Last week I had an invite to fish aboard crazy Horse - a charter operation out of the Kawhia harbour. The next day the organiser of the trip 'John' called to say there was a spare spot. I called a couple of mates & Barney 53 couldn't do it but Skoti could. Excellent!
The very next day I had another call 'Smudge, it's John. We need another fisherman for our charter next Wednesday - do you know anyone who may be keen????'
' Hmmm, let me see what I can do John'.
A post on fishing.net soon dragged in Worksux, with Fletch also keen but unfortunately for Fletch there were no more spots available, sorry Fletch!
Things got off to a bad start for me, promising Skoti I'd be there at 5.45am. I got there at 6.10...
Pedal to the metal and after an hour and a bit we saw a sign saying Kawhia 41km. Looking good Skoti, we'll be there in 30 mins. Well an hour later we were still twisting and turning our way to Te Waitere where Crazy Horse is based.
We got to our overnight accommodation at 8.55, busy thinking of excuses for our tardiness. We didn't need the excuses because one car load of three anglers had gone to the Kawhia wharf 45 minutes away.
Was a pleasant morning and we knew the west coast was firing so no pressure, at least we had a chance to meet our host John and his mate Ian, along with Dave the owner of Crazy Horse and 308 charters. The others arrived around 10 and we set off to the boat which was about 4 minutes down the road.
We had a good brief from Dave and I met another Dave also for the first time who is known here as WorkSux.
First impressions of the boat and skipper were good and then we headed out over what appeared to be a very narrow but safe bar through what is known locally as the boat channel.
We headed off to 55m and now I'll let the pics do the talking:
John, our host for the day with one of the first fish to hit the ice

It didn't take Skoti long to get in on the action

Which resulted in this:

WorkSux showed me how to catch gurnard with this beauty

Of course it was released. WorkSux was great to fish with, was a real pleasure meeting you & fishing with you Dave and he gave me heaps about gurnard, which of course everyone does

but he redeemed himself with this fish

I gave inchiku's a go but the action was so fast and furious the camera could only manage a blurred image

Eventually even I caught a fish

A few other pics of the day - our hard working skipper Paul (he's handed the reins to owner Dave and relaxing with a well earned beer) & WorkSux slugging one down


Owner and other skipper Dave takes the helm to give Paul a break after some hectic snapper action

Skoti & WorkSux caught in a special moment

308 charters cater for everyone

A kill shot

Skoti got a little frisky as the night wore on

Maybe it was too many of these but to be fair there were some good looking sheep around

WTF????

Paul joined us for a beer, he's a good bloke!

relaxing after a hard day's work at the Woolshed Hilton

My last memory of the night kind captured the moment exactly as I remember it ... kind of hazy ...

A good blokey adventure with 308 Charters aboard Crazy Horse. It was a good day out with steady action and a limit catch of mighty fine snapper to a tad over 5kg. I'm sure WorkSux & Skoti will add their thoughts - it was a lot of fun fishing with youse fullas! I'd recommend Crazy Horse to anyone but it is a BIG drive form Waiuku

. Good fun though!