Xmas break

I have 4 days off for Christmas, the weather reports are good for the first 3 days, so with my son Matt home for the break we are looking forward to some father and son bonding. Friday night we set 3 crayfish (like a lobster but with no claws) pots after work in front of our camp site at Pouawa beach (in Gisborne we have a number of beaches we can freedom camp on for a small fee, our caravan is only a few metres from the sand and sea).
Xmas day Matt and I get up at 4am and head out and pull the pots to find 6 legal crayfish for Christmas lunch, the sea is calm so we head out to BS1A 30km's out for a quick drift fish. the sea is a bit sloppy that far out and the fish weren't playing the game but we managed a nice Bluenose for the table, the sea inside was flat calm, we managed to find a work up with gannets and dolphins so we dusted off the lures and managed a couple of fat Kawhai (also known as sea trout). We managed to be back home and have the boat cleaned all before lunch.
Boxing day, Murray joined us and we headed out again and checked the pots, no legal size crays but lots of small ones, we were going to head out deep but hear on the radio that the seabreeze was already up so we stayed inside for a Tarakihi fish, but yet again we were unable to find let alone catch a fish, we met up with 5 other boats all with the same story...no fish. Last night at 1am we had a good earthquake (4.9) maybe that had some bearing for the lack of fish, anyway we went home with our tails between our legs.
Monday 27.12.10. We are up early again and head out to check our pots again, this time we have only 2 legal crays but they are beauties, we head out wide again to our favourite spot TR1A the sea is calm with a very light seabeeze. We spend the next 4 hours drift fishing and catching 3 nice Hapuka and one Trumpeter (the biggest Hapuka was 14kg's). We came home to our hot dry northwester winds that sent our temperature soaring into the high 30's - summer is finally here ya.
Tuesday the winds have turned gale force from the northwest, so it is a day chilling out at the camp site.
Have a Happy New Year everyone.

15.12.2010 Here we go again

Our run of bad weather continues, with persistent easterlies now forecast until Christmas. The only redeeming feature is that the water temp is rising, up to 18 degrees (C) and the first Tuna were caught in the Carpet court contest (7 and 9 kg Albacore). So with any luck the easterlies will push warm water down from the tropics and we will have a good game season, already reading reports from Cape Runaway, that say the commercial fleet are catching Yellow Fin and Big eye tuna's, so we are hoping they will head on down here.
With my son Matt coming home for Xmas I hope the weather will clear so we can take Gazebo out.
Merry Christmas to all those reading my blog, cheers and have a good one.

04.12.10 Carpet Court 34 hour contest

Saturday; The contest was postponed from last weekend thanks to our weekend destroying southerlies that have been turning up most weekends of late, even this weekend isn't looking the best with light easterlies forecast (winds from the east fish lest - or so it goes).Up again at 4am, pick up Murray and on our way out to sea by 5am. The wind is light with a half metre swell from 2 directions, we head out to TH1A (40km's out), we arrive to find conditions a little sloppy but fish able in 180 metres of water. Tzar followed us out and scored first with a teen pulling up a nice puka (groper) of 28kg's which ended up winning the Hapuka section, I had a puka of 8.5kgs on board soon after and Murray followed with a small 3kg Bass. THAT was it, sharks were the catch after that (all released) by 7.30 / 8am the wind had picked up making drifting near impossible, so we move to CO2A about 6 km away, where we could anchor up in 100 metres of water, there was plenty of fish sign - in fact 4 metres of them over the rock, but (and I have said before there is always a but) they were rubbish fish (we call them granddaddy hapuka - small orange things) they came up 2 at a time and released, after an hour of that we pulled the pick and moved to TM1A 14kms inshore, yet again lots of sign, again granddaddies, we kept dragging the anchor and sliding off the rock. It was about then when I snapped my Shimano Raider 2 rod in half - short version ..hooked rock ...small tug on rod ...snapped rod...totally f%*ked off. Time to move again. Time to do what I do best - strayline for snapper, 6km later and a bucket of berlie even later not even a bite, so 3pm - time for home.
To make a bad day worse while cleaning the boat I was re bending the anchor arms and I slipped and put my back out.
Sunday; After raiding the wife's medicine bag for pain killers at 4am, on the water by 5am, the wind was already blowing 15 plus knots and the swell had increased to a metre and a half we went to a good snapper spot on Aerial reef, we would have been better off parking in our washing machine, it was ugly, after half an hour we had straightened the anchor again. So we pulled the pick and went for a look at South rocks, we went over 8 of our best marks and not a fish on the finder, where have they all gone??? lots of rumours on shore about a gill netter setting a 1 km nets over the rocks and a out of town trawler running chains over the rocks as well as a long liner setting 40kms of line with 4ooo hooks, fact or fiction who knows. by 9am we had had enough and went home. It must be bad, never have I given up in an contest before like this - 160km's traveled for 2 fish?.
Monday was a brilliant summers day - hot and calm, Tuesday back to southerlies cold and trying to rain.
Talking to others who were out, we were not alone - most struggled to catch anything as well.

