water. The bite wasn't hot by any means, but when Tim snagged this beast things started looking up...



Nice Big hands and long arms Tim!!!!



 At about 4kg that was a nice fish for the area. Really nice, and soon he followed up with another sweet fish.

We fished on and caught some good sized fish in the 40-50cm range, and I lost something that screamed me into the rocks.... stink.

Andre was happy..

Oh shit yeah, I'm so happy...

Tim was happy...

This is my happy face



I was happy too! happiness is Rangi Channel in a storm and with only two other boats in sight. Now the happy photos above really dont depict the wind all that well so you'll have to take my word for it. As the tide built (huge tides at he moment) the bite died, so we returned to the harbour to try another couple of spots. Soon Andre's rod tip bounced and...

A Carrot!!!!!! Now I for one have never seen a gurnard where we were fishing... so when he turned up another larger specimen we were stoked.

If I hold my breath I may grow wings



We got back to Torpedo Bay ramp at 9.45, grabbed a coffee and went on our way. Thanks lads, a good mission.

Daylight Savings...

Is a bit of a con at the outset. Lose some sleep. Gain an hour of twilight. But soon... after work missions will be easy.

I was looking around for an alternative to epoxy for my tying. There are quite a few new acrylics out there, most are set by UV. Most are quite expensive in comparison to Araldyte. While I was looking around I found some neat patterns, and inspiration.

 

These are all derivatives of the Surf Candy. I enjoy tying them but they are fiddly as if using epoxy. I'll try some UV stuff.

Making the most of the weather

'Dre called me yesterday. Having some phone issues and missed his voice message but we hooked up eventually. Talk about great minds thinking alike - we both were thinking dawn raid on the snaps. Wasn't until well after I'd asked him to buy some bait & burley that I realised he probably thought we were taking his boat, while I was thinking of taking mine out. Anyway we decided on mine. Andre's brother Tristan was coming along too. Got up at 4.30, had some brekkie and a coffee and took off for Taka ramp. Well!!! rather than a boat ramp it was a campervan parking lot. Not cool. I mean I got a park easily enough but boat ramps are boat ramps not caravan parks. We hit Rangi shallows by 5.20 on the outgoing and anchored in 6m. First baits hit the water and soon we had some nice fish aboard. As the sun rose the bite tapered off so we motored out a bit. Eventually we drifted out by A Buoy, nothing doing there except a big 'couta which took me on a tour of the boat for a while. We'd fished for a couple of hours by this time and decided to head into the channel proper to get the advantage of the dwindling current. Good call, soon a steady stream of good snaps came aboard. We took home 15 fish and would have put back half that many. Sea was flat as a pancake.

Booger ran well 3 up, but I think that's her comfortable POB limit. Took an hour to clean down gear, boat and fish.

Spring fishing at its best. As I write its clouding over and the NW is getting up.

Boat blind installed!

Me and Tim got the job finished today, and a bloody good job we did too if i say so myself.

We drilled.

We tapped holes. We cut frames. We screwed in screws. Bolted bolts. And finally...

A bit of improvisation here and there.

But its all done, just have to string up the camo net before we go hunting - sweet.

Again we're in the season between seasons

September, the lay month, is on us again. In fact we're well progressed, and there are plenty of diversions this year like the RWC, the family holiday we've returned from and a chokka work schedule. I spent a couple of days in Timaru this week just gone. An interesting place, too big to ignore, not big enough to be cosmopolitan. It was closed on Wednesday night. On the north side of town is an interesting lagoon (closed for hunting of course) that plays a role as a breeding ground for whitebait. It also hosts a good head of geese and ducks. (Anyway I'd like a lagoon like that).


Today Tim and me are going to work some more on The Booger. We'll drill the holes for the blind and by the time we're done the frame should be up for the boat blind. Photos later.

Saturday morning fish

Met Tim at Okahu Bay just after 8. Weather was primo, about as flat as it could possibly get. We set off for Waiheke to look at some foul... semed that others had the same plan so we left them in peace and wandered over to David Rocks to chuck some bait and plastic. Nothing home so over to Takapu Rock... nope, nothing at all there. At 12 we picked up and headed off, really nothing showing on the sounder. Seemed that Ahaahas was place to be, there would have been 15 boats anchored all over them.... one thing about that place is that if you have it to yourself it can be magic, but as soon as the next boat turns up, she's normally all over as the fish escape back out into the depths. Beaut day but everyone reported the same thing - hard fishing or no fish at all.

55.1 Km round trip... almost used a tank. Had the tote aboard so thats another 40 odd km. Now, where can I go with 90kms worth of gas in a smallish boat......................?

Easily THE BEST video trailer I've ever seen

Holy freakin cow watch this!!!!

Its even got a dog!

Secret subtle message

Not sure what Andy H is trying to say.

Cryptic, hmmmm, may have to go and see what those big signs mean.

A Good bastard

On Friday night I went and met a good bastard. A bloke from an internet forum, who graciously offerred to show me his estuary duck boat set up. He ran me through his rig and it all makes sense... everything set up according to his needs. We talked everything from boats to deer hunting - which he happens to be very good at, and which I happen to suck at - and then when I was leaving he gave me a whole bunch of not quite export quality but expensive none the less orchids for me to give to swmbo.

I've met lots of good bastards through the internet, add another to the list.