From a land lost in time, Update on page3 next one

Page  123 4>
 Rating: Topic Rating: 4 Votes, Average 4.00  Topic Search Topic Search  Topic Options Topic Options
Post Options Post Options   Likes (43) Likes(43)   Quote Moggy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: From a land lost in time, Update on page3 next one
    Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:31pm
Moggy View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Location: some times NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 4718
This will be done in sections as it seems there is a page length problem putting it all in one down

PART1:

This has taken some time to write up, what with catch up work and all, anyway it will be a bit long given the photos but here goes.

I suggest you find a nice beer (perhaps case) or good wine (bring the entire box) and sit down to read this – I think the book version could come out shortly but here is the abridged!

A few weeks ago I was minding my own business when a mate of mine who is also a member on here Brinyhopeful emailed me with a “are you going” note. Now frankly I had no idea what he was talking about but being the good sole he is he just kept baiting me with these idea’s that I should be going somewhere to do some fishing I assumed. Finally under dire threat of instant death he let me in on where I should be going. Nice of him.

Well it turns out that a group of guys had decided to do a fishing trip out of Doubtful Sounds and decided that I could come along as long as I was nice…(tui ad?)

I had to think about this long and hard and 2.5 milliseconds latter had my answer - hell yes…

Now I must confess I spent some time down there around 40 years ago when I was assigned to a fishery protection boat which we had just commissioned and really enjoyed the place and always wanted to go back but never really have had the chance, it was always easier to go see the world than see parts of your own country – and usually cheaper to.

Three of our group were coming in from Australia and 5 of us were from all over NZ so it was going to be an interesting mix, not the least as we had in the group a senior litigator, a major fishing companies senior skipper and avid Rec fisherman (yep believe it or not this guy cares more about Rec fishing than I would have expected), a couple of guys in dredging and several people who do “things” in Gvmt in Wellington apart from my good self (if anyone actually knows what I do please let me know, I still wonder about that to! J)

Anyway the cunning plan had been hatched.

We were all to fly into Queenstown and as luck would have it we all arrived from various parts of NZ & Australia within 1 ½ hours of each other. Then it was minivan down to Manapouri to stay at the great little motel overlooking the lake that night and take the first ferry across Manapouri to the power station side for the bus trip down to Deep Cove to meet the boat. Take the boat out and fish depending on weather and fish locations have a bit of a tiki tour around and come back the same way and fly out of Queenstown the day after getting back there, nice and simple..

The trip had been booked on Jewel charters boat the Jewel.

Now the first thing that happened was the huge weather warning we had a few weeks back, all hell and brimstone stuff according to the highly emotional Met Service. Still it did mean that it was prudent to pack for a wet trip and a bloody cold one. So having brought new thermal underwear (really good idea as it turned out) and loaded all my heavy wet weather gear and gumboots into a big bag it was time to head off.

The flight to Queenstown was one of the best weatherwise that one could hope for and as always the view coming into that airport must rank amongst the most scenic in the world, it didn’t fail us this time either.

A hour and half later we had collect everyone and set off, well not quite, the obligatory stop at New World was need to load up the wine & some beer, 6 dozen bottles of good red wine later and several (read lots) of beer and we were to say the least weighed down and off.

Boy those Aussies can buy some wine its far cheaper here than in Aussie to! Our minibus driver was a lovely guy of non- descript age (read had his first driving job probably with horse and buggy) called Dennis and Dennis was a fountain of information on the 2 hour drive to Manapouri, some of which I am sure was true!

We duly arrived at the Manapouri motor lodge  on dusk and one of our kind punters gave Dennis a large tip ($)for his services, as it was to turn out perhaps he shouldn’t have , it seems money goes a long ways down there, but more on that later. The lodge was brilliant by the time we got there all the electric blankets were on and after settling in we adjourned to the restaurant and had a dam fine meal, as good as anything in Auckland – really impressed me, nicest steak for a while. Next morning the cook had breakfast on – they do a special as part of any fishing trip leaving there so we were sent off with a full belly of bacon/eggs/hash browns and of course the NZ staple – beans! Dam those beans later on…

Well the morning brought with it the predicted rubbish weather, was hard to even see across the lake. Still after braving the rains and getting all our stuff aboard the ferry run by Real Journeys (should be called Most Expensive Journeys as the fare across the lake and down to Deep Water Cove is $160!) we were finally off and about now that thermal underwear was earning its keep. One great thing about this place is once you leave Manapouri all cellphone coverage is lost – wonderful no bloody phone for many days.. just what the doctor ordered.

