You know you've got a mad keen fisher on your hands when your 11-year-old is standing in the hall fully dressed in his fishing outfit - cap and all - when you groggily emerge from sleep at the sound of your phone alarm. I'd made bacon, egg and HP sauce rolls the night before, so it was to be brekkie on board the boat after a short drive in the pre-dawn to launch at our local beach amid a gorgeous daybreak. The boy was 'frothing' as they say these days.
Not having been out for what seemed like forever, I was focused on a mistake-free launch - which was successfully achieved apart from trying to push the boat off the trailer with the main security chain still attached (wondering why it wouldn't roll off!).
The Merc purred first time, and we were on our way. Terns were dipping in the calm seas as we headed north-east towards Maria Island and a golden tinted sky.
The seas were a bit on the lumpy side the further we got out from shelter, with a southerly versus incoming tide, and a following sea. But the young fella, and the little FC465 took it in their stride apart from the odd bigger bump.
We picked a spot between the Noises and Maria to prospect with our softbaits - mostly Gulp to ensure the boy got lots of bites. He picked up his casting where he'd left off on the previous trip - ripping out casts nicely, and controlling loose line. It wasn't long before we got the first snapper aboard, but they were on the small side. Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, we picked up a good feed of pannies to 40cm.
Even though he didn't hook the biggie he'd dreamed of, the young fella had a ball, managing to play fish with good technique despite the boat's ups and downs.
We then decided to venture out to a work-up that had been on the go for about an hour just north of the Noises.
We quickly hooked a kahawai which I deployed as a livebait on a sinker well down in the 31m deep water. But while it looked very fishy with the bird life and sporadic kahawai activity, unfortunately no kingies seemed to be at home. People were fishing hard on the surrounding boats with a variety of methods, from jigs to bait, but nobody was hooking up on anything to write home about. With the action dissipating, we had to make a call.
In sparkling sunshine, we decided to explore around the Noises, Rakino and along the Motutapu shoreline as far as Gardner's Gap - with no sign of any anchovy work ups at all. There wasn't a tern or a splash to be seen anywhere. Hopefully the anchovy runs are still to come. This time two years ago it was all go at Administration Bay, with some decent kingies in the mix, so the lack of visible life was disappointing.
We headed for home into the teeth of a blustery southerly, having enjoyed a memorable father and son day on the moana. Fresh beer battered snapper and crispy agria chips for dinner with mum and younger brother was the boy's well-earned reward. He went to bed feeling like he was still in a moving boat, which I reckon is a sign of a great day on the water.
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