20.11.10 we suck again

The weather forecast wasn't good so we decided to go for a quick Tarakihi fish Saturday morning before the rain arrived. We went out at 7 and headed to Kells a spot 10km out, the easterly was already getting up, roughing the sea up. We had a few problems trying to anchor up with the current and the wind going in the opposite direction. We ended up with nothing (no bites = no fish) so we tried a couple of other rocks in the area with the same result, with nothing happening we headed back and stopped at one last rock before the ramp. This time I managed one lonely small snapper that was just legal (27cm) and it was released to grow bigger. We headed home and had to have steak for tea, hopefully next week will be better.

13.11.10 Discount Fishing Hapuka Hunt

Friday - the weather finally came right, a beautiful day but and there is always a but! a solid 2 metre swell decreasing, Saturdays contest looks ok.
Saturday 5.15am at the ramp 3 of us for day one Evan, Murray and myself as the dawn lightens we can see the swell has dropped to a metre and the sea is calm with a 10 knot land breeze which should burn off when the sun rises. We head out to TR2A (38kms out to sea). The land wind drops away to nothing, we set up for our first drop - plenty of sign on the sounder but no takers, after a couple of drifts we move over to TR1A about 1km away, yet again plenty of sign, but no takers over the rock, we drift about 500 metres with the current and see a small 2 metre ledge on the sea floor with sign on the downward side of it. As soon as our gear dropped into it we were hooked up. Murray had a pair of 8kg Hapukas I soon followed with a 10.8kg, after a couple of unsuccessful drifts we decided to move as the sea was calm as we headed out another 14kms to a new spot for us EB2A. Same again we found a small drop with heaps of sign in 225 metres of water. Evan pulled up a double hook up of large Gemfish, I followed with a 11.8kg Hapuka and a small Bass, Murray and Evan both ended with another Gemfish each. The day was magic no wind all day hot and sunny. We got back to the ramp at 4pm tired but happy.

Sunday 14.11.10. Yet again up at 3.30am and at the ramp by 5am. The swell had dropped but (yet again a but) the wind had picked up from the northwest and was supposed to pick up during the day. Murray and I (Evan was crewing for another boat Sunday) headed out and along the coast, we started to go out to an area 20kms out but the wind was roughing the sea up to much so we headed to an area under a cliff, hopefully to give us protection from the wind. the sea was calm but fishless, the wind seemed to drop off so we pulled the pick and headed out to a group of rocks in 30 metres of water 12 kms out, we dropped the pick and the wind returned in it's full fury, a solid 20-25 knots - not very pleasant. Murray who loves stray lining (NOT) soon had a couple of snapper on board, I followed with one and that was that, we stayed till 12 and called it a day and headed home with a 30 km drive into a head wind.

Prize giving. Much to our surprise Murray's biggest Snapper 2.60kg won first prize in the snapper section and my 11.8kg Hapuka came 6th out of 7 prize winners.

08.11.10 The weather sucks

Well it couldn't get much worse, the last 2 weekends the opening fishing competition for the club has been cancelled due to bad weather. The weather becomes fine by Wednesday and down she comes again Friday evening. This weekend is the Hapuka hunt so fingers crossed the weather gods will smile on us.

25.10.10 Perfection

Monday being a holiday, we planned to head out to pick up the cray pots and have a quick fish but we ended up having a major change of plans. We again headed out from Tata ramp at 5.30am the sea was mirror flat, we pulled our pots to find only 2 legal crayfish which went in the live bait tank to keep them fresh, we were amazed to find the 2 scarifies from yesterday still alive. the sea was flat so we headed out to TR1A our other spot on the drop off, we headed into the big red blob of the rising sun. Tr1A is 38 ks out and was calm as just a slight swell on the glassy sea, our first drift yielded 2 nice Trumpeter, our next a couple of sharks, our next a couple more trumpeter, next more sharks, next a couple of big Gemfish and then more sharks. It puts a bit of strain on the old back hauling sharks up from 190 metres. By lunch time still no wind, we decided to have a bit of a look around for more rocks in the area. A couple of Ks away we found another rocky outcrop with good sign, our first drop each yielded a couple of Hapuka, then sharks, then a couple of Trumpeter and then more sharks. By 2 o'clock we were out of bait and the sea was still glass... magic. We were able to fillet the 7 Trumpeter, 2 Hapuka and 2 Gemfish on board to save the mess at home. What a day I hope we have many more like it, but we could do without the sharks.

26.10.10 A big fat zero

Holiday weekend the forecast was great with a big fat high centered on the North Island. Friday was southerly and it took Saturday to clean up, but Sunday was looking good - well almost, we headed out from Tata ramp at 5.30am out to our drop off spot at BS1A, on the way we dropped a couple of Crayfish pots off to soak for tomorrow. We arrived at BS1A only to find a light sea breeze already up, we did a number of drifts in 210 metres to catch nothing, just a couple of small scarifies which we kept in the live tank for bait, after a couple of hours we headed across to another spot about 4 Ks away but the wind had picked up a bit to much for drifting. We then headed into Penguins for a snapper stray line to test the area, well we found out that there were no snapper there, after using 10 litres of berlie and all we got were barracuda's and sharks. At 3 pm we pulled the pick and headed home, easy cleaning no fish to fillet.

