RnR Charters... Mokes and Mozzies

I love it when a plan comes together ...  and just for once, this is what happened recently, when I managed to finally get out to the Mokohinau Islands at the entrance to the Hauraki Gulf.

I had managed to arrange this trip through the internet, as one day I found myself talking to Steffi Railey , co-owner of  “Extreme RnR” Fish and Dive Charters, which operates around the Mokohinaus from Mangawhai Heads, about 90 mins from Auckland, with their Genesis 320.

It didn’t take long for Steffi to convince me that I should throw a group together and head out with them to sort out some  real  snapper fishing, and the pictures Steffi showed me of stacks of jumbo sized snapper certainly looked worthy of  the effort.

With a little thought, and a few phone calls, we had a team of really gunn, pro fishoes going along, my regular side-kick Denn Rasmussen, my erstwhile editor Keith Ingram, and as an act of charity to our poor benighted brethren in the broadcast media, Bill Hohepa and his charming “cameraman”- his wife Linda ( who, it turns out, is also the make-up, wardrobe and catering staff of the Bill Hohepa Show as well!)

So it was that we were all standing on the boat ramp at the Mangawhai Heads, waiting for our Skipper, Wayne Radford, to shuttle us out to the boat in a small (Small? Minute!!) dinghy. Balancing precariously on a load of tackle, camera gear and boxes, we each in turn safely made the crossing  over the clear water tidal stream to the stern of RnR, where Steffi waited to welcome us.

With so many aboard, 7 of us, we had been a little concerned at the amount of room available for us, but as it turned out, the Genesis is really an exceptionally roomy and well laid out boat, we all fitted aboard easily. Once sorted out, and introductions made all- round, Wayne flashed up the Volvo, and we cruised off over the Mangawhai Bar (calm today, but watch this one folks, it can get nasty!), and headed past the Hen and Chicks for the Mokohinaus.

It was a run of a couple of hours or so, and once we neared the islands, Wayne slowed the motor to fish some of the deeper foul off shore from the islands. Fishing in between 150-200ft, with basic strayline snapper gear, we were soon into fish. Among the several bust offs and dropped fish, Wayne picked up a few very nice fish, while the rest of us muddled along with pan sized school fish... out here, they must use big pans, because these fish were often up to 10lbs, the fish of the afternoon being a thumping 18lb snapper Wayne picked up.

Wayne fishes on the drift out here, his technique is to slowly feed the line out as it nears the bottom, carefully monitoring his line, watching for any sign of an increase in speed of line leaving the spool. This happens when the fish pick up the baits, and giving them a few seconds to properly hold the baits, he then sets the hook and holds on. At the Mokes, 15lb snapper are quite average, and fish like that can seriously strain your tackle! I guess the light line (8kg) that I was using was not a good call, as several good fish simply horsed me into the rocks. I would recommend 15kg line to be a  far more appropriate sized line.

As the sun set, Wayne had us pull up, and we headed in to “the Arch” to anchor up for the night. This really is an amazing anchorage, with towering cliffs of rock leaning out over the clear blue water all around you, excellent shelter in anything but a northerly wind. The one thing I had not counted on, or indeed had any of the others, was the size, ferocity and number of the Mokohinau mosquitos!

I think Mokohinau must mean in Maori “mozzies will carry you away” or something, coz these were big suckers. Easily 15mm (between the eyes!!), you swatted one of them, and if they didn’t get up and swat you right back, then they would hit the deck with an audible “thump!”... mate! Poor Dennis, being the smallest among us, was almost dragged over the stern by a pair of more determined ‘skeeters. Folks, out there you need industrial strength repellant... I’d go for a flame-thrower, that should about do it.

After battling off the fierce mozzies, we settled in for a meal of fresh fish fillets (and a couple of back-steaks off one of the larger mozzies), and after a top feed, we settled in for a night of quiet music and fishermens tales, eventually settling in for the night at around mid-night.

