And a 8.1kg Boarfish my personal best as well taken on same day as kingi.  This guy i dived down straight on top of and he bolted a few metres so I waited him out on the sand and he came within range and i squeezed the trigger.  Arrrggg, safety was on so quickly took it off and nailed him behind the eye pretty much rooting him.

 

My first and many more JD's on a day out with Herby.

 

And me and herby's first Gurnard's.

 

 

 

big coral trout chesterfield reefs

 

 

 

 

 I have lived on a 62 ft sailing catamaran ,"seeka", for 6 years and have been sailing the south pacific with my father for that time. one one of or regular trips overseas , we were travelling form Australia to New Caledonia, we decided to stop mhalf way for a break. so we sailed into the chesterfield reef group and dropped anchor off ille longue.was a beautiful spot as you can see and no one else was there. no land animals, only sea birds and fish. good for me :) . so we stayed here for about 3 days and did some beach walking and diving, fishing and SPEARFISHING. the fish above are a few of the coral trout caught, while diving saw trout up to 25kg!!!! i wasnt game to shoot anything that big but tried my luck with a few smaller ones. the bigger one you see was the first i shot. i jumped out of the dinghy and loaded my gun, looking around in the 20-30 metre visibilty i saw him just finning there looking at me as though he had never seen a bloke before. whack was the sound as my shaft penetrated this poor fishy  no naughty thoughts now guys haha. he fought well pulling hard and with a lot of power. however where there is a plus there is a minus, the sharks were prolific. The place was absolutely snooing with the buggers, some were game enough to come close but recieved the sharp end of a spear.. soon enough though there were too many sharks around to keep an eye on so ikt was time to get out. seeing that we were at least 3 days full steam away from anywhere i didnt want to have an "accident" as it were.

 

 

 

 

 

 

13.5kg grass carp.

Shot in 0.5 metres viz, in a random river on a random side road in the middle of the Waikato. I could see its back out of the water and shot at it, I was expecting a little black koi of about a kilo to keel over and die so I was a bit surprised when this fella jumped out of the water like a dolphin, with my spear lodged half way down its body.

 

2.4kg wild goldfish.

Shot it in the Chelsea sugar ponds.... Horrible place to dive.

 

Big Johnnie.

Got him at the Chicks. Saw it when I went down to free the anchor, surfaced, called for a gun, got one, went down and snotted it.

 

Not a big boarie (4kg) I just really like the photo.

Dumb as dog ****.

 

 

 

2 of 4 from Barrier with LJ and Crabbo.
Clean missed a monster and a couple of minutes later knocked a few scales off another. A couple of minutes after that I shot the bigger of the two fish in the pic, which still didn't cheer me up. 
I knew how to snoop before this tri but it was the first day that snooping and Herby really got along and everything clicked properly. It helped that the day was as fishy as buggary because I could afford to make mistakes and learn from them because I knew that there would be another fish over the next ledge. I think everyone new to snooping needs one of these types of days to learn. LJ got 5 that day I think?
It was one of those days that you probably could have got your limit if you were so inclined.
You can see a trunked kingy carcass on the ground to the left too. I shot it because it had a big gaping wound on its gill plate and I thought someone in our group had shot and lost it (we were all spread out over a large reef system) but it turned out to be an old would that was healing. The tough bugger had a patch of exposed gills!

*On a side note - we stopped off at some reef on the way home and Vicky Crabtree stoned a kingy. I was the only one with a camera on board so took the glory shots of her and emailed them to her a few days later. Fast forward a year or two and I am sightseeing in Europe, of course I drag the girlfriend into every dive shop I could find. In one of these dive shops in Paris (near the Notre Dam) I went to the counter to pay for a wetsuit and lo and behold there is an Immersion poster with the photo of Vicky I'd taken!*
 

 

3.5kg Blue cod.

Another fish which is dumb as dog ****. It kept hanging around when we were paua diving so I smashed it.

