'Chatham Clipper' - Auckland by Scott Hollis-Johns

Auckland shrinking away into the night made for a fantastic sight as we enjoyed a few introductory drinks and formed the rules committee for the snapper sweepstake. I got everyone worried straight away by trying to double the ante from $5 a head to $10. We had five days of fishing fun ahead.

At 90 feet, the 'Chatham Clipper' is the biggest charter boat I have ever been on and since it's one of the largest privately-owned motor yachts in New Zealand, it is the biggest I'm ever likely to go on.

The first thing that impressed me about the Chatham Clipper after I got over the 100ft mast was her ease of travel through the water — this baby was big but no slug. A hardy few celebrated their departure from work and worries into the early hours but most of us headed off to bed as the Clipper quietly slipped through the night. Our first fishing spot was located by no accident just around the corner from one of the best surf beaches on the Barrier and by the time I woke up Mark No 1 and Rod were gone in the tender.

The present tender, a perfectly adequate twelve foot tinny with 15hp motor, is soon to be up graded to two inflatables. These will be used as dive tenders, surf tenders, to saltwater fly fish from, or to jump on the rocks for landbased fishing.

Great Barrier is a spectacular island and I was very inspired by the cliffs we were anchored close to. The water was twenty-five meters deep and we were a stone's throw from the rocks. It looked like a great area for big snapper and kingies but as I was to discover over the next few days, damn near the whole island looks like a great area for big snapper and kings.

After Rod and Mark returned in the tender we called for a move as, surprisingly, our fishing efforts had yielded just one john dory and a trevally. Mark had done well fishing just behind the breakers while Rod surfed and several nice snapper and a couple of trevs lay in the dinghy. At the next spot we fished on the drift and did a lot better. Most of the guys fished running rigs while I tried a small jig. Over the next hour we caught quite a number of snapper. The biggest went twelve pounds and, caught by Cliff, was the first real contender in the heaviest snapper sweepstake. I started with several small reef fish on the jig before graduating to some solid school snapper. After I lost the jig to my third barracouta, I changed to a flasher rig (really smart when barracouta are present? ) and did well on school snapper and trevally. All good fun on light line and the fish bin was starting to look good for a feed. Things got hard around the middle of the day and although we tried several other spots and caught quite a number of different species, little was kept for eating. Later in the day we put Rod down for his first dive, which was unsuccessful cray-wise but apparently very, very scenic. I don't dive but get the feeling Great Barrier offers a lifetime of great diving experiences. While Rod was down under I caught some mackerel for later use as butterfly baits. These would catch thirty pound sweepstake-winning snapper.

As our first day drew to a close we steamed to Port Fitzroy for the night. Spirits were high that night. We were anchored in paradise; we had caught a good feed of fresh fish; the sky was full of stars; steaks and the pick of our catch were frying on the barbecue. What could be better? Several bottles of red surfaced and the evening was made. The Chatham Clipper has lots of living room and after dinner I relaxed with the skipper Digby Tuck in what he called the stateroom, which was fantastic. It was well laid out, spacious and had a very warm feel. Aside from the beautifully made portholes you might as well have been in a very classy hotel. The galley is huge and has a Mediterranean look. We didn't use the galley or stateroom much for the rest of the trip but this was due to the beautiful weather and the fact that there were only nine of us on board — the Chatham Clipper could comfortably accommodate 12-16. We chose to sit out under the stars and use the two barbecues for cooking.

Digby is a very interesting man and I found his company and humour charming. He has fished commercially for over thirty years, originally in the Chatham Islands for crayfish, has built three fishing boats and a couple of yachts, and he had the Chatham Clipper built. It must be a very good feeling to go to sea in a boat in which you know every weld, wheel and wire and I assure you it is a great feeling to be a guest on such a boat. The sound system is fantastic and I especially enjoyed the treat of standing under the stars listening to Puccini and Dvorak Opus 114, Song to the Moon from Rusalka at full noise. That's after Digby pulled rank on the rest of the crew and ousted Shirley Bassey before another painful encore.

In the morning we put Rod to work on a feed of scallops and he produced the goods. Being the only diver on board he was going to be under pressure over the coming days. The scallops were fat but I let some past into the fry pan. These were consumed with great pleasure on the way to the Needles for our first fish of the day.