08.10.10 Day off from work

We have just had a perfect week of weather, it started Monday - no wind and no swell and by Thursday it was driving me nuts. The weekend forecast was for gale force winds Saturday....GREAT. So I took a managers day off Friday as it was the last day of the school holidays. Johnstone and I decided to take our boys, Ethan and Jordan out fishing, my boy Jordan hasn't had the best of times out fishing with me due to sea sickness but we dosed him up last night with sealegs and hoped he would be ok. We left the Tata ramp at 7am and headed to TR1A 37 kms out to sea, the sea was not bad but a light northerly was just roughing it up a bit. On our first drop Johnstone managed a good hook up and wound up a Hapuka (Grouper) around 18 kgs, our next couple of drifts Ethan managed to wind up a couple of sharks, on our fourth drift Jordan managed to hook up a 10 kg Hapuka, 2 fish and the bin was full. The wind had started to freshen and then suddenly died away so we thought we would have a bit of an explore around the area. We went out a further 5 kms and a further 5 kms to the north, but there was little to be seen. Our rock we have been fishing seems to be the only one holding fish. Around lunch time we headed to Kells to give the kids a Tarakihi fish before heading home. Jordan was fine and didn't feel sick at all.

02.10.2010 A hard day at the office

It was a toss up whether to fish the surfcasting comp or to go deep sea, the forecast was calm, little swell and light winds so deep sea won. Murray and I headed out to TR1A at 6am from Tata ramp. We arrived on our spot at 7am, 37km out to sea in 187 metres of water. The sea was good no wind, we soon had baits down, our first drift yielded a nice trumpeter around 4 kilos, we repositioned and Murray had a Hapuka around 10 kgs on board, while I battled a 4 foot shark again. Over the next hour we managed another 2 trumpeter. By 12 the sea breeze had gotten up from the south so we headed in shore to fill the bin with Tarakihi - but they weren't playing the game. From the reports on the radio everyone was struggling to catch anything, we were happy with our 5 fish least they were good sized and would provide plenty of food. We heard from a mate fishing in the comp that only 5 fish were caught so we made the right choice.

19.09.10 surfcasting Midway Beach

On Sunday the northwest wind was forecast to be at gale strength and was so I left Gazebo at home and took my surfcaster down to midway beach for a look. I have a Kawahi surfcasting contest on the 2nd of October and I thought I would see what the fishing was like, the sea was flat and the wind was strong offshore so casting was easy as, but the water was very dirty from the rain we had last week coming down the big river. Fishing was slow with crabs taking the bait but I managed one small red cod and a conger eel, not much to show for 3 hours fishing but it was the first red cod I have caught at that beach.

18.09.10 Prize giving

The Gisborne Tatapouri sports fishing clubs annual prize giving was held last night and Gazebo and I won the Ray Webb Trophy for the Bottom fish fisherperson of the year for the second year running and the Blue Spray cup for the Heaviest Kingfish on non-game gear for my 25.75kg Kingfish. Hopefully we will do ok this year when the competition season starts 30.10.10.

12.09.10 Retrieving Gazebo at Tata ramp

Wok & Roll and Tzer waiting for their turn for the tractor
Gazebo being loaded on her trailer, a very low tide

Not the smoothest of ramps

Most of these rocks are just covered by water at low tide

We launch at high tide here

Tzer a 6.7 Surtees Gamefisher and Gazebo a 6.1 Surtees barcrusher
inside the reef in the channel waiting for the clubs tractor.

Everyone helps each other with the launching and retrieval of boats

12.09.10 Spring has sprung

Triple hook up of Hapuka (40kgs of fish)

The weekends forecast was good - darn good. Murray and I left at 6.30 and launched at Tata ramp. The sea was calm with a small swell, we were going to go to penguins for a snapper fish but the conditions were so good we kept on going to TR1A. A spot we had gone to before without much success. TR1A is about 35km out to sea, when we arrived there was a charter boat already on the spot. The rock had 6 metres of fish on it. Our first drift yielded a nice trumpeter, soon another one joined it in the bin. the charter boat was pulling them in one after the another, being a large commercial cray boat it was able to sit on top of the rock making it hard for us to drift over the hot spot. We had to drift along the sides of the reef, Murray hooked on to something large - it took him ages to wind it up from the bottom a 180 metres down, near the surface it looked like a large stingray then 3 Hapuka (Groper) broke the surface - 3 hooks = 3 puka (16, 13 and 11kg, 40 kg in all). We were jumping for joy as we had seen it on TV but never experience a triple hook up before, now our fish bin was full and we had to use a sack for 2 of them. We did one last drift and I hooked the bottom but I could feel fish biting and then one got hooked, mean while we were drifting away while I was letting out more line and trying to do everything I know to unsnag me. It took Murray an age to pull his gear in so he could start the boat and reverse back to the spot, the sinker finally broke off and I was able to wind my gear in to find I had caught 2 large Trumpeter, now the bin was full with 5 fish and 2 more overflowing into our sack, not being greedy it was time to head home. We manged to feed just about everyone we know so there wasn't anything wasted. Sunday was even better conditions but with the fridge full we decided to save money and not go out, hopefully the next weekend will be good.