Next morning, with a stiff breeze honking past the mouth of our anchorage, we decided on a very lazy start to the day... although this may have been partly the result of weakness from blood-loss to the mosquitoes. It was not until 11 am that Wayne nudged us out of the shelter, into the now abating Sou-wester. Heading with the breeze, we made for a sheer cliff-face washed with white water surging around the shelf it had at water level.

White water like this is fascinating to fish in. All sorts of fish swarm under the shelter of the foam, our target being big mooching snapper, which we targeted with big baits cast hard in by the cliff. As the wash pulled our baits out, the snapper would hammer the baits... again though, of the fish we had hook up, only a few stuck, although we did manage several nice snapper over 10lbs as well as a smattering of school sized trevally, of maybe 2 kgs or so.

By the afternoon, we had again caught all the snapper we could reasonably use, so it was decided we should cruise off to look for something a little more exciting... perhaps some kingfish action would do? Too right!

We headed around the northern side of the islands, heading for the rocks to the east of our anchorage. With deep foul all the way, we were twitching with anticipation at he sign showing on the sounder. Finally, as we neared our selected mark, the usual dense red ball of fish signifying kingfish filled the screen through mid-water. I was intent on some speed-jigging, whereas the others were more interested in sorting out some of the great snapper fishing.

Speed jigging for kingfish is easy... they are absolute suckers for a fast moving jig. I talked about this a couple of months ago in my tackle talk, basically all you do is drop a jig down through the mass of fish showing on your sounder, and once you hit the bottom, or think you have gone beyond the depth of the school, slap the reel back in gear and crank as fast as you possibly can. No kingi will be able to resist chasing and snapping at such a tempting target, and man, you can have hours of fun at this.

So it was that while I was playing with my small 15lb kingis, the rest were working their way through assorted bottom fish... snapper surely, but also a large number of grand-daddy hapuku (or scorpion fish). After an hour or two, the bite not proving as hot as we had hoped, we et off again for deeper waters, this time thinking of trying for some hapuku off a more remote, slightly deeper reef.

Well, that was the plan! I am afraid that at this time of the year, in this depth of water, there were no ‘puka home, although a number of mongrel barracouta were there... slimy, smelly things they are too. After an hour or two patiently wetting baits, we headed back in to the islands to try a little more bottom fishing.

By now the long hot day was taking its toll on us... from the sounds of snoring coming from various places about the boat, relaxation was more in order than some serious fishing. Drifting in windless conditions, all was quiet on the big-bait/big snapper gear, so I decided to see what else I could find below us, by dropping a Terakihi Terror down there.

Bam, straight away, into fish. A string of small snapper (well over legal, but with the 5lb minimum we had set for the boat, even darn nice fish are routinely tossed back!) came and went, until I picked up a couple of nice porae. These we kept, as we had been gathering a couple of different types of fish to sample for dinner that night.

We had snapper already, as well as nice pigfish, trevally and now some porae to taste... a fish-eaters dream... me? I’d rather have beef!. Once we had finished sorting away these fish, as well as polishing off some afternoon tea, we headed back to our anchorage for the night.

En route though, we just could not resist the chance to drop some baits on a steep pinnacle rising out of deep waters. Again, the fish action was immediate. Snapper, trevally, pink mao mao and blue, along with many bust offs and de-baitings, it was surely a fun way to wind down a day. We ended the evening by picking up a few koheru for live-baits the next day, when we planned to seriously annoy some larger kingfish.

At anchor again, with dinner preparing and the steady drone of formations of mozzies ominously circling the boat, we saw several large piper circling the boat. With a cry of “Piiiiiperr!”, Bill leapt to his feet, and hastily rigging up a small hook and floater rig, soon was molesting these tasty treats, while muggins here was delegated to fillet the fish for dinner. I must say, these TV fishing gurus really are very good at catching piper! It is almost a shame no-one bothered to film him doing it.

Another night of tossing, turning, slapping, and trying to avoid being carted off by winged monsters followed, before dawn rose and we rose to wade through the masses of mosquito corpses about our beds. After shovelling off the ankle deep dead bugs, we readied ourselves for our last day at the Mokes.

