Deep water fishing off Great Barrier Island

By ‘wide’ I mean 90-odd nautical miles from Westhaven Marina. An inspection of the charts identified some steep drop-offs way beyond Great Barrier Island, with the intended prey being any tasty deep-dwelling critter we could dangle a hook close to.

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After running charters using only lures or livebaits for so long, it felt a bit strange picking up some real-deal squid and skipjack tuna from the fishing shop. We also decided to hit the Fish Market, a visit which paid off in the form of small, fresh gemfish – a bait that is by all accounts amazing for swordfish.

With Hauraki Express ready to rumble, we agreed to meet back at the dock at the un-gentlemanly hour of 2:00am. Sure enough, being a Friday night, the crew turned up in various states of rest and coherence, but we were all keen as mustard, so the music was turned up, the radar spun up, and we got underway.

By the time the sun was breaking through, we were steaming along a glassy sea well past Great Barrier Island. Anticipation levels were high, but so was the uncertainty. We decided to start our search in water around 350-400m deep and found some structure with plenty of sign close to the bottom.

Being Aucklanders through and through, the electric reels were unveiled and we began baiting up a couple of heavy-duty ledger rigs. It’s amazing how long it takes for your gear to make it down in such depths, but our wait was well worth it as both rods loaded up in quick succession.

Although the fish were fighting hard, I obviously can’t regale you with stories of an epic tussle given all I had to do was watch the rod I was ‘in charge’ of. Both fish turned out to be bluenose, a welcome sight indeed!

Another hour was spent harvesting a couple more bluenose for the larder, before George Bourke’s rod was slammed down hard. Masterfully tending to the lever controlling the rate of retrieve, George eventually gained the upper-hand. The line began angling outwards from the boat and up popped not one, but two massive bass! We celebrated by turning up the bass on the Fusion and spoke about what a greedy bastard George was as we sped off to a nearby canyon for some swordfish drops.

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With such fishing definitely uncharted territory for us, we managed to get the hang of rigging the gemfish baits and dropping the breakaway weighted rig. Our first attempt brought up a bluenose – not bad, but not great either. Our second hook-up was something slightly bigger and more aggressive, but we were sure it wasn’t the target species.

We shared turns winding in, quickly revealing the relative stamina of our crew members. It took some time to reach the top-shot but the fish was still fighting violently. We figured a fat and tasty deep-water critter would have given up by now, so we had no idea what it was as a ghostly shape became visible.

“What the f#@k is that?” one of the crew gasped as a Peruvian oilfish slid into view.

“Can you eat it?” another member queried.

Sure, you can eat oilfish, but you don’t really want to. Also known as the ‘mother-in-law fish,’ these suckers not only fight violently, they look violent and also cause violent diarrhoea if you are silly enough to eat them. The flesh is apparently very tasty but also very oily.

The fountain of all knowledge, Wikipedia, shows they have an oil content of around 25% and that the oil consists of wax esters which are not digested like edible oils and have a ‘laxative effect’ – a euphemism, no doubt, considering what I’ve personally heard!

We made the mistake of manhandling the writhing beast into the boat for a closer inspection. We quickly deduced that gloves were mandatory as the skin was covered with prickly spikes. Its eyes glowed a strange neon-green, and its rows of fangs were a sight to behold.

Releasing the aberration to back whence it came, we were keen for more action, hopefully this time in swordfish form. Wouldn’t you believe? On our very next drop we had an identical bite and winched in another hapless oilfish – this time larger and even more menacing.

We decided to leave the oilfish gathering alone and hunted further along the drop-off, finding some deep bait free from our greasy friends, but alas, also free from swordfish.

Being a mid-winter’s day, it was already getting on, so we set a course for home.

Cruising back in over a still-glassy ocean, we were content that the Hauraki Express crew had left the gannets, snapper and kingfish alone for one day, and I began the unenviable task of processing our catch.

 

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

October 2018 - Nick Jones
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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