Surfcasting 90 Mile Beach - Jim O'Brien

There wouldn’t be too many 80-year-old surfcasters still wading chest-deep into Ninety Mile Beach’s wild and tempestuous waters to try to catch snapper, and there certainly wouldn’t be too many of those 80-year-old surfcasters actually catching snapper and winning prizes in the annual Snapper Bonanza Contest! Bruce Basher acknowledges one such angler, Jim O’Brien.

Each year Jim had the unenviable task of a 1200km journey just to get to the prime 90 Mile Beach snapper-infested waters. His contribution as a member of the NZ Fishing News team has been invaluable.

Besides being a twenty-year-plus member of the team, Jim is also a foundation member of WSAC – The Wellington Surfcasting and Angling Club. He has held all executive positions at one time or another and is currently the club patron and life member.

Serving a two-year term as president of the New Zealand Angling and Casting Association, Jim was also a NZ representative to the IGFA from 1999 to 2015, and he puts all this down to a tiny cockabully!

Jim recalls he was about four or five years old when his father took him on a tram ride to Island Bay, Wellington’s southern suburb. When they walked out onto a small concrete wharf, Jim spotted his first fish, a cockabully!

Jim believes that was the “light bulb moment” that started him on his lifetime involvement in recreational fishing. This involvement was significantly boosted when the family moved to Hataitai when he was about seven years old. The legendary mecca of Wellington fishing, Evans Bay, was only a steep walk or high-speed bike ride away.

During the 1940s, Jim learned to catch spotties, yellow-eyed mullet and garfish from the three Patent Slip Wharves. It wasn’t too long before Jim was supplying all the neighbourhood cats with a decent feed of fish.

While Jim was happy catching bait fish, he occasionally noticed much bigger fish in his bread berley trail. Threading a bigger hook on his line one day and baiting up with a piece of pilchard, he was soon hooked up to his first kahawai.

Jim is far from alone when he states that kahawai, “the people’s fish”, should be kept as a recreational catch only and should never have been included in the commercial system.

“Imagine the long-lasting gratitude recreational people would have if we had a government that returned it to its citizens,” he said. Amen to that, Jim!

Jim has witnessed many changes in fishing tackle over the many years he has participated. Possibly the most significant and most productive change was from cord line to mono.

Close on the heels came the many changes to fishing rods – from Rangoon cane, split cane and solid glass rods, to the hollow glass and many carbon composite types we are lucky to fish with today. The improvement of line guides and reel seats kept pace too!

The reels evolved as well. From the basic models of years ago, we now have the highly technical and vastly superior ones.

Despite this, Jim classes three gear improvements as his picks of all time. Though quite modest, the three have made the most difference to his fishing. The first is the head torch, an absolute blessing for night fishing. Wire grip sinkers are second, which give the angler access to much more active water that otherwise could not be fished. The third is bait elastic. This allowed the softer baits like shellfish, crab and crayfish tail to be used. Its effectiveness is evidenced by the many different brands sold today.

A nice Malborough Sounds snapper, caught during one of the regular WSAC trips there.

Jim believes the term “wharf rat” is pertinent to his early days of fishing.

“I cannot think of a better learning or proving ground than what wharves provided,” he said. “I would still be a wharf rat today but for the anomaly and greed that denies public access to most of these fantastic fishing platforms.”

He believes that the port authorities can conveniently scream about public health and safety all they like but thinks it wouldn’t take much effort to cordon off a non-working part of the wharf for recreational users occasionally.

“After all,” he said, “it was public money that built the wharves in the first place.”

Having been a “wharf rat” myself, I wholeheartedly echo Jim’s sentiments on the subject. I often wonder how many kids in our younger days were kept away from more devious activities by getting involved in fishing. We didn’t have the time to climb through other people’s windows or tag other people’s property; there were too many fish to catch!

While Jim readily admits that he “doesn’t go to sea very well,” he has some creditable catches from boats. He has a steadfast belief that the line weight and equipment used can turn a modest fish into one that provides an epic battle, and he has a few examples as proof.

He once hooked up to a 33kg yellowfin tuna on 10kg line while jigging into a meatball from a stationary boat.

“That fish kept me running around the large boat for over an hour before it was finally caught,” he said. “That taught me a lot about the power of yellowfin!”

Another time Jim was popper fishing a reef in the Solomon Islands, again using 10kg line. He hooked into a 20kg giant trevally and would’ve “lost it in a twinkling” if it hadn’t been for Sam Mossman, who was also on board.

“I was about to load up on the fish when Sam quietly suggested I let off most of the drag while they headed off for deeper water,” Jim said. Jim was gobsmacked when the fish followed the boat like a little puppy until he could play it in the deeper water.

“If I hadn’t followed Sam’s advice, the fish would have headed into the reef, and I’d have left it with a large lure stuck in its face,” Jim added.

Jim has had many memorable boat charters and believes he has been blessed with high-quality skippers such as Bruce Smith, Pete Saul and Rick Pollock.

“The quality of chartering,” Jim says, “is a credit to the industry.”

Jim loves catching different species of fish. In his home patch, Wellington Harbour, he has amassed an incredible 40 different species over 500 grams! Jim obviously didn’t count the cockabully!

Apart from his home patch, Jim also loves the surf beaches of the Far North, especially the iconic Ninety Mile.

“Catching a decent snapper in the challenging conditions of this beach is far more exciting than any other surfcasting location. It’s an absolute proving ground for any surfcaster,” he said.

A 6.5kg snapper caught surfcasting off Ninety Mile Beach, one of Jim's favourite haunts.

Jim’s final thoughts were about the fishery resource and how it can be improved. Many a meeting he attended was hampered from making any meaningful decisions by the constant “them and us” attitude between commercial and recreational interests.

“I often wished that recreational fishers could have a single professional organisation to better represent them at these meetings,” Jim said. Thankfully Jim’s wish has come to fruition by the formation of LegaSea, an organisation we should all support.

Jim, Steve Bryan and I recently retired from the NZ Fishing News’ Snapper Bonanza team. Steve and I, as well as newer member Rob Parker, were privileged to have Jim’s company for the event. We caught our fair share of snapper and enjoyed the banter and camaraderie that went with it! Long may the memories last!

September 2022 - Bruce Basher
New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
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