28.08.10 Calm weather at last

Clive hauling his first shark up from 2oo metres

Finally a calm forecast lead to a calm outcome. Murray, Clive and myself left Tata ramp at 6.30 am and headed out to BS1A to have a drift for a Puka or 2 in 200 metres of water. The lack of any current unfortunately bought out the sharks, we found heaps of sign but ended up with sharks - Clive was happy, one of his wants was to catch a shark, he can now cross that off. The only other boat out with us Tzar managed to catch a Kingfish of 20kg's from 200 metres a feat not often heard of, not to be out done Murray manged to land one also but his was just legal so we released it. After getting sick and tired of sharks we headed back to the spot where we caught all the snapper last trip, yet again heaps of sign but nothing biting (no current). The last time I took Clive out was the only time we have never caught a fish, so the word Jonah (a person who brings bad luck on a boat) was starting to be mentioned. We then decided to try a new spot a cliff that rises out of 100 metres to 60 metres, Clive was soon into Terakihi so his new nick name was thrown overboard, it was slow but steady and we ended with 22 Terakihi (enough for everyone to have a good feed). With only 2 days to go to the start of spring, today was beautiful warm and calm my face even has a touch of red from the sun - come on the warm weather.

08.08.10 Total cock up

Well I thought I knew how to read the weather, how I totally cocked this weekend up. The forecast for Saturday was light winds in the morning rising to 2o knots from the north in the afternoon and a solid 1 metre swell. The swell was solid Friday night and with rising winds forecast we thought we would wait till Sunday. Saturday was calm all day ....no wind at all. Sundays forecast was morning drizzle easing and light winds tending from the west, 10-15 knots in the afternoon, well Sunday morning 6.00 am woke to the sound of rain on the roof so I rolled over, 7.30 am woke to the sound of silence looked outside and the drizzle had gone and there was no wind at all, texted Murray "be there soonish", 9.00am finally at the ramp and launched Gazebo and headed out to south rocks (20 km out) 5 ks out the wind started to pick up from the south (where all our bad weather comes from) we arrived at our spot in choppy seas and a rising swell - in fact it was dammed unpleasant. Our rock had good sign on it so we dropped the anchor so we could get a quick feed and head home but the anchor keep dragging we were only able to catch 1 Tarakihi, after several attempts to anchor we gave up and went to another spot we liked that was on the way home. This too had good sign and was much rocker than the last spot, we dropped the anchor and was rewarded with a couple of tarakihi, soon we had a snapper on board, and it was all on. The snapper bullied the tarakihi out of the way and we were catching snapper as fast as we could get our gear to the bottom, 17 snapper on board in under a hour, the snapper were good fat 1 - 2 kg specimens and our bin was filled - lest we had some reward for the unpleasant conditions. We pulled the anchor and home we went.
One day we'll get to fish in perfect conditions (hopefully).

31.07.2010 New grounds

Trumpeter (very good eating)

Saturday morning the forecast was good with a large high over the top of Gisborne, so off came the covers again and a quick hose down to wash away the frost. Gazebo was loaded by 8 and outside Murray's house a few minutes latter. We decided to launch from Tatapouri ramp so we could go east, to a secret spot Murray was given by a ex commercial fisherman. The only problem with a Tata launch is that we have to use the clubs tractor and it means self launching and getting wet while getting into the boat, that ok in the summer but in winter and in a frost it's a wee bit chilly. We headed out to the secret spot we've called TR1A which is 38 km's offshore to find a mate of mine already there fishing (so much for it being secret) half an hour latter we were joined by another boat (yeah right - really secret seeing that there was only 6 boats out). We were drift fishing in 180 metres picking up the usual toothed species like shark and barracuda and one nice trumpeter (really good eating). The story was "should have been here last week, boats were filling up" sadly some of us have to work during the week. As the wind picked up we headed back to gables to catch a few Tarakihi for tea, we found a good rock but were pack raped by Rat Kingfish (undersized fish) we struggled to get our gear to the bottom without multi hook ups as the gear went down. We put 8 Tarakihi into the Bin and called it a day.

21.07.10 Distant shores

Surfers Paradise (winter time????)
Noosa from the mouth of the Noosa River

Fishing in the Noosa river

The family (except Matt who lives down in Dunedin) took a break away from our winter, and headed over to Queensland Australia for 9 days R&R. The trip over was interesting, we were delayed 4 hours, our first plane broke and had to be fixed. The second plane also broke and had to be fixed so we waited for a 3rd plane to arrive from Australia to take us over, that too broke but was quickly fixed and we were able to go. They say things come in 3's, thank god they were all on the ground when they broke. The weather was good with the day time temps in the 25 degrees area and the sea temp 19-20 degrees. I managed to go fishing at the mouth of the Noosa river, we were going rock fishing but the swell was too big so we took the easy way out, I managed to catch a couple of flatheads and my mate Barry caught a bream (looks like our snapper). Sadly I didn't get any more fishing in as there were too many females in our group and we spent most of the time being dragged around all the shopping malls in Australia. But now it is back to work and back to the winter.

03.07.2010

With Matt home from Dunedin and the forecast good for Saturday we took the covers off Gazebo and hitched her on to the Prado Friday night. The frost in the morning was a good one, the hose was frozen so it took awhile to get the water running to clean the windscreens, we arrived at the ramp to find everyone else had the same idea. We headed out to the drop off to drift fish for Hapuka. On the the way we had the great pleasure it see 2 whales doing their thing, they were on the way north, we were not able to identify them but I suspect that they were Right Whales on their annual migration to warmer waters. SOAPBOX time, I can't understand the Japanese desire to hunt these magnificent mammals, it's such a pleasure to see them in the wild "ban all whaling forever" any way we reached BS1A and started our drifts, over a period of 3 hours we managed to catch 1 bluenose and a number of small sharks, not the best result but it was good to be back out on the sea and the joy of seeing the whales will last for years.