 

19.5pounds....
Location: Mokes
About lunch time after snooping for almost nil result and the day seeming to be one of those somewhat fishless days we all dread  we decided to get a few pinkies. We anchored in the lee of an island which had vertical walls on the ocean side where we’d got pinkies before.
The plan was to all go our separate ways to snoop the shallow areas, then meet up on the wall to do the deeper dives together.
My piece of ‘snooping’ country turned out to be ‘unsnoopable’ – no cover, no weed, just a barren slope with two grumpy looking Scorps and a school of small squid.
Because of the crap area, I just swam straight round the island to the pinky wall. As I got near the wall, there was a 20 metre wide 20 metre deep crevasse, I peered over the ledge and a nice snapper was just cruising along, which I nailed with a semi-long shot from the surface.
That was a good start, maybe there are fish here after all?
There was still no sign of the others, which was a bit gutting, because the bottom out from the wall is twenty five metres or more in some places and I wasn’t going to do that alone. I decided to just swim along right up against the wall and see what I could see.
After going about 30 metres there was a small dent in the wall, in which I saw a few baby snapper milling about. I slunk down the wall, right in the weeds and looked over a small ledge about ten metres down. There was a school of about fifty little babies, with a few of 2-4kg sprinkled in amongst them all out in open water.
I retreated to the surface, breathed up, and dived again, using the same route and perching on the same ledge. This time there was a snapper of about 5kg hanging just out of range in the open.
Another retreat. Another breath up. Another dive onto the same ledge.
Looking down from my ledge there were a lot more snapper there than before, but they were all less than 4kg, and I wanted the fiver I’d just seen. After a while I noticed movement above me, bugger me if there wasn’t a pair of good sized snapper doing synchronised swimming. They pissed about doing circles and what-not with each other (spawning?) until finally the bigger of the two put himself side on and in range so I let rip with a head shot with my new 120. I didn’t know if the shot had gone right through (I don’t think my 110 wouldn’t have even touched it), so I let the whole rig go, hoping it would hole up. Well, it didn’t, and I ended up playing it like a kingfish in open water.
I was soooooooooooo gentle with it, not putting much pressure on it at all, because I still didn’t know if the spear had done its thing properly.
Anyway, as I got it up nearer the surface, I saw a long dark shape swimming towards my fish. I first thought I was going to lose it to a shark, but no, it turned out to be Adam (Rusky) who put a second shot into it. Sweet as! I hauled it in and saw that the spear had gone right through its cheeks, just below the eyes, and was in no danger of tearing out. It was secured without any dramas.
 

 

My first 'Puk! Just a wee guy at 6kg, but a puk is a puk.

We had dived all day for no result and we were slowly making our way back to the ramp and diving various spots on the way. We were on the last stop before hometime diving a kay or two from town in bugger all viz. I happened to dive right on the upcurrent edge of a small reef and lay there watching all the blue moki milling about. All of a sudden a puk shot in from the side, did a U-turn and began to bolt off in the direction from which it came. I took a quick snap shot which somehow connected with its head which hurt it badly and it was dead by the time I had it to the surface. Couldn't have been happier!  

Earlier in the day we had been diving a pretty grim spot and I wasn't having much fun, then one of the boys comes up from a dive raving about the size of the tarakihi down there. I thought 'right, thats it, I'm gonna go down there and smash one then jump in the boat 'til we move spots'. So I did just that.

The tarakihi was a shade over 2kg.

 

 

First trumpeter 3+kg

We were dropped into shark infested waters at a virtually un-dived place called Boundry Rock. Boundry rock rises vertically from 30ish metres and breaks the surface. We would go down the side and lay on a small ledge at about 17 metres and peer over in to the scary depths below. There were fish schooling all through the water column, and amongst the blue moki and tarakihi schooling mid-water were a bunch of these guys. MJL and I both stoned one each, we then moved a bit inshore and HAND FED HAPUKU!!

 

Puk from a 10 metre deep weedline at a place called Natikitik.

 

Lining up a 3.5kg cray.

 

Got it in the end, and it worked my hands over big time and actually bit me, I aint sh ittin ya, it pulled my thumb to its mouth and BIT me!

 

Day 1 on the Gurnies.
We'd heard of the gurnard swarms that idiot stickers were getting in to fairly close to home, so decided to have a crack at them with a spear.
Plan A. was to simply swim around over the sand flats which didnt produce any (just a turbot! (see below))

After a bit of a re-think a Plan B was formulated.
Plan B. was to set burlies at various depths and shoot them from that.
After an hour of Plan B being about as productive as Plan A we were close to packing it in. I dived (think we decided it was our last dive of the day) and finally saw one of the little guys crawling along. I blasted it and hit the surface with a big grin and renewed enthusiasm so we stayed a bit longer and ended up with nine, which we were stoked about as it was our first proper bash at them. 

