Koheru & the cook fishing 2014-15

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    Posted: 30 Jul 2015 at 10:19pm
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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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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote cirrus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jul 2015 at 10:34pm
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Awesome and very interesting. Great illustrations.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Skoti Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jul 2015 at 10:51pm
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Great summary of your fishing adventures , love those pics of Raro Thumbs Up
Thanked Smile
COVID is no joke !
One former patient was so brain damaged after , he thought he won an election he lost by 7 million votes .
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jul 2015 at 11:42pm
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It may have been a while since your last report but you made up for it with that one! Great stuff Cook!
Best gurnard fisherman in my street
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Uncle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2015 at 7:35am
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Excellent report cook.
thanked..
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Snappa Geoff Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2015 at 9:28am
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Excellent wrap up of your fishing adventures Cook!! Some Beauty big Snaps!..........Liked.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote DenimViper Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2015 at 9:33am
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Mean. Cant complain with that fishery up there! Thanked
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Eastender Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2015 at 11:00am
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Living the dream! Thanks for taking the time to write up your exploits
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Catchelot Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2015 at 11:23am
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Great report Noel, about time we heard from youClap
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote pjc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2015 at 1:49pm
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Interesting report.don't leave it so long till next report
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BeachedAsBro Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2015 at 7:47pm
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Choice report! Cheers
Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish caught will we realise we can't eat money.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote churbay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2015 at 8:36pm
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Some great fishing there. Lovely part of NZ is Whangaroa.Smile
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote skunk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2015 at 9:32pm
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Wow , great reading about your fishing adventures The Cook!
Plenty of solid fishes of different species..turned into lots of mean chewing I bet
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Very beautiful photographs , thank u much . Thumbs Up :)
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Aboys Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Aug 2015 at 6:51am
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Good to see your living the life.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote roughy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Aug 2015 at 9:17am
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Always a great read. 

Cheers ! 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote carlostairua Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Aug 2015 at 9:40am
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Some mean snappers and kings there mate!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote gaff1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Aug 2015 at 9:59am
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Good read Noel
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote The cook Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Aug 2015 at 7:04pm
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Thanks folks glad you liked.
Uncle ,I will have to get a few more of your bait flies, got one left. Managed a 11kg kingi on one earlier this year. Fishing for bait with my siftbait rod, took 20min to land, great fun.
Cheers, the cook
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