The trip across is not bad and we duly arrived about 1hour later at the Manapouri power station where our bus was waiting to take us across Wilmot pass and down into Deep Cove. By now the conditions were close to freezing and it was with great skill the bus driver negotiated the metalled road up and over. At 671m Wilmot is one of our most interesting passes. We were able to stop at the very top and take some photos before very carefully negotiation the 1 in 5 gravel road that descends in a series of switchback curves down the western slope. Believe me when I say the bus driver went very slowly as we made our way down.


The view we got from the top, real welcoming!


The “Jewel” about to come alongside the vertical cliff face to pick us up. She is a Marko built in West Australia for Cray fishing around 68 foot long with a single 1100hp engine and a very tight turning circle as we found out later. She carries 2500ltrs fuel and 1000ltrs of water with another 50 litres of filtered water separate for the galley. She also has a 50kva genset on board. She can sleep 8 with a further 3 crew up forward. She carries a full blast freezer and a live holding tank for Cray’s along with trolling arms for Albacore tuna. A well designed sea boat, pity the company which made these has since gone out of business.

Rob has also equipped her with the Latest Wasp sonar system which was real interesting to watch and showed just how bad the charts are down there. In fact his charting is more accurate than anything the Navy has done.

Our boat crew was made up of Rob as skipper and owner, Shamrock one of the nicest “locals” you could find of Ngati something decent and had the loudest laugh I have ever heard, and heard it often we did such was his delight in what he was doing and Martin our Michelin Star Chef from Switzerland. Yep you just read that right we had a Michelin star chef on board to feed us – complete with white chef’s uniform – bugger I am going to see I am going to have to lift my game for the next boat trip as cook I do!



She also has a nice big game chair on the starboard quarter so the skipper who’s station as in most Cray boats is just forward of the Cray winch can see all that’s going on.

That’s the blast freezer door which is open, going aft she has a step down which is about 1m  wide which allows a rubber ducky fully rigged to sit nicely ready for launching and right out of the way for all normal operations.

Once we were all aboard and stowed away we were off. Now the Skipper Rob gave us a couple of options due to the weather expected next day of 50knts plus and 4 to 6 meter swells as to what or were we could go. Option one was to stay around Doubtful Sound and if possible head out for a fish. Option two was to take some cement pills for those didn’t have good sea legs and make a dash down to Dusky Sounds with the ability to fish out of there weather allowing.

One of the things which I guess a lot of South Islanders know that we up north don’t is that there is a very different quota for fishing inside the sounds to out a sea, inside is bugger all. Also one of the problems as Rob explained to us was the problem with Doubtful sounds whilst NZ deepest sound is that it has a huge percentage of fresh water in it this means that the likes of paua and kina don’t grow to well nor to big.

SO having taken all into consideration and voted democratically about it (another tui ad) we decided to make the run to Dusky where the fish are bigger the Cray’s are BIGGER and the paua and kina are huge. Also there is way less people down that way.

Coming out of Doubtful Sounds

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
FISH FIGHT The Peoples Protest
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (4) Likes(4)   Quote Moggy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:32pm
Moggy View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Location: some times NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 4718
Part 2

Huge numbers of these slips some thousands and thousands of tons from 1000ft up were seen.


The pic’s don’t do the weather conditions justice, these look mild – they weren’t

Lots of streams coming off from the mountains but water flows overall were down I understand due to the effects of the drought.


Just before we turned into Dusky Sound for the night we had a couple of good drops bring in some Blue cod of what I thought were a good size, I was about to be shown what big cod were later in the trip.

One of the nicest sights was the bottle nose dolphins that joined us inside the sound.





We spent a wonderful 30 minutes odd with this pod of bottlenose dolphins who were clearly having a ball, never seen so many dolphins airborne at once and they were all it seemed to be seeing who could jump the highest and how many barrel rolls they could do at the same time. Pure Magic. Hopefully in that last shot you can see the dolphin which is horizontal to the water over 2 meters in the air.

A Dusky Sound Island

Sunset as the cold started to set in!

