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