Although my elbow still hurts, I couldn't pass up a chance to fish in NZ when I was rostered for a flight to Auckland. The flight to Auckland was with a free day in between so I decided to go on a fishing charter, targeting Pink Snapper. I chose to go with Wave Dancer (wavedancer.co.nz) because it caters for 4-6 anglers and they have fast boats. The other charter operators use 'party' boats and usually can fit up to 12 persons. Too many people to my liking!
The night before, the boat skipper called to inform me that the trip tomorrow is ON! Woo hoo!
Early next morning, I walked to Pier Z to board the boat. After exchanging pleasantries with the skipper and the other anglers, we set off to the fishing grounds. This boat was fast! As the seas were pretty calm early in the morning, we reached our fishing ground in about 40mins.
As I didn't bring my fishing gear, I borrowed the charter's gear which was mostly overhead reels and rods. I also used the reels that uses the right hand to crank instead of left. This way, it would put less stress on my right elbow. On the boat ride, I was looking around to see what sort of bait will we be using for fishing. Didn't see any so I presumed it was still frozen in the chiller. So when the skipper handed our the gear, he began to tie 'inchiku' on it. It's a NZ version of madais. I asked, 'Not using bait?'. The skipper said, 'The snappers love this lures'. So I tossed the inchiku in the water and started to work them like madais. Let it drop all the way to the bottom, then 3-4 pumps of the reel up, then freespool down again. After a few jigs, I had a strike! Fish on! Brought the fish up, and true enough, it was a Pink Snapper, about 35cm. Soon, the rest of the anglers were getting into action as well.
Once the action slowed down, the skipper changed spots. He was looking for work-ups. Work-ups are essentially a feeding frenzy caused my feeding whales in the Hauraki Gulf. The whales feed on plankton which baitfish like pilchards also feed on. This in turn, attracts the larger predators like Pink Snapper, Yellowtail Kingfish and Kahawai. I was told whale poop also attracts lots of baitfish!
The skipper was very professional in handling the fish that we caught. Any fish that was landed, he unhooked it, measured it and spiked the head if it was of legal size. Pink snapper minimum size is 27cm. I caught a Pink Snapper that measured 26cm. He looked at me and said, 'Sorry mate, let's catch a bigger one!', and released the fish. Now that's what I call conservation!
At the next work-up, I dropped my inchiku down again. Within 5 seconds, I felt a sharp tug and line was peeling from my reel. Fish ON! This bugger was not letting up and kept diving. Finally, I managed to put some weight on it and slowly pumped it back up. It came up to be largest fish I caught for the day, a 4kg Pinkie! I learnt later that a lot of fish tend to hit the lures when it is free-falling in the water column.
By 3pm, all anglers had caught their Pink Snapper limit, which is 9. With grinning faces, we headed back to pier to unload and divide our catch. All in all, I caught my limit of 9 Pink Snapper and 3 Kahawai. What an awesome day fishing!
Fish ID - Pink Snapper (Pagrus auratus)