Next day we took a pep outside and found that the wind had dropped to just under 50knts and there was only 4 meters of swell running so the Skipper made the call to go out and do some fishing. One thing I think we all learnt fast was weather allowable for Cray boats is a tad different to Rec fishers!

We headed south once we got out of Dusky to a point about half way between Dusky & Chalky Inlet to a little spot the skipper knew well.

Well you know there are some things that don’t change, one of those is the further south you go the bigger the waves as there is sure as hell nothing going to break them up till the hit the coast line from way down south.

And that was certainly true.

We knew we were in for fun when the charts started to come up with big warning to the effect that “Their be dragons down here”  – i.e. don’t trust us cause we have no idea either… bit of a worry when you see that on an official publication!


People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
FISH FIGHT The Peoples Protest
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (4) Likes(4)   Quote Moggy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:32pm
Moggy View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Location: some times NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 4718
Part 3

This is what the relatively “harmless” conditions look like on film – it lies…

The starboard stern of the boat was to be one of the most prolific places to fish from, it ended getting titled “Pak & Save”

Rob handed the wheel to me whilst he went out on deck with Shamrock to get the rigs ready for the drop. Now all I got from him was “point at that rock and take us in”. Ok I don’t profess to be a high skilled skipper but never-the-less this job shouldn’t be hard, yer right!

Within about 5 minutes of Rob leaving the helm we were in amongst a heap of Cray buoys, now I was always taught that you left these suckers alone even in a flat sea as you don’t know how much rope there is running around the surface, so here am I steering this single prop’ed boat into a bloody rock which is rising and falling (or maybe it was us) by around 4 to 6 meters and I am surrounded by bloody Cray floats… I was about to ask for life jackets - my fellow punters were wondering if it was time to get into the rubber ducky let me tell you.

Rob being the showman we learnt over short period of time had decided to pull a fast one on these city folks he had onboard, what he knew and we didn’t is those pots have almost no excess rope so the buoys were almost straight up and down, this wasn’t the last time he was to show us how “country” folk fish and how close they can get to bloody big obstacles and in dam big seas…

There was more to come over the next few days but by then most had run out of clean underwear!

We started serous fishing within 20 meters of that rock behind us and over time moved out – even at that 20 meters we were in almost 80 meters of water and it got deep real quick



This was after 1 hour less that which had been filleted!  Trumpeter and Blue Cod, then Rob moved us out to about 250m offshore and the real fun begin.

Now I guess I should point out that Rob supplied all the fishing gear & tackle, I was going to take my light rod down for some fun but AirNZ wouldn’t allow it onboard and I was darned if they were going to put it in the hold so I went without, which as it turned out was just as well.

All Robs gear is 24kg Game rods with TLD 50 or similar on them, had me stumped, we fishing for cod weren’t we – you know those little buggers we get up north lucky to go over 1kgs on a good day type of thing…

Wrong

Yes we were fishing for cod, but not like I have ever seen before.

I achieve that day my personal best in a blue cod, not just in a series of drops but in one drop I got both fish (they were using 2 J hooked rigs with lots of bait) both records for me.


Each of these cod are just over 720mm long and all we could do is guess a weight as there were no scales onboard. Let me just say it was a pleasure to put those 2 down after holding them up those suckers were heavy. It took around 10 minutes to land them and they bent that 24kg game rod like a good size kingy would do to a jigging rod. I am pleased to have seen it because I would never have believed it had I not.

What huge fish and heavy down there real eye opener. Cod are great eating fish but the only problem with them is that only about 25% of them are eatable if filleting, such as waste.

After our fun with the cod Rob kept moving us offshore by now we had got used to wedging in to the boat to stop you being thrown from one side to the other! It was a big deck to dance around.


At around the 300m deep mark we got a very large bend in one of the rod by one of our guys, now as Rob said there is always a good chance that it would be a good size shark.

But…

It turned out to be the first grouper. It was a good size fish needing Rob to help hold it up – that’s him on the left.

