Its been an age since I reported
so this has turned into a bit of a novel.
I spent the last two winter
working in Raro where I managed very little fishing due to work & limited
funds (& of course no boat).
I did enjoy cooking & eating
the fish over there, mahi-mahi is still one of the best & easiest to cook
fish there is.
Yellow fin tuna is great, but for
me lacks interest as I find it has a bland taste, amazing texture though.
The king for me & my all-time
favourite fish is wahoo.
When really fresh & well
looked after it is stunning
Sashimi to die for, glassy
texture, easy to cut, firm but easily chewed & with this fresh ocean
flavour like none other I’ve tasted.
Fried &/or oven roasted, is
excellent cooked anywhere from m/r to just about cooked through (best m/r
though), amazing flavour, melting texture
Seared is my favourite, tataki
style with black & white sesame seeds & togarashi, served with wasabi
mayo
One of the local guys did it
smoked, very light smoke, oh my god! Served it at the restaurant for a while
with green pea & goats cheese tortellini & a coconut foam, yum.
Anyway enough about cooking, a few
photos of Raro
Trader Jacks
View from Tamarind house
where I worked
Tamarind house
View from the deck of
our house – Avana Passage
Local boats
the mooring cafe, best
fish sandwiches on the island
Vaka’s just before the
Nationals
Giant clam
Blue trevally
Blue trevally
On returning from Raro in late
October I worked in Paihia for a bit, arrived in time for snapper school season
in the BOI!
November was a stunner, best at
dusk, from the E side of the Black rocks, over to Tapeka & through to
Roberton.
On two occasions no fish less
than 60cm (10lb) & 5 over 80cm for the month.
In December 2013 I started cooking at Kingfish Lodge, stunning spot.
As you might expect I managed to get out fishing a fair bit, but mostly short missions either early morning or change of light in the evening.
Lots of Kingi’s around the
entrance, particularly in the morning, but nothing big 18kg was our best. We
did regularly have mornings where we landed up to 10 fish, we let most go.
Snapper fishing was only ever
steady but we still got plenty of good fish & never came back empty handed.
Best snapper went 11.75kg, got stuck in the kelp for ages &
came up fairly stuffed, unlucky fish.
Also managed a 9.5kg fish.
End of April had a quiet patch & tried BOI a couple of times for
very little, a nice fish on soft bait for Craig, 77cm (8+kg)
Mid May hired a batch at Henderson Bay with a bunch of
mates. Had a wicked day softbaiting, my crew caught next to nothing on bait. Another
boat speared 2 monster kingis 34kg & 28kg.
I got 5 or 6 fish over 65cm & a few solid pannies.
The next day two good trevs (55+cm) by the mussel
farms in half an hour.
Winter 2014 was back to Raro,
returned to NZ in early October & had a month before stating back at
Kingfish lodge.
Fished Whangaroa & BOI for
limited success, getting skunked in the Bay on my 1st trip. Finally
found them in mid-November, similar area to the previous year.
Had a couple of excellent
evenings on the snapper
Smoked snapper for Christmas,
never really rated smoked snapper until we did a 70cm+ fish. 8-10hr smoke,
stunning & makes a great centrepiece for a buffet.
Once back at the lodge I almost
exclusively fished out of Whangaroa
Fishing was very similar to the
previous year, lots of 10kg Kingis around the entrance & snapper to be
found but mostly change of light, never got on to a hot bite.
Did manage a couple of kingi
smokes, we are steadily getting better. Vac-packing them is the way forward,
last forever & even freezes well.
My sous chef did manage to
increase his personal bests from a panny, to a 3.5kg fish, in the entrance one
windy day. He followed that up with a 12kg snap from inside Stevies on an evening
a couple of months later. Monster fish couldn’t shut the bugger up for quite a
while.
Towards the end of summer fished the Cavalis a couple of times for a
few smallish kingis & reasonable number of snapper. Also pulled out a
whopper which measured roughly 85cm+, before being quickly released.
Easter was a camping trip to Urapukapuka & more drinking than
fishing with 7 boats & 30+ people. Softbait only & hard work, several
pannies & lots of kahawai.
Coming home, 2 minutes from Opito bay & the motor dies, it was
terminal.
Two months off the water while organising funding & ordering a
new motor, the joys of boating.
Six trips out now for the new motor & got its 20hr service a few
days ago.
Mostly out from Whangaroa & a touch on the slow side, only one
kingi despite two trips out wide to pins in 100m+.
The highlight being a 82cm snapper caught in 40m on a softbait,
hooked by the mighty rodholder while checking my live bait, rod had quite a
bend in it!
Tried the Cavalis twice for very little, had heard good reports two
or three weeks earlier but didn’t have a chance to get there in time.
One trip in the BOI, a quick afternoon Softbait with my brother
inlaw.
1st stop was Brampton reef, all on from the beginning. We
landed 4 snapper over 60cm & another 10 from legal to 55cm kept 8.
Best fishing was in 3-4m, for the first couple of fish kept thinking
they were kahawai as the just took off. Great fun & a real eye opener, fish
ya feet reinforced.
Getting better at keeping a fishing diary, still miss the odd trip,
which can get frustrating. 6 years now, the last 4 reasonably well & the
last year almost completely. Becoming a very usefull tool, it gives me a great
broad indicator of where the fish are likely to be at each stage of the year
& some distinct trends have also emerged.
The good boat Koheru continues to go strong, like any boat there’s
constant maintenance but with the exception of a new motor, nothing serious.
We did adjust the drivers seating position & make a couple of
other small tweaks to improve its fish ability.
Chartplotter started playing up but with the assistance of ????? on
these forums that’s back up & running.
Continue to struggle getting a really good sounder signal, having
moved the transducer all over our transom. I think our main problem is that our
transom is just too narrow to get really clean water.
Would love to increase to a 40hp & 4 strokes hold a real appeal,
but alas finance’s preclude that.
Still I can’t complain as it proves to be an exceptional inshore
fishing machine, particularly for its size & cost to run.
& to finish off…
Nipped out today for a few hours & threw a Softbait around,
beautiful day with hardly a breath of air
Steady, but small fish 25-35cm, with one exception, this bad boy.
66cm what a great fight in only 5m water.
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