13.06.2010

With a reasonable forecast is time to put Gazebo back in the water, Murray and I left town and headed out to BS1A. It is a 30 km run to the drop off, we arrived to 12 knot northwesterly and lumpy seas. We scouted around for a while and found a couple of areas of fish sign in 210 metres of water, we set up and started a drift pattern. The first fish up was a small shark, definitely not the plan. The second drift Murray had a small Hapuka (Groper) which was the plan. Over the next 2 hours we managed to catch 3 Hapuka, 3 Blue Nose (excellent eating) and a few more small sharks and a couple of small Gemfish (excellent smoked). While we were at the drop off the wind died off but on the way home the wind built up the closer we got to land, with 5 k's to go we stopped and gave a tow to a boat that had broken down.

queens birthday 2010

With winter now upon us the sea conditions have been too rough to take Gazebo out, so Johnstone, Ethan and myself headed back to the Cape Runaway for the Queens birthday long weekend. The forecast was good for Friday and Saturday but turning to custard Sunday. The sea was flat calm driving up Friday afternoon so it was looking good for a early start Saturday. We were on the water before 7am just as it was light and headed to the Cape rocks.

The conditions were perfect for the Cape rocks, usually it is to dangerous to get on them. We were soon set up with berley in the water and it wasn't long before we were catching Kingfish and Snapper.

Ethan with a 9kg Kingfish caught and released, We caught a number of small legal Kingfish releasing all but a 14.8kg which came home for tea.

Johnstone and Ethan with one of the many Snapper caught we kept 8 and released 10
including the 6.4kg one I caught.

Yes it was cold as the wind got up.


The Cape rocks... 2 big ones and 2 small ones( we haven't fished that one yet)

Leaving the Cape after a good days fishing.

The calm before the storm

Ian's Bach we stayed in at Waihau Bay.

Across the road the sea.

The scene in the morning, the swell was building, by 10am the rain had arrived. The day just got worse - heavy rain and gales all day.

Monday morning - rough as, time to go home.

The mighty Motu river in full flood.

15.05.10 got my mojo back

The weather forecast was so-so, raising 20 knot northerlies and a 1.5 metre swell. I gave Murray a call Friday night for a 7 o'clock start Saturday and it was a go. Saturday morning was calm but with the clouds moving in the sky I left the boat at home and picked Murray up and headed up the coast for a look, the sea was calm with a small swell and a light northerly, so we headed back and hitched the boat on the Prado and headed to the harbour. We launched Gazebo and set the GPS to Aerial reef and headed out. The calm waters started to change about 10 k's out into the usual slop, we reached our mark at Aerial reef (16k's offshore) and dropped the anchor. The conditions weren't that good, the sea was choppy with a freshening northerly but the current was with us for straylineing so over the side went the berley sack and baits were soon in the water. It didn't take long before the first snapper was in the bin. We were having trouble with barracuda and the odd shark and replacing a lot of traces. Soon the snapper took over and were on the bite and a steady stream of snapper was being caught.
In the Gisborne fishery the minimum legal snapper size is 27cm and the limit to take is 10 snapper each, we have a rule on board "if you have to measure it, it is too small" we were letting go snapper around the 35cm size. The biggest one we caught was about 5kg most being around 2 kg mark (the best eating size), in the end we had 18 in the bin and it was time to go. It was good to know we are still able to find fish and the mojo was back after last weekends failure. I have a feeling Murray secretly likes straylineing but he is not letting on as he didn't put up much of a fight as he usually does.

09.05.10 a fat zero

The forecast was good and Murray was working so I took a friend Clive out for the first time. we left the harbour and all was looking good to start with but 2 K's latter we were in open ocean and a 1.5 metre swell was rolling in from the east as well the land wind was blowing 15 knots ( back home it was our 2nd frost of the late autumn and no wind), it was pretty ugly, we were heading to westpac and changed and headed over to the shelter of the Whareratas to the west. We looked around and found nothing and caught nothing....yuk. The wind dropped and we headed out to fluke rocks, again no sign. So we headed further out to Bank rock, at last sign, we anchored and my gear was attacked by barracuda. Two sets of hooks and sinkers latter I finally got to the bottom yet Clive went straight down, strange my line is green coloured and his is red coloured, I've noticed in the past the red line gets attacked a lot less (note to self buy only red line in the future), After a hour and a half we still hadn't caught any eating fish and the sea was still pretty sloppy so we pulled the pick and headed home. This was the first time in years I haven't bought any fish home in fact I can not remember the last time. Suppose that's fishing hopefully next weekend I will get my mojo back.