From there it was game on…

George our resident Ngati Australian got the next one, everyone else was busy so Rob gave me the gaff to get it, well sometimes there are times when you just should not be allowed to do things – and this was one of them, no sooner had George with some real effort winched the fish to the surface and I swung to gaff at the fish the ******* thing tail flapped sideways and the gaff just thumped into where it shouldn’t have been and of course as happens in these cases he was off the hook and last we saw was him turning his bloody big tail up and disappearing below, so much for the swim bladder theory that sucker was out of there. Now of course that made me as popular as a pork pie in a Mosque. By a vote of something like 900 to 1 I was wrong, couldn’t have been the fish was smarter either – huh…

Well you live and learn and I was allowed to live – just!

You might not have believed me but here we are rocking our arses off and fishing and here is Martin all dressed to cook. Hell the boats not even a liner…

Mind you Martin was telling me he has spent time on server liners and been head chef to quite a few big hotels in the Far East and elsewhere, he now lives in Queenstown.


By this time Shamrock was trying to catch up on filleting the cod, throwing the frames etc overboard and of course we ended up with a pile of these sods around, many a time they actually tried to take the cod off the hook as you brought the fish on board – no matter how big to cod, and these birds are big and seems completely fearless. The big bugger just to the right of centre is in fact a Royal albatross or more correctly a White Capped one and this bird beat anything that got in its way senseless if they got between it and the food…

Now being that I was in was still in the dog house I had to redeem myself so I did what had to be done – catch a big one…

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
FISH FIGHT The Peoples Protest
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (4) Likes(4)   Quote Moggy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:32pm
Moggy View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Location: some times NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 4718
Part 4


A PB for me again estimated around 32kgs

Nice fish however in what is probably a fitting end to the grouper session our fearless leader who organised the trip ended up catching the biggest one

If I thought mine was big then this guy made all look small, 2 people to pull it inboard. To give you some idea of size of these suckers try this


They just got bigger and bigger as we went out. I had the last bite and it was certainly a huge fish but the 37kg braid parted company so it lived to fight another day but I got to feel just how powerful those guys were.

We fished for 5 hours in total and got our 4 days quota worth in those 5 hours, now bearing in mind we were certainly going to be weather bound and having to have Martin cook all that food and empty the wine that was brought no one seemed to mind the fact that this part of the fishing was over.

One of the things that blew me away was after we ceased to catch Cod, Trumpeter and Grouper, both Rob & Shamrock estimated that in those 5 hours and only just reaching our limit we had close to 300kgs of fish on board – bloody hell…..

I am used to Auckland snapper amount that you take home but this was a whole new field.



Steaming back into Dusky, You can get some idea of the swell if you look at the amount of land we are losing in each photo

Next stop was to fillet the rest of those fish


Well the big grouper took 4 people to help/hold whilst it was being done. We also stopped for a quick free dive on the way back in

Crays were starting to come aboard and Paua and kina


This gives you some idea of the size of that grouper that Cray is about 5kg+

The production line that night


Grouper

Cray tails first lot

Trumpeter sides skin on for smoking

Dam black things…


People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
FISH FIGHT The Peoples Protest
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (4) Likes(4)   Quote Moggy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:33pm
Moggy View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Location: some times NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 4718
Part 5

Next day


Recall I said local knowledge and keeping the townie’s on there toes, this is 1 meter away from a island in Dusky sound a speed..





This gap ahead we went through and you could touch the plant life as we went…


We came across these all around the sounds, local fishermen’s floating home away from home!

If you look closely in the above photo you will see something which isn’t “native” to this area! – sky aerials… we saw many of these dotted about the islands all the fisherman who use this area have there own TV attachments so they can still watch TV no matter what… so much from away from it all.


Now this was an interesting one, these guys do Eco tours where the punters kayak down from some point and meet up with this boat that then shows them around. As a result of being an Eco tour they are not permitted to fish or catch Cray’s so Rob knowing the guy who runs this and ourselves decide to do the decent thing and donate 8 Cray’s to them which we had just brought on board a few minutes earlier. The transfer was made and all was good – or so we thought, just on dusk the owner of this boat zoomed across in his rubber ducky (note not the kayaks so much for greenies) to where we where moored and preceded to tell us that we should have killed the Crayfish humanely before we handed them over to them… you can image what our response to this bloody greenie was, no more good will from us that’s for sure…

Takes all sorts I guess but here’s the punch this guy who proceeded to lecture us – and Rob our skipper is actually a failed Cray fisherman himself. There nothing as holy as a convert I guess…


Next day we did some tiki touring deep down the sounds and Rob took us to see this.