This is a spectacular area with steep rocks, currents, white water, blue Maomao and Kahawai schools in residence. I sent out a live mackerel hoping to catch a kahawai which I could then send out to catch a kingfish. My plans were thwarted when the mackerel freaked out so much at the sight of all those big kahawai bearing down on it that it ripped itself off the hook and escaped. I couldn't catch another and the wind forced us to move before we got any real action. I made a personal vow to return to this incredibly fishy-looking location 'x'.

The next spot was chosen for shelter first and fish second but it turned out to be a ripper. Not far off the rocks, with a surf beach in sight, we fished over shallow sand. I held little hope at first as it was very bright and sunny and not very deep. After half and hour I was about to give up on the fishing and take an afternoon nap, the other guys were either doing just that or indulging in a cool beer in the shade. Mark and Rod had taken off in the dinghy and anchored in close to a nearby point.

I decided to set a flasher rig on a heavy sinker and let the boat, swinging on the anchor, work it for me while I had a cold beer. I set up, cast out and placing my rod securely wandered astern to pour a red dog. When I returned my rod was bending savagely and unloading line. In the next half hour I landed four nice snapper, broke off two through over-zealous strikes and drag settings, dropped my beer, breaking my glass and caught a couple of trevally. This was no time to relax with a cold one. My frantic activities also galvanised the others into action. Soon we had half a bin of great table-sized snapper and trevally on ice. The action slowed a little then Rod and Mark returned. They had kept no fish but had enjoyed good sport on kahawai. One of the kahawai had been stolen by a kingfish which broke Mark off.

We moved again setting ourselves up for the evening bite in deep water near an awash rock. Most of the guys kicked back and relaxed waiting for me (the fifth column) to let them know when to start fishing in earnest. The time came just after the sun sank behind the Island and the blue Maomao came to the surface. I gave the word and in a thirty minute flurry of activity we caught one or two nice snapper (2-3kgs) each before the bite suddenly stopped. Time for another huge meal, a bottle of red and a sound sleep — paradise afloat.

Mark, Cliff and Ray fished from the dinghy in the morning while the rest of us just took in the fresh air and got to know each other a little better over a cup of tea or two. The boys returned triumphant with a good haul of snapper and while we cleaned these and iced them down, Rod shot off for a dive returning with an 8lb packhorse. A seafood dinner was already secure and everyone was in cruise mode. It might sound odd but not a lot of fishing went on that day. We cruised the island and took in the view before sending Rod down for some more crays.

Mark No 2 had to be dropped off at Tryphena harbour and return to Auckland aboard the Fullers ferry and Rod needed more air; so Tryphena for the night it was. I thought we'd just anchor in a sheltered part of the bay but Digby had a better idea. We would tie up alongside one of his mates.

This particular mate lived on a 120ft-plus rusty old cargo ship. A very interesting abode with one feature I was particularly taken with: the hold. Sounds boring staring into the hold of a rusty old cargo ship? Not when it's the size of half a tennis court, full of water and has john dory and mackerel swimming around in it and big crays sitting on the bottom. Their own inboard aquarium? Sort of. They actually use it as a holding tank for future meals! In the past they've had up to 20 snapper and even the odd kingfish on hold — the tricky bit was catching them again. Sea water flows in and out of cracks in the hull yet the ship still floats.

The day could have ended right there over the barbecue and a few beers but Digby thought we'd try our luck just on dusk at the entrance to the harbour. This turned out to be a fantastic call. We anchored close to the rocks and discovered a strong current was running. It took quite a few sinker changes to get it right but I finally hit the first fish using an eight-ounce ball. To begin with I was catching 2kg fish, then I changed to pounds (let's face it pounds sounds heaps better). I got an 'eight pounder', a couple of tens, then a twelve. Then, as no one else was catching much at all, I got threatened with being thrown overboard. This didn't phase me at all and I went on to take the lead in the sweepstake with a 'sixteen pound' fish. It was definitely my night. Some of the other guys did land some nice fish but I was too busy to notice.

Later that night we tied up to the rusty old freighter and feasted on crays, snapper, steak and a fantastic salad of Digby's making.

We had a late start in the morning. Two of the most important crew members, namely Milton (the deckie) and myself (the sweepstake leader) had a seriously stressful situation developing. We were low on smokes! Milton had the last one in his mouth and I had just a few left to last forty-eight hours. We got severely razzed for a while and told there was no way we had time to get any more. We would have to give up the filthy, lung-rotting habit etc., etc.