Cape Runaway Cricket trip 28.04-02.05.10

Lottin Point and the saddle we used to walk over

Jims Bach on Jims farm

The wheels fell off, the end of day 4

End of day three
The gut we were fishing day 3

Day 3 and still waiting

Day 3 area in front of Jim's bach

Day 2 Cricket Rock The wait

Loading the boats on day Two

Our annual mercantile cricket fishing trip. Our team "White Pointer Boats" formally the "Village Cellar Young Ones" have since 1993 been going to Cape Runaway/Lottin Point for 5 days fishing. The Cape Runaway/Lottin Point area is a very remote and beautiful area at the tip of East cape, New Zealand, The area is rocky with lots of good ledges and small rock islands, the water is deep and clear, it is one of the premier land based fishing areas in New Zealand,
In the beginning when we were young we used to hike to areas near the only access road into Lottin Point, this meant 2 - 3 hours struggling up and down hill with all our gear, bait and berley and the same time back out. Now days we use small boats to get us to areas that have little or no fishing pressure. We target Snapper and sometimes Kingfish.
The boys (team nick names, Cod, Johnstone, Wides, Blank, Gnome, Conk, Willie, Magnet, Merv, Rainman and Zorro who couldn't make this years trip)

Day one was the 3 hour drive from Gisborne to Cape Runaway, arriving at lunch time we dumped our gear at the farm house we rent and headed to a rock island at the Cape we call Cricket rock. It didn't take long to get set up (gear transferred to land, boats anchored and tethered to the island) Berley in the water and bait on the hook and into the berley trail and the wait...
The day was fine but a storm the day before had left a swell that was making things tricky, The fishing was slow with only a couple of small snapper caught and the incoming tide was making our position on the rocks a bit dicey, we called it a day and went back to the house.

Day Two

We were keen as, we were up, fed, boats loaded and had driven the 8k's to Lottin. The boats were in the water before 7. We left the sheltered waters at Lottin and turned right.. yuk the swell hadn't dropped in fact it was a bit bigger making and attempt to get on the rocks suicidal, so we turned around and headed left, 10k's to a safe harbour we know but yuk the swell had closed that out as well, so back to the beach and load the boats back on the trailers and back to the house for coffee and a rethink.

One car load went over the hill (on the farmers 4 wheel drive track, steep as, not for the faint hearted) and we took the boat and headed back to Cricket rock which is sheltered from the worst of the swell. The fishing was slow but we all managed to catch a snapper or 2 on the rock, but on our return to the house we found the other crew had caught nothing.

Day three.

Still keen as we got up early again and 8 of us headed to Lottin while the other 2 took the Rhino that they had bought with them up and over Jim's track to fish the area the boys fished yesterday. We managed to look at Lottin form the top of the road to see the swell even bigger and the wind blowing on shore already, so back to the house and to load the 4x4's and up and over Jim's track. The area in front of Jim's Bach looked ok it was fairly sheltered so we set up there for the day and we could see the other 2 on the ledge the boys were on yesterday. There isn't much to write about, Gnome and I caught and released a small snapper each and that was it apart from 2 eels, one seagull and a cod (none of which count and were released), so back to the house and a rethink over a amber ale or 2.

Day four.

The last day and the boys were still keen "NOT", the weather had turned worse and it was raining now. Magnet and I took the Rhino up the track at speed to check the sea, it was worse than yesterday in fact it was ugly, another coffee and we decided to head to lottin to a spot we call flat rock and the rock island next to it. We were putting 2 of the boats in the water when magnet arrived with the 3rd, he had 20 metres to go when the wheels fell off the trailer, axle and all "bugger", with nothing else we could do apart from toss the trailer and wheels into the long grass on the side of the road and launch the boat. We crawled over to flat rock in a fairly rough sea to a safe anchoring spot and put our gear and selves ashore. Yet again nothing much to write about Rainman caught 4 small snappers and a small Kingfish, Merv managed a 8.56kg Kingfish which won the Green Jacket beating Blanks 1.9kg snapper from day 2.

The green Jacket is the prize for what we fish for, it gives the holder the right to sleep on the only double bed in the house and is much sort after. On the way home we managed to tie the wrecked trailer on top of Blanks boat and the trailer less boat on top of Wides boat. Luckily for us Jim the farm owner has a welder and grinder for magnet to use as he is a boat builder and welder, he was able to make repairs to get the trailer home the next day.

PS; the next day was beautiful, no wind, swell had dropped.... perfect! as we saw on the way home but that's fishing, we'll be back next year

25.04.10

After spending the last weekend giving the boat a good clean and scrub after a busy summer of fishing the forecast was to good to ignore. Saturday dawned fine and calm so I mowed the lawns - dug the garden etc, it was to much for me to handle, so that night I texted Murray to see if he wanted to go out Sunday "yip" was the answer. We had a late start - 9am and left from the harbour going to westpac (a bank 28km's south of Gisborne). On the way to Westpac we saw a small area of bird activity, so we chucked over a lure to see what was in the water. A couple of passes later I had a strike and landed a small Albacore tuna. 10 minutes later we had 4 lures out, half an hour latter we managed to land a nice Skippie but the going was hard, there was a lot of sign down deep but little action on the surface(maybe a bit cold for them (17.8 degrees)). We called it quits and headed out to Westpac. The sea breeze was just starting so we used it to do a drift to see what was there, it didn't take long to find a patch of fish and down went the anchor. We were straight into Tarakihi and some good sized ones, after an hour I had a good hit and managed to boat a Kingfish of about 16kg. Our anchor started to drag in the sea breeze, we pulled it up and noticed a patch of badly frayed rope, looks as if a shark must of had a bit of a chew on it. Not wanting to risk losing our anchor we decided to head home with the 16 Tarakihi and 1 Kingfish we had caught , enough to feed our families and friends.

