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Adventures in New Zealand...


Houseplant
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Another short entry from me. Back out on Sunday morning. Exceptional sea conditions and fish really on the bite. I caught my bag limit of 7 snapper in about an hour. All on light tackle and metal jigs. Home by 0830. Really good fishing! 

I have been asked before if I get bored of snapper fishing... A fish that grows pretty big, will readily take artificial lures, looks good, fights hard and great to eat. The answer is no!

Best fish of the morning.

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1st September is a special day because scallop season starts! After my fishing trip, I got home, cleaned up and then loaded the car with dive gear. We planned to meet some friends, do a dive and cook scallops on the beach.  

The weather held for us.

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Mrs Houseplant all kitted up and ready to dive.

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Navigating to the scallop beds underwater.

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First scallop of the season! It didn't take us long to achieve our bag limit of 20 per person. We measured each one to ensure that they were minimum size (100mm across the shell).

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At the end of the dive, our boy welcomed us back and helped carry the catch. 

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Scallops cooked and eaten on the beach as planned.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey HP, 

I just stumbled across your post - I am also from New Zealand (Piha Originally) but have been living in the UK for the past 19 years.  I have been really getting into the shooting scene here and have had some amazing days out.  My gear consists mainly of Hunting and Fishing apparel that I have bought back from NZ.

I try to get back to NZ at least once a year - my parents live in Matakana, so great fishing around there as well.  I have a boat back in NZ, but the last time I was back I found it better (and cheaper) to just fish around the rocks - Scandretts bay etc.  I got some nice snapper within 5 mins drive!

I try to take my boy who is 6 out every weekend here - either shooting for pigeons or crows, fishing or pheasant beating - love the outdoor lifestyle.  Not the same as NZ, but it is what you make of it.

Enjoy the Spring fising back home!

Cheers

Trenta

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A decent snapper jumped on the line the other day. Unfortunately, it was caught in deep water, so a release wasn't possible. Not an ounce of that fish will be wasted. Fillets were processed, spare cuts were made in to ceviche and the head/frame will go to a local homeless charity to be made in to soup. 

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On the way home, I spotted something floating on the ocean. It turned out to be a spear fisherman's float. Great find as I'm a budding spearo and was about to buy one!

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I got chatting to someone at work who lost their dive float at the weekend! I had found the lost float on the open ocean. What are the chances of that? The float was returned. You win some, you lose some!

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2 hours ago, markyboy07 said:

cant see the latest photos for some reason? any one else not see them or is it just me?

 

Sorry. Had some trouble with the photo hosting site (as in it shut down!). I've transferred all the photos to GooglePhotos with Teal's assistance. Showing fine on desktop. Not appearing on mobile devices which is a shame.  

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15 hours ago, Houseplant said:

Sorry. Had some trouble with the photo hosting site (as in it shut down!). I've transferred all the photos to GooglePhotos with Teal's assistance. Showing fine on desktop. Not appearing on mobile devices which is a shame.  

It might be a privacy setting on your Google album, that only you can see them (hence perhaps logged in on your desktop you can, but logged out on mobile can't?)

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We got out offshore on Saturday. We had planned to go to the Mokohinau Islands (or "Mokes") which lie 52km from the mainland, but there was a bit of a swell running, so we only got about half way, fishing the Hen & Chicken Islands and a deepwater wreck along the way.

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We met at the boat ramp at 0730. Sunny day 😀

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As we got close to the harbour entrance, there was an almighty commotion on the surface. A large pod of dolphins were rounding up bait fish.

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Our first target at the Hen & Chicks was john dory. We both favour them over other species for their eating qualities. It was pretty much bent rods from the moment we got to the islands, mostly snapper, but we managed to get passed the snapper and land a few john dory. 

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As the tide slowed, I decided it was time for a dive. The target was crayfish (red rock lobster). Not too many of those around, but I did bag a slipper lobster which are just as good on a plate and enjoyed seeing the other wildlife.

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At the end of the dive, I surfaced by the rocks and met a bull fur seal. He gave me a bit of a grunt which I think meant back off. I obliged!

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After the dive, we went to the wreck of the RMS Niagara which lies in 115m of water. We could see the Mokes in the distance.

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We caught a few big snapper in the deep water and Tom had some fun with a shark on light tackle.

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Last goal for the day was to bag some scallops. We motored back to the harbour and I jumped in with about 30 minutes of daylight left. Fortunately, it was quite easy to collect our bag limit of 40 scallops and I was out the water just as the sun was setting.

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12 hours on the water plus 3 hours of kit cleaning, fish filleting and scallop shucking made for an exhausting, but enjoyable day!

 

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