We negotiated hard then seized our moment while Rob was collecting his freshly-filled dive bottles. We jumped in the dinghy, screamed across the bay and got to the shop. The shop was closed. We then discovered 'Barrier Time'. The sign said the shop opened at eight thirty, it was eight thirty. When the owner did turn up (8.40am) he stood and shot the breeze for a good ten minutes with a mate. We waited. Then the girls turned up with the till tray. We waited. The girls shot the breeze with the owner for ten minutes. We waited. It must be nice to live in a place where clocks are just something the visitors to the island concern themselves with. To be fair, I don't think he understood the gravity of the situation. I got a couple of packets of chocolate biscuits for the skipper just in case he was considering going fishing without us for the day.

The fishing was slow but I don't think anyone really cared. We fished a couple of deep reefs looking for perhaps a hapuku to add one more to our huge list of species. So far on the trip we had caught snapper, trevally, kahawai, john dory, mackerel, koheru, barracouta, blue maomao, scarlet wrasse, grandaddy hapuku, blue cod, bastard red cod, tarakihi, porae, red scorpion fish, scarpies, pigfish, leather jackets, splendid perch, moray eels, scallops and two types of crayfish. A piscatorial smorgasbord and very interesting fishing. Later in the day we encountered some bottlenose dolphins which gave a brief display for us. I get the feeling they were as super-relaxed as we were. Multi-day charters on big comfortable boats tend to relax even the most highly strung.

Rod topped up our crayfish stocks on the way back to Tryphena where we set ourselves up for another assault on the big snapper spot. This went almost as well as the night before only Ray was the star landing, amongst others, an 18lb beauty and sweepstake leader. I managed to bust off quite a bit of gear on the bottom and generally get things wrong. One of the highlights of the night, apart from Ray's big red, was a really solid porae caught by Mark on a big strayline meant for big snapper. Mark also got a lovely, fat 12lb snapper. I held my end up but couldn't pull any 'pounders' having to be happy with 2-3kg fish.

We again retired to the freighter with the biggest live bait tank in the southern hemisphere and dined like kings. We had an interesting dinner guest in Claus. A local commercial fisherman, Claus had been longlining for snapper around the island for the last ten years. He lives and works on his boat operating it single-handed. He reveled in the company and was a pleasure to have aboard. Claus is the kind of independent operator the quota system has made a dying breed, a lifestyle fisherman who farms the sea and is about as far from the 'rape and pillage' stereotype as you could get.

Our last day had dawned. We had one final crack at our big snapper spot but Ray's winning fish was safe. I accompanied Mark in the dinghy while Rod dived for yet more crays. While we were waiting for Rod to surface, we (surprise, surprise) did a little fishing. I dropped several good fish which were probably trevally, as after I toned down my drag setting I stopped ripping hooks out and landed a few.

On the way home we ran a sweepstake on the Melbourne cup. I drew Champagne and Second Coming. Champagne came second. Kevin won the Melbourne cup and Ray the snapper sweepstake, but really, we were all winners, thanks to Digby, Milton, and the Chatham Clipper.

Digby is happy to do pretty much whatever you want and with such a well-equipped boat this is exactly what you can do on the Chatham Clipper. The usual trip to Great Barrier is five days but this is flexible. Possibilities at Barrier are huge: fantastic fishing and diving, landbased fishing, surfing or just cruising and taking in the scenery. The Chatham Clipper is easy to fish from with room to burn, but if you like you can take the tender and get right in close to rocks where the thirty-pounders are.

Harbour cruising or day tripping in the Hauraki Gulf are very popular, and being such a large boat, numbers are not a problem. I had a great time, was impressed with the fishing, and especially enjoyed the constant supply of scallops, crayfish and sushimi we were fed. Tying up to the 'rusty old freighter' (no offence to the proud owners) and meeting a few of the locals was also a real highlight.

The Chatham Clipper is one of those boats that you could just stay on forever — the only bad part of my trip was when I had to get off. The Chatham Clipper is the go-anywhere, (as far afield as the Kermadec Islands and Fiordland) do-anything boat and the crew are brilliant.

To arrange a trip phone the skipper Digby Tuck on
025 280 5260 or Milton on 0-9-357 6740.