Now most wont know what this is (heck I wouldn’t have) but this is a great bit of NZ history and represents a site that many of NZ first’s were done.

Its Pickersgill Harbour, this is the place that in the autumn of 1773 Captain Cook sailed the Resolution into Dusky Sound and anchored after a 123 day voyage through the Antarctic battling ferocious seas, his crew needed rest and the ship required repairs.

Here is the place called Astronomer’s Point and is the site of a temporary observatory set up by William Wales, of the Board of Longitude, during Captain Cook’s second voyage in 1773. The observatory was established to fix the position of New Zealand. As a consequence of the observations made by William Wales at this point New Zealand became the most accurately located place on the globe at that time.

It should also be widely celebrated by you beer drinkers as this is the site of NZ’s first brewery.

Cook set up a brewery using rimu and manuka leaves. It was hoped the resulting beer would aid in the prevention of scurvy amongst the crew. This first beer was brewed by boiling rimu and manuka for three to four hours, adding molasses and waiting a few days for the mixture to ferment. Cook considered the resultant "spruce beer" rather good, but his men thought it was awful, and only by adding more molasses and a generous dollop of rum could he persuade them to drink up, some things don’t change..

Cook had visited before in 1770 but thought the coast so dangerous he did not try to land, though as dusk approached he did note the presence of a promising harbour, giving it the name Dusky Bay. In his second voyage, however, he did enter the fiord, producing his usual meticulous charts and descriptions, which opened the way for a burst of European activity.

When I was in the navy down there we were still using the charts that Cook made all those years after.

There is also the story of the lost tribe that they tell down there, it seems that one of the poor unfortunate beaten the hell out of by another tribe race of Maori disappeared into Fiordland never to be seen again – well, until the story goes that Cook came. We were told that the first that anyone knew about these lost people was when one of Cooks party ashore fired his rifle at something and got a hurra of a big surprise when up sprung a large group of Maori with hands in the air who promptly fled stage left at high speed, never having heard a gun before. Sounds like a great story!


Now this was something we found – care of the sealers in those early years after Cook’s visit here you can still see the pile of rocks cleared, and there were many of them, it was where the sealers would drag there boats up. If you look at the photo above you can still see clearly these sites.

None of the houses still remain.



People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
FISH FIGHT The Peoples Protest
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (4) Likes(4)   Quote Moggy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:47pm
Moggy View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Location: some times NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 4718
Part 6

Well after a bit of history it was back to the non fishing fishing… Cray’s, Paua and Kina…


Free divers game on


A “small” sample 15 minutes later


Give you some idea of size of surface found Cray’s

And paua


Now the paua started one of the funniest nights we had, “Cooking with Hone” as George put it


George, or Hone officially then proceeded to do a show in the best form of Graham Kerr (go look it up if you don’t know him..) and described down to a T his cooking style, had us in fits of laughter for hours but was the paua worth it – you bet the nicest I have had for along time.

Well done that man!


George & Martin at the end of the Hone presentation..


People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
FISH FIGHT The Peoples Protest
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (4) Likes(4)   Quote Moggy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:48pm
Moggy View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Location: some times NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 4718
Part 7

On a certain day (can not recall how many we had down in Dusky so much fun we had) we departed to start our trek back to Doubtful and spend a day or two there.



Great swells and we become a 68 ft long surf board…





Now just before we got back Rob pulled another of his stunts taking us within a hands throw of that rock you see in the 3rd photo, just a bit close for my comfort, but then again I guess he has been fishing in these waters for over 20 years and knows where most rocks are including those that sunk another boat of his!

Once at Doubtful it was time to put our shooters ashore in a great little spot where the sandflies search constantly for new blood and grow so big that 3 could easily lift a man.

The about to be eaten to death hunting party… The sandflies treat insect repellent as after shave I think!

Unfortunately Cooky slipped and sprained his ankle so the hunting trip was short lived, pity bring home venison on top of all that fish would have been the icing on the cake – they saw plenty of sign that they were in the right place.


People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
FISH FIGHT The Peoples Protest
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (4) Likes(4)   Quote Moggy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:48pm
Moggy View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Location: some times NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 4718
Part 8

The Blanket Bay hotel out in the middle of Doubtful sound, some of these fishermen have a great sense of humour. But this is attached to the Island behind and on that island we found it  had three of these resident on it.


