27.03.11 Cossie club surfcasting comp

Saturday lunch time found me (by chance) in the Discount fishing shop and one of the Gisborne Cosmopolitan fishing adjunct committee members came in, being a member of the club I asked him when the club was having it's surf casting competition. The answer was "tomorrow at 7am", Bugger. The rest of the afternoon was spent sorting out my surf gear , making traces and getting organised as I haven't competition fished for over a year. 5am I'm up waiting for light and the rain is steady but there is no wind, I leave home at 7, thinking this is a waste of time (probably be a big swell) and I find the sea flat and calm. By 8am I have 2 rods set up and baits in the water, I soon have a Kahawai for weighing (not big but alright). About 20 minutes latter I have a kilo snapper for weighing as well, while it was being collected I land a Trevally (small but legal). At 11 the marshal tells me I am leading all 3 divisions, 10 minutes later while picking up a smaller snapper I had just caught he tells me my Kahawai is now in third place, 10 minutes later while up at my 4x4 that is parked at high tide my rod goes off with a big bite, as I race down to my rod my foot sinks into soft sand and I feel myself falling, I manage to drop my shoulder and execute a perfect commando roll and I'm back on my feet running to my rod. I manage to pull in a nice Kahawai and back to 1st. I managed to take out all 3 divisions heaviest Snapper $500, Kahawai $500, Other Species $200 and 3rd heaviest snapper $100. Not a bad result for the day I wish all contests can end like that for me.

19.03.11 Hunting and Fishing comp

Sunrise 20.03.11 The day only got better Murray's Snapper 12.36kg - 90cm long Too big for the bin (75 ltr)(almost with a bend )

With the way the weekends have been lately (in fact nearly all summer) I decided to take the day off work on Friday as the weather and sea conditions looked great. Managed to find a crew in Gnome and the two of us went out for a Skippy hunt, we didn't need to go far, 1km from the harbour entrance we saw a large flock of birds feeding and sitting on the water (a sure sign of Skippie's under them). Out went the lures and an hour later we had 20 Skippie's in the chilly bin and in the fish storage tank under the floor and back home before 11am to spend the rest of the day filleting the sides and berleying the bodies. 19.03.11 Day one of the Hunting and Fishing contest. Friday was a brilliant day fine, calm and hot. That night while being thrashed at darts by our neighbours it started to rain, but the morning the sky was cloudy and calm and the weather only got better. We headed to our snapper spot up the coast to FR1A, a good 30Km run. We set the berley bag and sent out the strayline's and waited, I managed one 1.5kg snapper and the wait continued, there was a large splash and our berley bag and 10 litres of berley disappeared into the jaws of a large Mako shark 100kg's or more. Out went another berley bag and the wait continued again punctuated by a 8kg Kingfish to Murray and another small snapper each. By lunch time we decided to move to the shore and try close in and that plan didn't work that well either so we then went to under the cliffs but the back wash was ugly and we saw a lot of birds working not far away, so we hightailed to them and managed to put another 12 Skippie's in the bin for bait. We then went back the our original area and tried another spot with the same results except this time we managed to save the berley from the large Mako that turned up again. 20.03.11 Day two. We headed out to the Aerial Reef to the shallows, the morning was perfect no wind , no swell, warm and sunny. The berley started to work and we managed a couple of snapper at 1.9Kgs and a kingfish 13.3Kg. By lunch time the moaning from Murray about straylining being boring was starting to get to me so we headed out to South rocks to try our luck there, all we managed was another 6 Skippie's for the bait bin. So back to Aerial and to my AR8A spot. In went the berley again and a couple more small snapper later Murray's reel screamed he grabbed it and managed to play in a large snapper that weighted in at 12.360kg, a beautiful fish that took out the competition. So much for being bored, Murray caught a fish of a life time - the world record for snapper is just over 17kg. Footnote - Monday and the rain has set in, so for once we have had a perfect weekend.

12.03.11 Bronwynkay ladies contest

Deb, Trish and Leann AKA Priscilla Queens of the Desert

After last weeks postponement we were ready, Friday night 8.30 the boat was loaded and the girls were ready, lunch made and then the terrible news from Japan a 8.9 earthquake and a tsunami alert for New Zealand..oh we'll see what happens in the morning.

5.30am the girls are here and we are watching the TV and seeing all those clips from Japan, next minute all our phones get a text message "Delay to start, 8.00am", so on goes the kettle and we settle in to watch the news updates. at 6.00am the Tsunami alert is canceled for New Zealand so we head down to the ramp at 7am and launch Gazebo and head out to Aerial Reef. The sea conditions are not so good, a light southerly is blowing and the sea is sloppy. we arrive at Aerial at 8.00am and drop the pick on the same spot we were on last year. We soon had berley in the water and baits on the stray lines. Trish caught a snapper at 1.35kg followed by Leann with a couple of smaller ones. Deb not to be out done pulled in a Kingfish at 6.3kg. The sea and wind kept on getting worse and we started to drag the anchor, we caught a couple of other fish that weren't in the comp and by noon the sea was getting ugly so it was time to pull the pick and head home. We hadn't realised that all morning we were getting Tsunami surges that were going against the tide, the biggest was about a metre drop in the harbour basin followed by a metre surge (no damage done). we arrived back safely on land at 2.30. The girls did really well no one was sick although they had moments when they weren't that good. Deb managed to come third in the Kingfish division and the girls won the fancy dress at the prize giving.

06.03.11 girls contest canceled

The ladies contest was canceled on Thursday due to a bad weather forecast, but as usual the day wasn't so bad. Poverty Bay was flat and as calm as a mill pond, but the further you went out the sloppier it got. Murray and went out to catch Skippies for the bait freezer, we left at 9am and 50 metres from the harbour entrance Marry saw a Small school of skippies and then another 6 or seven splashing on the surface so out went the lures and for the next half hour we went up and down the back of the reef at Kaiti beach for nothing we just couldn't get them to take anything. So we headed out to fluke rock 16km's out, the sea got quiet sloppy and there was no sign of any skippies any where, so back in we went to Kaiti beach and out went the lures again, we struggled to land 2 nice sized skippies over the next hour or so, the main school of skippies were in 7 metres of water, 150 metres off shore. Maybe the shallow water spooked the fish too much but they weren't interested in our lures at all. Hopefully next time as we need to fill the freezer up for the years fishing to come.