25.08.12 Hard work and Hagfish

The weather has been very spring like over the last week, Saturday forecast was looking good so Murray and I headed out to South rocks to look for snapper and Terakihi, we went to the "Wall" where we caught the Terakihi last week to find 10 metres of fish, deep red on the fish finder, meaning big fish tightly packed, so we dropped our baits and I caught a nice Terakihi within seconds and that was that, no matter what we put down we couldn't get a bite let alone a fish. The general opinion latter was they may have been Blue Moki spawning. We headed back to the "Rope" for some snapper fishing that was slow but Murray managed a few small snapper and on my side of the boat I managed 3 Terakihi. We moved to a new rock we found that showed good sign but the increasing northeast wind made setting the anchor hard, with us continually dragging the anchor. Over the next 2 hours of setting and dragging the anchor Murray managed another 7 snapper and me 1, to finish the day off I managed a double hook up of blind eels (Hagfish), the worse thing ever, they are purple coloured and are covered in gallons of slimy clear snot. Time to leave, a hard days fishing.
This link will take you to a video of blind eels (Hagfish) after the shark the next fish shown is a Hapuka.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8aVgSIDJjM&feature=player_embedded#!

18.08.12 More of the same

After a great day yesterday I needed more, so I sent Murray a text that night that I would pick him at 7am.
So at 7am Murray was outside waiting. We headed to Tatapouri ramp to launch and to head out deep to Baistows to fish in 200 metres of water. The wind was less than yesterday and we were able to slow drift over the features but sadly the fish were not co-operating, we managed 1 Bluenose for 4 hours work. We headed towards South rocks, to an area I call the wall where the sea rises up from 100 metres to 60 metres, we found again good sign and dropped the anchor and managed 14 nice sized Terakihi before we drifted off (again the anchor not holding in the mud).

Back on land , just perfection.

The wind had gone and again the sea turned to glass, so we decided to check out a few of the rocks around. After drifting over a few different areas and not finding much we came to a area I call "the rope" (I got my anchor stuck there a few years back) and Murray got a double strike of small but legal snapper. We set the anchor and were into snapper and soon the size started to get bigger, the smaller ones were released with us keeping a dozen nice sized snapper up to 3kg's.
The day just got better and better, we didn't leave till 4.30pm for the 45 minute ride back to to ramp, spring is differently here.

17.08.12 Day off work

Perfect Day

I finally took a day off from work and got the weather and sea conditions to work in my favour. the forecast had a 15 knot Northwest fading out to nothing by lunch and the same for Saturday, I meet Linda a friend who I had promised a trip out for sometime at the harbour at 7am. We launched Gazebo and headed out the conditions out to sea was choppy with the 15 knot offshore wind, we headed to Westpac 28km's to the southeast, we found good sign in 73 metres of water and dropped the anchor. The bottom being mainly mud hooking up was a problem, so we ended doing a slow drift.

Visitors that came to play - hundreds of Dolphins

Over the next hour or so we reset 3 times and we managed to catch 12 or so good sized Terakihi and a small snapper, I then decided to try Bank rock were we might be able to stay hooked up. We travelled the 10 km's to bank rock and by the time we got there the wind was dropping. We found good sign again and dropped the anchor and we were straight into Terakihi smaller than Westpacs but ok, we put another 14 into the bin plus a small pup Hapuka that Linda caught. By 1.30 the wind had completely died off and the sea had turned to glass with a metre rolling swell. With the bin full and our stomachs full as well on the yummy food Linda had bought it was time to go. Spring is not far away, already there is a bit of heat in the sun.

11.08.12 A break in the rain.

Blue Moki 5kg

From Wednesday it has been fine and calm except it still has managed to rain at night and Saturday is meant to be good, so with Gazebo loaded and Murray picked up at 7am, we head out to Westpac via the Harbour. The sea is good with a light land wind, we arrive at the main Westpac spot and do a drop without anchoring to see whats there. I get a double strike of snakes (barracouta) and Murray one, 3 snakes and down 2 sinkers and 2 hooks- it's going to be an expensive day if this keeps up. We move a little deeper (90 metres) and drift over a ledge, I hook up to and land a 5 kilo Blue Moki, which is a surprise because I thought they were shallow reef dwellers. Murray hooks a nice sized Terakihi from a school of fish that extends 8 metres from the bottom, we set our anchor and we then reset our anchor as the current and light wind push us off the fish. Our third attempt and we are in the fish, we put 22 Terakihi in the bin before we drift off the mark. It was not all plain sailing as the snakes found us again and being the tax collectors they are we lost a number of sinkers and hooks. At lunch time we decided to do a bit of exploring and headed out to the first drop off.

The Seal that came to play

On the way I noticed something out to sea and taking a second look saw a water spout from a whale, we turned and headed towards them for a look, Murray said to me "get your camera out" and the old "nec minute" a Humpback whale breached 150 metres off our bow, seen it on TV but never in real life, I now had the camera ready and waited, only to see the whales in the distance heading away. We headed to a spot not far away in 165 metres for a drift fish, as soon as the gear got to the bottom we were joined by a seal, with nothing happening we wound up and headed home to be joined by a pod of dolphins, what a day, makes up for all of the shitty ones we have been having.

03.08.12 Rain, rain and more rain

I know its winter but the rain continues, easterly after easterly, the ground is sodden, we or should I say me thought Sunday would be good for a fish, Saturday afternoon there was no wind and the sea was glassy, so Sunday morning with the valley I live in was shrouded in fog, it looked good. We launched Gazebo in the harbour and headed out to sea, the bay was good - nice and calm, swung passed the island out to sea and the conditions changed dramatically, big confused swell and a rising easterly wind, after a couple of km's of hard slog we saw a couple of Orca's, we stopped for a look and deciding the sea was getting worse and it was not worth it we turned around and headed home.

It was nice to see that the local paper reported we are having the wettest year for the last 25 years, it can stop any time it wants now, the locals have had enough, we need a good dose of vitamin D (via the sun).