Catching a ray

The following 5 or 6 posts all relate to our holiday on Moturoa Island.
This was our third stay and we had a good time again this year.
Took 140 odd pics and videos and whilst they all have some merit there is not room to show them all. So there is a selection of diverse photos below. This post shows the fighting of a large stingray on one of our nights of fishing. These stingrays are good fighters and in the past we have been bust off by them after they have done a run. This one was played for 10-15 minutes and landed on the beach before being cut free. They do not make good eating imho.

 

 

 

 

Fishing at dusk

We did not clock how many hours fishing effort went in this year but there were 7 of us and we all had at least one go. The catch was small considering the effort. Most of the fish caught on lines were snapper and most of those were between 20 and 27 cm long putting them below the legal limit for keeping. We did catch enough on the first full day to have a fish supper. Chantelle caught the biggest and only kahawai that was about 2-3kg. I caught the biggest snapper which was 34cm.
We had some good (ka)yak sessions and all the boys went out for a paddle. The conditions were pretty rough on 2 of the 5 days as the remanants of 2 cyclones passed through. So we did not get to paddle all way around the island. We did get to go right across the Kent passage to land on the other side (Patrick), to visit a gannet work-up where the fishing was disappointing, but Stuart demonstrated that a rod is not needed. He caught a keeper snapper on a piece of wood and a line. Eric and I saw a beautiful dawn and fished a tern work-up where the fish were splashing all about us but nothing would take our baits. Chantelle and I did a few paddles into the passage. We found that Kent's Passage was the most consistent place to hook fish, but there just did not seem to be any large fish.

 

 

 

 

In the bush

Did a couple of bush walks and had a good look at the trees and plants. I was lucky to get good views of a morepork that landed in a nearby tree. There was also a NI Robin in its usual place. I took loads of photos of trees and their barks as I am trying to build up my id skills. Eucalyptus is an ozzy import that is of dubious ecological value over here, but its bark is very pretty.

 

 

 

 

Plasma TV widescreen views

One thing I like about going to Moyuroa is that the tv reception is crappy at the best of times. this year it was even worse because someone had run over the aerial cable with a hoover severing it into 2. It did seem possible to get some TV3 reception, but we kept missing the news and did not watch any TV. The radio reception was not brill either and the news was depressing when I did remember to tune in. The sofas mostly all faced the view out of the main sitting room window. Stuart referred to it as the plasma screen. We noticed that the programming was a bit dark after 9pm, but we went to bed pretty early and did not feel too cheated. With the constantly changing weather and tides going in and out, not to mention the comings and goings of rails, dotterels, terns, gannets etc, it was like watching Animal Planet live.
We all read lots of books and it was amazing to see all 3 boys immersed in books for hours on end.

 

 

 

 

More fishing

 

 

 

 

Catching the bait

Within an hour of arriving on the island, CJ returned on his boat and very kindly showed us how to use a bait catching net to .... catch our own bait. The pictures should be self-explanatory.
The main catch tended to be sprats aka yellow eyed mullet. these are considered poor bait so we did throw most of them back. I caught the biggest snapper using the top half of one, but it was not that big. The target was a fish with a long bill called piper. In one sweep of the net we caught 37 piper - well worth the effort.

 

 

 

 

Moturoa Holiday