27.01.2012 Day one; 4am start. Murray, Evan and myself are at the ramp and 2nd in line for the tractor, the wind is howling from the Northwest (offshore) and a southerly front is expected late afternoon. we are released and sent off at 5.30 and head out to southrocks in a choppy sea with 15 - 20 knot Northwest wind. We go the the area where we had success two weeks ago, we caught a few fish but nothing to write home about. By mid afternoon and a couple of moves later, the wind died away. Looking towards the south you could see the front building and getting closer, so we decided to call it quits and head home. We were driving up my drive when the rain and the wind hit, glad we came in when we did. I managed to weigh in a Kahawai at 2.620kg and we registered 6 fish in the most species category.
28.01.2012 Day Two: With the front passing in the night and the sea not having time to settle we decided to have a late start at 6.00am. We arrived at the ramp to find 6 or 7 boats already out in a lumpy sea with a light 8-10knot southwesterly blowing, we headed out to Aerial rocks for stray line in a favorite spot of ours. We arrived and the sea was crap, but we anchored and gave it our all. By 10am we had 2 small snapper in the bin and the sharks had returned, but the wind had dropped and the sea was calming down. We headed out to south rocks and the sea was getting better so we kept on going to Baistows, our Hapuku (grouper) grounds. Over the next 3 hours we managed 4 Hapuku, 3 Blue nose and 3 Gemfish. The sea now was perfect so we did a 17 km run to Thunder rock and managed only a trumpeter, and time to head home. Nothing we weighed in was heavy enough but the Kawahai I weighted in Friday was in first place and we managed to up our species tally to 11.
29.01.2012 Day 3; Back again to to ramp at 4am and first in line. we were released again at 5.30 and headed east in a northwest wind at 8 knots. We anchored at 12 fathom rocks about 30km away and set up a berlie trail. We managed a couple of snapper again and half Kahawai's and Kingfish, thanks to a couple of small Marco's that kept hanging around. By 10am the sea had glassed off , no wind so we headed out to Tinman to fish an area we hadn't been to for awhile. we managed 3 Red snapper and a Kingfish, but time was running out and it was a early finish so we started to head home towing some plastic lures, hoping for a Albacore tuna or Skippy tuna to add to our tally. We came across a small work up and managed to get 6 nice Albie's but no Skippie's and then we ran out of time. We had a pleasant run home in a flat glassy sea. We managed to get our tally up to 17 different species, only to find when we got home we had one more that I (yes me) had forgotten to weigh in that would have given us joint 1st place and a half share of $1000.00 for most species. My Kahawai managed to stay on the board and got 3rd place for a $100. Later at prize giving my name was pulled out of the barrel with 39 others for a chance at winning a Holden Barina car, Last man standing gets the car, I manged to last to the last 7 and then my day was done, managed to get a bottle of Rum as a consolation.
Our Species list: Snapper, Trevally, Red Cod, Kahawai, Tarakihi, Barracouta, / Hapuku, Bluenose, Gemfish, Trumpeter, Banded Wrasse / Blue Cod, Red Snapper, Conger Eel, KingFish, Albacore tuna, Sea Perch. and a blue sweep that I forgot.
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