18.04.10 Straylining

Better than watching paint dry

Heavy - 10.4kg & 6.4kg

With the forecast looking good I rang Muz to see if he wanted to go for a snapper fish (stray lining), he said stray lining is like "watching paint dry and his weekend suddenly got busy". I gave Johnstone a ring and he and his son Ethan were keen as. So leaving Muz to catch up on all the jobs he had been neglecting at home we headed to Aerial reef (AR8A). The wind - a light westerly was perfect for the current, we dropped the anchor and over the side went the sack of berley, it took Johnstone 15 minutes before the first pannie (good eating size snapper) was in the bin. Another 30 minutes we had 4 pannies in the bin, nothing big. I was using baby squid and bonito tied together but only the bonito was being taken. It's strange 2 weeks ago the snapper were nailing baby squid but today they weren't even interested. I changed my trace from the 2 hook (Main and keeper) to a single 9.0 hook and a slab of bonito, first hit resulted in a 6.4kg snapper followed by a 3kg. At this stage I was using 2 rods so I put one away and just had one out, I had another good hit, it felt like a shark but you never know. Lucky for me it wasn't, it turned out to be a 10.4kg snapper and a good looking specimen. With 2 good snappers in the bin I put my gear away and let Johnstone and Ethan fill the bin some nice 2 and 3kg snappers which had started to come on. The berley ran out at 11am and with the bin full with 16 snapper we headed home, to get home before lunch is a rarity, another good days fishing on Gazebo.
Stray lining - 16, Paint drying - 0

JRT Building contest 03.04.10

JRT building contest is the final contest of the season.
Good Friday we headed out for a skippy (Skipjack tuna) hunt. We sailed a large 60km loop over all the major reefs for one small albie (albacore tuna). The sea conditions wasn't good with a large 1-1.5 metre swell and calm winds changing to a sea breeze, meant it didn't look good for the 3rd, the first day of the contest.
Day one; We head out from town and head to Arial reef to go stray lining for snapper. Leaving from town adds another 20 km's to the trip but with the swell and forecast sea breeze its easier to get the boat on and off the trailer. The sea at day break is all ready choppy and the shallows at Arial a washing machine but lest there are no breaking waves like yesterday, we set the anchor and put the first sack of berley to soak. The wind and tide are against us but we manage to pull in a couple of pan size snapper. At full tide the tide turns and we have both wind and tide going the right way and we start to catch snapper. I manage a small just legal kingfish, but it swallowed the hooks and blood is coming out of it's gills, so goes in the bin, Murray follows with a nice 8kg kingie and the snappers are getting bigger with a number of bust offs and big fish spitting the hooks. By 3.oo pm our bin is full and we have had enough of the washing machine and head back, we weigh in our largest snapper at 3.95kg.

Day 2; The forecast isn't good but we head out again from town to find the sea has calmed down and there is very little wind "yay". We reach Arial reef in no time, Murray loves stray lining "not" and suggests we go deep for Hapuka while it's calm, but I love stray lining and with a worsting forecast decide to stay here. We set the anchor and yet again tide and wind are against us, we set the sack of berley and we are straight into snapper. The snapper are a lot bigger, with fish in the 2 - 3 kg range and the odd 4kg, I hook a good size one and land a 6.75kg snapper. With full tide the tide slows to nothing and the snapper go off the bite and are replaced by sharks and barracuda. We try for another hour but all we are doing is keeping the fishing shops in business, with the cota and sharks munching through our gear. We pull the pin and head out deeper as the wind has dropped completely. We arrive at baistows and drop down our puka rigs, after a couple of sharks are reeled in from 225 metres Murray catches a nice little 8kg Hapuka, with that we head home.
My 6.75kg snapper wins the snapper section (that's 4 in a row for Gazebo, we are on a roll). The contest season has finished. and we wait now for the new season in October, still the snapper hang around till July and the tarakihi and Hapuka fishing will get better with the colder water.

TSFC Ladies Day 27.03.10

Deb with her winning 5.90kg Snapper

The girls haul

The bin is full

Trish waiting for the big one

Deb in the I'm ready position

The Ladies competition was postponed twice due to bad weather. So finally we have a green light, we are down one of the team due to work commitments (Lianne) so we get up at 5.30am so we can make the 15 minute trip to the ramp, we arrive at 6.40am, Girls just don't get up and go (have coffee in bed, hair, lippy, go to toilet, get dressed, make lunch [I made mine the night before] go to toilet, put out washing, go to toilet). We head off to the spot where I caught last weeks winning snapper, the sea is a little lumpy from yesterdays sea breeze and the moans from the girls have already started - like "can't we fish a couple of metres from the shore where it is calm" (we are heading out 16km's)
I anchor up and set the berley sack to ever increasing moaning, after a 15 minute soak we have our first hit and it's Deb first up, It's a beaut I have to hold on to the back of her gimble belt and the rod while she reels it in and it is a 5.95kg snapper, as we bin the snapper the second rod is hit and Trish lands a pan size snapper, soon it is all on, over the next couple of hours we bin 9 snapper and release a couple, Trish lands a nice 3.76kg snapper, strange how the moaning has been replaced by shreiks of delight. By lunch the current and wind is opposite to each other and is no good for straylining, we pull the pick and head over to South rocks to catch some Tarakihi and to let the girls fish in deep water (45metres), They bin 12 Tarakihi's. The wind has disappeared and the sea is smooth as, I suggest shall we head back Trish said " God yes I'm buggered" we have a nice ride back and the girls are all smiles, Deb manages to win the snapper section and Trish was just beaten for 3rd place.