 

 

Went out to Barrier mid-winter with a 5-10 knot variable forecast which should have been a 20 knot forecast anyway we found a sheltered bit of coast and I was first in. LAME- I couldn't see my fin tips!

 

The most horrid thing ever. The koi that swallowed the world.

 

First Boarie and a trev, 'Lil B. Not much to say on these two, saw them both from the surface, swam down and boom! The boarie was from the weedline running N/S, on the west of the Island, and the trev was from a school of 5-6-7 on the southern weedline. My trev was the smallest in the group by a long way, but was the only one that offered a shot which I took as it was departing (which is why the shot is down near its tail  ) There were a couple in the school that looked to be over 10kg. I really wanted one of them, but pretty stoked with this one.
 

 

The greatest photo in the world??
 

 

Yellow emperor. By all accounts a very tricky fish in Tonga ( even our guide Ben hadn't managed to spear one before ), but I think I just got lucky and found one that hadn't read the script.

Speared him from above as it was entering a cave, got it in the tail .

 

 

Dourade tropicale. Absolute bas-tards of things. You see heaps, but somehow they evade capture almost every time. Stoked with this- my first (and so far, my only) one...well actually, I've shot a few bubbas, but none that really count.

 

 

 

63.3kg Napolean wrasse (Wally). First minute of the first dive of the day, on the first day of a week long trip. Boom.

 

First proper decent goldie, I've shot half a dozen wee ones, but this one is my best.

So far that kingy is the only one I've shot that has pulled my float under.

   

 

 

Spent three days out of the Hokianga last game season.  We were trolling around for stickfaces the idea being that I would film my mate smacking one.  The marlin thing never really happened but I was graciously allowed to put my camera down long enough to jump in on a log and nail this fella.  Went just over 6kg and was at least three times the size of the next biggest in the school.

 

 

Week before I got the mahi I was in the Chathams.  I was lying on the bottom hoping a school of 'puks was going to come back in when I saw  this boy hanging around.  Couldn't really tell the size but thought it must be quite a good.  When another turk I thought must have been at least 2kg swam between me and I could still clearly make him out behind him I realized he was really big.  Went 2.41kg - 90g off the record which has stood since 1977.  AArrrg

 

This guy was one of at least 100 hapuka we had schooling behind the boat.  An amazing sight.

 

 

The long-nose emporer on the left is probably my most satisfying gish to date.  Had spent five days trying nab one of the cunning ******* and literally in the last half of the last day finally got him. 

 

 

Couple of snaps that we berleyed on a shore dive within 1500m of one of the country's most popular tourist beaches

 

 

First day I managed to talk a mate into taking his thundercat out to the chicks.  Managed this 7.4kg number in boulder bay.  Bear hugged him all the way back to the boat cos of the big bronzies that had been cruising the weedline with attendant kingies instead of remoras.

 

Went for a dive up north with my new underwater camera and was lucky enough to find loads of packhorse crays hanging out in our cray spot. I didn't grab any myself, and between the five of us diving we only grabbed three for a feed.

Was really nice to see so many crays in such good water too. Holly grabbed this bugger that was sitting under a bit of kelp on top of a boulder.

I snapped this photo of one packy that came wandering up to me. Still my favourite underwater photo so far.

3.) Kawau Island with Ed. Seen a few gooduns there but this is it so far....

2.) Sail Rock. Shot out in the open from a school of a dozen or so in 15-18m. I dunno, fish are where you find them.

1.) With Spence, Paul. Taken from the chicks in less than 2m.

 

Close but no cigar. About 19.5lb taken from chicks on a dive with TSW and Giggles. Was about my 2nd snapper

 

Again, about 19.999lb, mokes.

 

So, there it is. I guess I'm a little proud but seeing them all lined up like that, I dunno, that's a lot of dead fish. 

At least Bender will be proud of me....

 

went 6kg,shot t off cape brett n 250m,got 2 more smaller ones,all from under a packing crate