Yeah I don't think they were up for a fight but would have added interest, their Australian cousins were popular with fly fishers until they became endangered and now protected.
Printable View
Took a workmate out this morning.
Had dropped a couple of cray pots yesterday arvo....one crab no crays.
At least no sand sharks or conger eels in the pots.
Stayed shallow rather than target big snaps and be plauged by spiky dogs.
Woulda thought the gurnard would be in by now but still too early in my go to spots.....17 deg water temp.
9-10 panni snapper,couple of Trevor,couple of kahawai, couple of cuda and in on the high at 11.
Nice morning on the water.
Attachment 197102
And not a single shark caught.:)
The big tide trip!
Well looked at tide times couple of weeks ago, made a plan crossed fingers and hoped for a good run.
Weather played ball and the team headed for the flats once again for a mid week evening trip, we arrived at different times with the VC clan in the water testing out a channel I have tried as well…looks full of promise but never seems hold fish on the ebb tide.
Did the catch up yarns and with the estuary still holding a lot of water we headed for @ROKTOY shallow spot, it was an unusual ebb an hour before low the estuary was still holding a lot of water we set up a dig across the shallow channel in a runnng tide, got a couple of bites that exploded into rays ..they hit the net and fortunately blew over the top. Our luck didn’t last and we snagged one then another as VC was shook the first two loose a third one busted up…‘‘twas a shit show “
So back to square one 3 drags 7 rays one token flounder later, seemed the rays were everywhere had one hit the surface well away from the net , steamed at high speed on the surface straight at me waist deep, did a hand break turn and crashed into the shore …exciting stuff indeed.
So with the whole gang VC Roctoy the Imports and the token dog all hungry for a fish our blessed Pengy changed things up and bringing a wheel barrow to cart nets fish and ice etc what a bloody great idea!
The ebb tide eased off finally about an hour and half after the low tide so into the dark we dragged seemed the rays had left for deeper waters and the flats had settled in for the evening, four in the first dig , became 10 in the second , bodies and chill in the air saw folks wanting a hot shower and a seat on the couch ..especially if you had being fishing all day (vc) the fisherman that goes fishing for work only to come home and go fishing again.
Last drag we got a bite a huge thump but no bust up had me thinking we had old stinker being lazy and sitting in the drag waiting to give us a final wiz up when we beached the net, so we dragged towards the headlights of the shore crew ..up the shore we hauled a few delicious flats and then boom up it came a huge rig , and a couple more flats.
VC sorted the rig and we iced the other flats , the moon rose and we wore out. Off to bed ..great evening
Heading out again tomorrow if anyone wants to tag along.
Took Dad out today, will post report when clean up sorted.
Took Dad out today.
After 5 days of appalling weather finally could see if my pots were still there.
They were I had tucked them up in a sheltered cove.
Nothing in them and remaining bait bloody stinky!
With a good forcast relocated and rebaited.
Small tides the goal was actually to get some oysters rather than fishing as such but by the time we got up to wards the spot current was running and I thought we can't waste this.
Attachment 197571
Ankor and burly down... deploy strayline it only gets half way down and is taken.
Nice 35cm panni snap.
We had a run of three or four 35-40cm pannies one after the other...then a lull then cuda and tangles....then the wind came up.....like really came up.
Wind against current good times.
Boat side on a meter plus of chop,burly pot and a rod round ankor.
Sort that catch some more pannies and a couple of donky gurnard....it's shit and I keep saying 2 more min if we don't catch table fish we gone and every time I say that we are hooked up.
Both Dad and I are pretty salty ol sea dogs and the wind is not forcast and I hope it will drop but it gets to the point where we are both fuck it we've got more than a feed let's find some shelter and work our way home and maybe get some cod in a sheltered spot.
Off to sheltered cod spot, Dad scored one beauti blue and lots of snags we are drifting too fast in the wind.....but it's dropping:cool:
And just like that the wind stopped,sea didn't go flat but it got 90% better so we had a drag for some oysters.
It's very difficult to dredge 40m with a recreational dredge and actually have it work.
Dredge worked but float didn't ffs.
Two short drags for a couple doz then hammer down flat out all the way home to catch the high tide and get on trailer.
Attachment 197572
Cleaning up and Wifey came down when almost finished "where's the fish?"
Well I gave Sara four snapper and Pip a couple and some gurnard and cod and Dad took the rest and I kept four oysters cos you are sick of fish.
So new diet she is eating fish.....about bloody time!!!!
Shot out on the low to check pots, one sand shark.
One of these days I'll catch a Nelson cray in a pot:ORLY:
Twas a bit windy.
Attachment 197603
Funny looking sand shark! Looks more like one of the beach boys ;)
Out this arvo with @axeman.
Amazing weather no wind at all.
Fishing was a tad slow with the small tides,blue cod out on the sand after we had already gone into the coast to catch our limit bloody typical.
Water Viz was amazing for winter....could clearly see the bottom in 6-8 m which made me wish I had thrown in the dive gear.
Didn't chuck the rifle in so naturally there were goats everywhere.
