More fishing

Walter has been with us this holiday. He arrived in Auckland a week ago and has been getting used to New Zealand. One day last week we went out fishing with Merv on his big boat. The forecast was not too bright - a 20 knot South easter. That is supposed to be the worst direction for fishing and I was tempted to postpone the trip. It was our last chance of the holiday so we went for it. Sadly Chantelle had to work that day and we left her in town. Paddy was not interested and went off with Rissy and Reuben. The forecast was very wrong. It was calm as a mill pond for most of the day. We had a great day fishing, birdwatching and generally chatting as we went up the harbour asthe tide went out and then came back down the harbour as it came back in again. Merv favours longlining and uses what seems like ridiculously long traces with 2 hooks baited with a small mount of mullet. A weight is put on after about 15 metres of line has gone out with the trace. The system worked and we caught a mixed bag of mostly kahawai with some snapper. Nothing very huge but a serious amount of fish to keep us and some friends fed for quite a few meals. I also like spinning off the boat. There were little schools of kahawai drifting past the boat at regular intervals slurping small fish and flies off the surface. As each school passed we cast the lure over the top of them and then pulled it through the school. It was not easy but that made the occasional successful hook-up and even rarer landing a real thrill.