This cheeky little bugger would tap your foot and expect to be feed.

Now the kina - these all came from Dusky

These were easiest the biggest I have seen, and whilst normally I would tell you what you can do with Kina from up north (bloody awful if you ask me) it was interesting that George talked me into trying these ones, in a word I was hooked, these taste nothing like the north island ones – perhaps it’s the clean water or what they feed on, who know but what I can tell you is it was a taste experience all by itself, like crayfish on steroids and that was the normal yellow roe’d ones, then George and Shamrock started opening second type they had these were all Brown roe’d and they were even better!

Now to give you some idea that’s a desert spoon that bits resting on – a meal in one mouthful.

I swear never before have I had that taste, brilliant. Noting remotely like it and they way overshadowed the already great yellow ones. Though I have to say I did find out what the down side of eating too many Kina is very quickly… good clean out that was.

Doubtful maybe a fiord but these next shots are from going back down it to Deep Cove



Well after a great trip we finally made it back to deep cove and the sun was out. After packing away the seafood (we had all brought Large chilly bags to take it home, we took the bus back over Wilmot pass and this time stopped at the top to get some great photos of the place in sunshine


Brilliant place. Well worth it

We got the ferry back across Manapouri and there waiting for us like long lost family was “Dennis” now as you may recall a long time ago I said we would get back to him, well we did… That tip had a wondrous effect on Dennis there was nothing he couldn’t do to help including giving us the ride of a life time back to Queenstown knowing we were in need of a good shower and some food that WASN’T fish…

Well Dennis did his bit and we got for free what many people pay a huge amount in thrill shows to experience on our trip back, it was so fast I swear we arrived in Queenstown before we had left Manapouri. Along the way some poor Hirepool guy in a ute passed Dennis, you could see this wasn’t right, seniority and all that and next we knew he had passed him 3 busses and 2 more cars and he was just getting into his stride. It fair to say that none of us were sleepy at all on the way home – what a ride… Moral of the story – keep your tips till the end to give!

A Overnight in Queenstown to clean up and have a nice steak dinner down the water front and we were all off to our own worlds after that. As to the fish – we were lucky the temp outside that night in Queenstown was minus 3 deg C so all we had to do was leave the bags out on the balcony and all was fine, mine was still frozen when I got back to Auckland.

A great trip with some fantastic people and a great crew, would I do it again – you bet but I would probably chopper in from Queenstown as the way we went you wasted a couple of days and frankly the chopper isn’t much dearer than the boat and bus.

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
FISH FIGHT The Peoples Protest
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (4) Likes(4)   Quote Moggy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 3:05pm
Moggy View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Location: some times NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 4718
Part 9
Post trip:

A small collection of bits of the many many kilos of Crays I brought home boy did those taste good.

As to that Trumpeter, Finally got the fish smoked last Saturday! Been brinied for 24 hours after thawing out nicely in the fridge.

Heres the results!


After drying off from the brining and leaving to harden up overnight in the fridge maple oil was applied all over the flesh side then racked up for the smoker. These were smoked with Maple, smoked for 3 hours at 49deg C and then 1 hour at 85deg C to finish off. 

The end result after 4 hours       

    

What they looked like after a “taste”, not bad real succulent and light.

Worth the hassle in bringing them home!

I guess someone is going to ask about cost

That I am happy to share, not counting the airfares to and from Queenstown but including all the accommodation at both ends and the ferry trips we all throw in $3,000 each and still got back several hundred dollars after all that. Not a bad deal all in all when the skipper Rob tells me we probably all took home about $1500 worth of seafood each, real cost then isn’t bad…

It needs 8 to make it work and much to my surprise fishing 8 off that boat is no problem, we never had a tangled line given all that water movement.

It was a great experience and well worth it.