Attachment 197853
Attachment 197857
Attachment 197859
Fuck it weathers going to be shit …I’m going …need a fishing trip …or rabbit island 40 meter net …
Much as I dislike foul language, I am sad to report that the W word gets in the way of this one
Went for a bit of a mission out west haven last weekend and and an amazing day!! Flat calm waters, caught snapper, king terikiki, Big blue cod, trevaly, Grouper, a random blue warahau, saw sharks jump, and was escorted home with a pack? of humpback whales. Cant really get better than that :)
Didn't dive this time so no bugs
Attachment 198477
Attachment 198478
Attachment 198479
Went for a bit of a mission out west haven last weekend and and an amazing day!! Flat calm waters, caught snapper, king terikiki, Big blue cod, trevaly, Grouper, a random blue warahau, saw sharks jump, and was escorted home with a pack? of humpback whales. Cant really get better than that :)
Didn't dive this time so no bugs
Attachment 198477
Attachment 198478
Attachment 198479
Quick trip this arvo with the Son.
Attachment 198488
Nice weather, got a feed of carrots and cod.
A few big greyboys about and the spiky little buggers too.
Got mini me ashore for a couple of unsuccessful goat stalks but one day they will stuff up.
Attachment 198489
here's a bit of a video from out the coast the other weekend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkyHACl_p8g&t=2s
Cold day on Lake Rotoiti (NI) produced a Trout for dinner. Fried in Butter and served on heavily butter toast with a bit of green stuff, tomoatoes and mayo. The colour of these lake fish are outstanding, didnt get a fish photo so only have the after shot
Attachment 199777
Attachment 199778
Cheers FBD
Snuck in and out of Waihau. One released, one for sushimi
Attachment 200132
I thought they would be well gone by now.
Just started last week
Yeh a mate got two at 60 kgs last week. Babies [emoji23]
Maybe babies but tasty babies non the less
Wicked ..what a beast ….love this this years winter fishery, large gurnard in close, huge Kawahai in the channels, some very serious kingis up at Stephens on Thursday. Crays along the coast ..big nests not seen for years ..current or water temps top of the south is holding epic fish right now
Some one got a sword, tagged a marlin and bagged a mahimahi at Waihau yesterday, the water was still 18 degrees when we were there last Friday..... heard of marlin in winter but not mahi
Nice fish Gibo,like halling in a V8.
They had a bloody good day then ah !!!!
I caught up with my Dad today he showed me a photo from his mate who landed two of those bluefin out off Waihau last weekend.
First one hit the shotgun, next one they all saw come up and hit a lure 6m behind the boat. Two on at once [emoji106]
That shit is what my dreams are made of. You lucky buggers [emoji41]
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
Gotta be a heap of fish about with no Nelson members posting trip reports for weeks.....they will be hungry
See theres been some good Tope caught over blenhiem in the last month, couple of real good ones last week surfcasting so i head over that way torrow and see how i do.
Mate in his tinny when hes been able to get out is slaying the Gurnard in the bay, fish up to 49cm and getting his quota.
Seem to be high numbers of Tope around Cloudy Bay Area this year. Not sure why the numbers are up. One of my sons caught 8 one day in late January in the general area of Raukawa Rock.
Before we had found out how many were around, I had put a long line in - what a mistake that turned out to be!
Do people eat tope down south?
Well, yesterdays shark fishing mission was pretty good. Few people told me wrong time of year to catch tope, esp around here but you never know until you try.
Yesterdays weather was mint.
Attachment 200735
Great day out, first few fish were spiky dogs, prob caught 8 over a hour and a half then they disappeared. Then caught a big red cod,
used that for burly to see if can get a shark in.
Seemed to work well, not long after my 850ss penn was losing line and could tell had a far bigger fish on.
Soild hookup, surfaced and saw i had a sevengill hooked up.
Wasnt the school sharks i was after but any shark was on the list and this was one of them. Reasonable fight but wasnt that big so didnt take long on the 9kg line.
'
Attachment 200738
Decided i keep this one as not too big and see what its like to eat. was pleasantly surprised, no smell at all, even the next day out of the fridge(like rig)
Meat looked real good and got heaps.
Tried some just panned in butter and oils, was real good. not strong, fact was very mild in taste. Will be very good in batter or breadcrumbs, maybe some spice so if you into rig, you love this.
Met a guy who was also fishing down there that just happened to be the guy posting all these good size Topes online.
He was a good bugger and fished quite a way down from us. Saw him catch a couple of stake then straight after my sevengill shark he hooked something big.
was watching him fight this fish for like over 20 minutes, thought i better go over and give him a hand when he gets it in.
Had lighter gear, took the wrong bait lol but he had a real good tope on.
Managed to tail it for him and it was a good one, well over 20kilos...was a good day and Tope can be caught in the middle of winter
Attachment 200739
Fish was a little bigger than that photo might show, it was a good one cheers
That's cool! I've heard it's a good idea to get fins off and guts out ASAP to limit ammonia taste, but what do I know!
For sharks thats a must. trunk them, fins of, head and tailed, gutted and put on ice. Rig always have that strong ammonia smell but the meat is
quite good and doesnt seem to transfer though to the taste esp of you do the above.
That sevengiller had no smell at all, meat looked great and cooking some just straight from filleting it was real good. very mild favour, if you like rig/lemon fish you love this.
Bigger sharks they recommend soaking the meat in milk for 2-5 hours before cooking to get rid of any ammonia/mercury taste but for rig and that sevengiller see no need for that unless it was a far bigger one.
Have found if you have snapper thats been frozen for a period soaking it in milk certainly improves it untold when cooking .