Another huge breakfast of baked beans, bacon, toast and eggs, and finally we were able to look at another morning of fishing. We had to leave the islands at lunch, so with only a few hours up our sleeves, we decided to forgo the lure of more big snapper, and instead headed off for some kingfish action.  With a lazy metre swell running, the low rocks we pulled up alongside were magnificent, the deep blue water surging with glossy white foam... it was magnificent to see. More importantly though was the sign of kingfish on the sounder... and with little ado, the large koheru were put on their hooks, and they powered off into the clear blue depths... on their way to kingfish breakfasthood.

OK, three of us had our lines out, Bill, Keith and Myself , Linda had the camera rolling, everything was set.. now, would we find a Kingfish?? would we? Did we!! With seconds of each other, our three rods all curled over in some major hits. Even better, we had no stuff-ups, so every fish stuck.

Now RnR is a very nice boat, with plenty of fishing room, but with three not-so-small guys tied into hard fighting fish like kingfish, things were just a little crowded. Still, by purest, dumb luck, one by one the fish started to come aboard.

Keiths was first, a feisty 35lb fish, and as we were after some fish for the folks back home, it was soon gaffed and brought aboard. My fish was next to come in... although the same size as Keiths, mine was on 15kg line, whereas Keith had used the wiser 24kg line, so it took an extra 10 minutes or so for me to subdue my fish. 3 up, 2 down... now for Bill.

Bill had been standing back while Keith and I were sorting out our fish, making sure that plenty of footage was shot of the action provided, but once we were out of the way, he was able at last to concentrate on his kingi.

It gave him a bit more of a work-out than ours perhaps, but that is fair enough I suppose, as it was certainly by several kilos the biggest. Well done oh Guru! Brought aboard and quickly dispatched, we now had more than enough fish for fillets etc, from now on went the cry, everything is to be realeased!

Next up to bat stood Wayne and Steffi. Steffi had waxed eloquent in her feelings of injustice that Wayne never let her catch the good fish, so it was with some delight that she hooked solid into another good kingi, whereas Wayne managed to let his get reefed.

This fish gave Steffi a tough scrap, and she made the most of it as well, pumping and grinding away, posing shamelessly for the camera (that was MY job!), but certainly, on boating the fish, it proved to be every bit as good as Bills, a very credible achievement on 15kg.

This fish was too good for Steffi to resist the temptation of keeping, as she wanted a good kingi to weigh in for the local fishing club. However, having for very nice fish aboard, it was decided that we really had no further need to keep fishing, so we cleaned up as best we were able, and Wayne started us off for the long run back to Mangawhai.

So, what did I think of the trip?? Great! It is really refreshing to see an area with such a healthy snapper population, where fish of 15 to 20lbs are not rare, but indeed fairly common. Along with the awesome scenery and the other prolific sea-life in the area, it surprises me that more people do not visit this not-so-remote area.

Although this time we did not score at all on the hapuku, Wayne knows his spots, and assures us that by winter, the hapuku will have moved up into these shallower reefs we were fishing.  What did impress me was the enthusiasm Wayne had for his fishing, and his obvious expertise with the snapper out here... by far he out-caught all us flash fishoes, but hey, we weren’t really trying, and he knows all the fish by first name, so it wasn’t our fault, OK! It was good to see that most of the larger snapper were released, although seeing fat 15lb snapper splashing back over the side is a hard thing to get used to!

As for RnR charters, well, it is an excellent operation. Excellently suited to operating in this area, RnR is a very comfortable boat, for either day trips or over night stays. I would advise that for overnighting, 3 or 4 fishermen may be best, but for a day charter, I guess 6 people could go along, as long as you realise that all 6 may not fish at once. We found though that in the calm conditions we had that 5 anglers could fairly easily work their lines while drifting.

Wayne is a mean cook, he actually made fish taste passably nice to me, and I am a non-fish eater from way back, so he must be doing something pretty darn good. All in all RnR is a great charter operation, and gets the Captain Asparagus 4 star rating! Give them a call, do yourselves a favour... but take plenty of mozzie repellant!