(see there is a good reason why I dont post fishing reports that often!LOL)


People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
FISH FIGHT The Peoples Protest
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (4) Likes(4)   Quote Moggy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 3:05pm
Moggy View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Location: some times NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 4718
Part 10
wow to the relief of all not needed...LOLLOL
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
FISH FIGHT The Peoples Protest
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote John_Ra Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 3:07pm
John_Ra View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 12 Jan 2009
Location: The Shire
Status: Offline
Points: 3158
Dammm Moggy that looks like a very well appointed boat...
A Mich chef too, mean as feeds huh..

ummm part 4 - 10 ?

great report so far
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote CanadianJohn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 3:46pm
CanadianJohn View Drop Down
Titanium
Titanium
Avatar

Joined: 03 May 2003
Location: east auckland
Status: Offline
Points: 5597
wow, but once again moggy where was my invite?!
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Uncle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 4:19pm
Uncle View Drop Down
Moderator - Black Belt
Moderator - Black Belt
Avatar

Joined: 19 Mar 2003
Location: Tauranga, NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 14258
Excellent Moggy, I'm envious as hellSmile
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote chris_gee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 4:26pm
chris_gee View Drop Down
Silver
Silver


Joined: 24 Nov 2009
Status: Offline
Points: 218
Thank you very much for all the effort required to do such a long, well-written, and fascinating report. I enjoyed it immensely and am more than a tad envious.
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote PJay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 4:53pm
PJay View Drop Down
Moderator - Black Belt
Moderator - Black Belt


Joined: 11 Jun 2009
Location: Russell
Status: Offline
Points: 2447
Fantastic, Norm.  Thanks so much for this, the most interesting report I've read for ages (just handing the screen over to Viv now...).
PJ
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Catchit Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 6:53pm
Catchit View Drop Down
Platinum
Platinum
Avatar

Joined: 28 Dec 2009
Location: South Head
Status: Offline
Points: 2185
Awesome Moggy, best report Ive read on here..
"We gave Sir Peter a knighthood," Mr Key said, "And if we could give him a second one, we would."

Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Korora Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 9:58pm
Korora View Drop Down
Silver
Silver


Joined: 12 Apr 2012
Location: muriwai
Status: Offline
Points: 200
Far out! What a awesome experience- nicely written moggy. Enjoyed that lots
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote KikBac Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 10:45pm
KikBac View Drop Down
Platinum
Platinum
Avatar

Joined: 03 Mar 2011
Location: Tairua, NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 1527
Awesome! That is all
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote Lethal Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2013 at 10:55pm
Lethal View Drop Down
Rest In Peace
Rest In Peace
Avatar

Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Location: In our thoughts
Status: Offline
Points: 23636
what a trip, memories for ever, thanks Norm for sharing your trip with us,

that was a helluva read, great pic's, and brilliantly written, thanks....Thumbs Up 
Thanks for everything you did for us Eric. may you rest in peace, You were one of the real legends of NZ recreational fishing
Back to Top
Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Bakes Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 May 2013 at 4:16am
Bakes View Drop Down
Silver
Silver
Avatar

Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Location: Whangarei NZ
Status: Offline
Points: 264
Great read mate. Thanks

I did a similar trip two years ago and recognize a few of the spots in your photos, Dusky is an epic place for sure. It's like stepping back in time.

We lucked out one day and had it like a millpond at the entrance to Dusky. After our freedive we just floated around in the sunshine staring up at the mountains and waited for the boat to come in and pick us up. Just totally breathtaking.

The mussels and kina down there were my seafood highlight but its all there.

I think i have it written  on my bucket list another 10 times haha
I love catching fish. But fishing isn't always about catching.
Back to Top
Page  123 4>
Forum Jump
Forum Permissions View Drop Down


This page was generated in 0.579 seconds.

Fishing Reports Visit Reports

Saltwater Fishing Reports
Top of the South Fishing Report - 22/03/24

Tasman and Golden Bay snapper still running hot We are not far away from daylight... Read More >

22 Mar 2024
Saltwater Fishing Reports
Bay of Islands Fishing Report - 22/03/24

Variety is the spice of life On one recent trip, the plan was to spend a... Read More >

22 Mar 2024
Saltwater Fishing Reports
Hauraki Gulf Fishing Report - 22/03/24

Fish where the fish are! Catching fish or just going fishing? I tackle this issue... Read More >

22 Mar 2024
Saltwater Fishing Reports
Inner Hauraki Gulf Fishing Report - 22/03/24

Thoughtful tactics required for better fish Over the course of each year the fishing varies,... Read More >

22 Mar 2024
Fishing bite times Fishing bite times

Major Bites

Minor Bites

Major Bites

Minor Bites