Hunting & Fishing 2 day contest

Perfect day - looking for skippies
Gisborne's east coast 16km away

25.30kg Kingfish

Day one's catch

Day one;

Murray and I leave the Tata ramp at 6.30am there is a small half metre swell and little wind, we head out to our spot BS1A to look for Hapuka, it is 32 km's to the spot and there is already a light sea breeze, we set up our first drift in 225 metres of water and Murray catches a 3 - 4 kg Bluenose, it takes another 3 hours for us to realise there isn't much down there as we catch nothing else, the only other boat out here is Men at Work (the boat I was on in the Tuna Hunt). We move off to the South Rocks towing lures, we get to the South Rocks and nothing has changed, still one fish in the bin, we check out a few of our spots and there isn't much sign, we find one rock that looks ok and we drop the anchor, one Tarakihi and a lot of rubbish fish returned. We pull anchor and head to Ariel reef and drop the anchor in the middle of the shallows and put out a sack of berlie, it takes half an hour to catch our first snapper, we bin 6 nice size snapper, 2 good Trevally and like all good fishing stories loose a couple of good fish, with fishing time nearly up, I see a large fish lunge at my bait as I was reeling the bait in to change it. What we thought first up was a large Marco Shark turns into a large Kingfish, it strikes and takes off, taking half of my line in its first run, its next two runs takes me down to the last 10 metres of line, I screw the tension down and start trying to turn the fish, slowly metre by metre I get the fish to turn and head to the boat. It takes another couple of smaller runs before it tires and we get it to the boat and Murray sinks the gaff into it, What a beaut. We check the time and we have 30 minutes to get the fish to the weigh station, with the boat running at 34 kph in a choppy sea it will take us 27 minutes to cover the 16 km's. After what seems like a power boat race we make it with 4 minutes to spare and weigh the Kingfish in at 25.63kg.

Day two;

We change plans and make the day a stay lining day for snapper, I have the feeling there is a big one in the area we were in yesterday. The biggest snapper weighed in so far was only just over 3kg's and one of ours is in third place at 1.99kg. We arrive at the Ariel Reef to find the sea is flat calm (at last a great day), we put a sack of berlie in the water, after half an hour of soaking Murray catches our first snapper around the 2kg mark, he soon has 4 more in the bin before I catch my first one, my second one is a good strike and I get a good fish to the boat where Murray gaff's it and we have a 7 plus kg snapper in the bin, over the next 3 hours the fishing slows and we have 10 snapper on board and the sea is still perfect. We pull the anchor and start to head to the Penguin reef about 6km away, the area seems alive with Skipjack tuna so out go the lures. With the sea so flat it is really hard to catch any, I manage to boat one and lose 2, we cruise round for a while but nothing will get the skippies to take our lures, we head home and weigh our snapper in at 7.60kg's.

At prize giving we take out first in the Snapper and Kingfish classes.

A lesson I still haven't learnt - weigh all your fish, with hardly any tuna caught the skippy would have taken 2nd place and would have gone close to taking first in the tuna class.

Finally the Snapper have arrived back at their usual haunts, where they have been no one knows.

Gisborne Surf Fishing Competition

We had the ladies boat competition set for yesterday, with the weather forecast and a large SW swell and winds the ladies comp is postponed till the 27th, and we have the Discount fishing Gisborne surf fishing comp set for today.
The surf casting comp is still on, we get down to the beach to the spot I've been checking out at 6.30am and the swell is a solid metre, to big for us to wade out and cast over the last wave so we head up to the western end of the beach where the swell is smaller to our reserve spot, we are fishing high tide going out, Murray and I cast out at 8.ooam (start time) and wait, we get a few small bites resulting in our baits being taken a good sign. Around 10.00am I'm casting one of my two rods and my other one has a large bite, I have to rush in from the sea to grab the rod and play in a 1.63kg Kahawai - good least one fish to weigh in. About an hour later Murray pulls in a 32cm snapper the target spieces, even better. Half hour later I pull in a 3.6kg Dogfish (shark), for the rest of the contest I catch a few small trevally and Kahawai's which are under sized and are released, The day is fine and calm and I'm a bit sun burnt, we go to the prize giving an find out there is over 140 rods fishing and only 6 fish weighted in, Murray manages 2nd place with his snapper, my Kahawai ends up in 2nd place and the shark is in 1st place, not a bad days work at the office for team Gazebo.

Surfcasting 27.02.10

Young Nicks Head to the west
Port of Gisborne to the east

least the water is warm

You have to get wet to catch snapper

After the other night I thought I would try the same spot again but in the middle of the day to see if the snapper were still there in full sun light. I arrived at 10.30am, first cast resulted in a 32cm snapper "great", over the next hour I caught 2 small trevellies 3 small Kahawai and a herring (all released), it shows the area is holding a good number of bait fish, hopefully it yield snapper on the contest next weekend