The Snapper of Cook Strait

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THE SNAPPER OF COOK STRAIT Half an hour's tramp brought us to around into the sun again and very the top of the hill from where, far be- beautiful as a touch of colour crept into low, the waters of Cook Strait spread the western sky over the Brothers Lightaway to merge with the hazy blue house on the distant horizon. cliffs of the South Island. The familiar Hopping from boulder to boulder, we pattern of the rip swirling past the rocks soon fourd a fishable rock and cast at the head of the bay brought to us out our baits. The moving kelp weed that feeling of impending success- occasionally caused the reels to a how give could such beautiful water fail to little run. but things seemed pretty quiet. produce fish? It is such evenings which make fishing Impatient to get to our destination, far more than just catching fish. The we broke into a run, and the quiet of quiet and closeness to nature give a the hot February afternoon was broken feeling of absolute peace and rest. by the thumping of boots and the slap Just as the sun sank behind the disof heavy packs on our bare backs. Soon tant cliffs, my reel started screaming Ralph and I were down in the valley, out. Running over to the rod I lifted pushing through the tawhini which was it from the rock and waited for his a little more prevalent than last time. next burst. A few tugs, then away she The rabbits were up in numbers too; went. Throwing the lever into drag, I we counted 42 in about ten minutes pulled up the strong rod and felt the even though it was still mid afternoon. steady weight of a good fish. He fought The stream provided a pleasant swill and hard in the weedy patches and I was drink, and leaving our gear at the hut, really putting in some effort to get him we made for the beach armed with through in places, but he was soon in, our trusty one-piece fibreglass rods, penn the large golden-red side and big eye reels and, of course, the old fishing bag. floating in over the weed. A sure plunge The tide was pretty high, so Ralph with the gaff and Ralph had him up to dived in and th rew me pauas as he safety. prised them from the bottom of a clear "About 14 or 15, what do you rocky channel at the edge of the bay. reckon?" I asked. I was thinking of the snapper they "Yeah, about that", he replied, "Just would entice to my hook as I let each a good local snapper, but you've still new arrival suck on to its predecessor. got my 21 pounder to beat". "That's enough!" I yelled, just man- "The day will come", I thought to aging to catch a particularly speedy myself. flying paua and placing the bunch on The next cast resulted in a snag and the rock I dived in to cool off as well lost tackle and as Ralph struck simi- -very refreshing! lar trouble, we decided to call it a day. We decided to fish the beach for a There would be plenty more tomorwhile as it sometimes produced row! results and sure enough, after a Bnef Next morning showed a change in wait, the old reel was screaming out the weather with an annoying nor-wester the "anglers' concerto", and a rather coming into the Bay. We fished all our small snapper was soon flapping on the usual spots, but it was quite dead with sand. only the odd parrot fish managing to "Better throw him back", laughed my himself caught. After a brew and brother. fanchi we decided to go for a ramble "He's a good start. Proves they're round the point on the off chance we about anyway", I replied as a pulled the might find a sheltered rock from which eye of the hook through a new slice of to fish. The wind was increasing all the juicy paua before threading it on to time, and soon a regular the shank. "Bigger one this time 1 and was whipping the sea into Wellington a gale the monofilament foaming 28 lb. hummed out chip. Trying a couple of casts we had off the reel and with a distant thunk' to give it away as it was too the sinker met the water. ant holding up the rods in the unpleas- wind. Another half an hour saw a few Instead we had a on those black small runs but no fish and as the sun flies which cling all purge over the sides of had gone, we decided to head off round big rocks on the coast. We must have the point for the evening. killed off hundreds of them with lengths The sea is never calm out off the point, of washed up kelp weed used a but it was unusually quiet as we came whip. It was a useless battle, however, like as there were still thousands left when in as the smaller ones do. As my we had "belted" all the accessible spots. brother was too busy to gaff him, I The sea by this time had become most jumped in behind the large fish and spectacular out off the point, so we kicked and dragged him out his on second the headed back to watch it for a while. rocks. Ralph as I took was the beaching hook out of his The very. strong tidal rip was opposed snapper mouth. to the direction of the wind and this powerful the I combination formed very high-crested "Pity we haven't got scales", and steep sided waves with an up, and said. "Must by a new pair one "Prob- day." "Darned shame", replied Ralph, down rather than rolling motion in a ably over 20 pounds that one". fairly small area adjacent to the point. "Ah well, let's get into some more We sat contemplating the might of the of these Must be a good shoal sea for quite a while, and wondered out snapper. replied, and so the reels if any boat could stay upright in such were there". humming as the line curved an area of water. out over the weed again into the clear patch Being keen fishermen, however, the we were fishing so succesfully. decision came to throw a line into a Another hour saw several fish lost and shallow patch just round the point where auite a few landed, most of them big: we had never tried before. So out came heavy. snapper. At one stage Ralph tried the tackle bag from which a selected a counting after his bait hit the water and spoon-moulded sinker which I attached for three consecutive casts he never got to a loop at the end of my line. On passed ten before a fish had taken the another loop tied into the line with a bait. It was a thrilling two hours before figure eight knot about 18 inches above we decided to stop as we were running the sinker, I threaded a good strong out of time and it was an hour and a 6/0 suicide hook. Fishing around rocks half's tramp back to the car. where we lose a good bit of gear, this We had a beauty pile of fish. A count method is far quicker than messing revealed eleven snapper. We though we around with traces and I don't believe had more, but quite a few had been you need a running sinker for the benefit lost and the big ones don't come in of the fish-I've had 12-inch snapper very fast. We'd lost a few sinkers as scream off with a 4-oz. sinker at a well. Though we had no scales, we speed that would do justice to a 12 measured the largest of them. The bigpounder. gest fellow was no less than. 354 inches While I was baiting the hook, Ralph, from nose to the fork in hais tail; next who had rigged up a little more quickly in line an inch shorter, and still anwas alreadv casting. No sooner had his other 30 inches long. What would they line hit the bottom than he had a run. weigh? Well, we've had a 33 inches "Got him!" he cried, as the rod arched weighing 16 pounds, yet again two 20 back, "feels like a good one. Here he pound fish each only 30 inches long, comes, look there are two snapper, an- but very big in the head. These snapper other one is following in the one I've were heavy solid fish having lived on hooked. Quick Erik, get you line in over a diet of the abundant pauas in the here!" locality and the largest could have been No sooner said than done, but a close around 25 pounds. cast produced nothing, so I headed The old "Trapper Nelson" pack we well out. In half a minute or so I was use for carrying fish and meat would getting bites. The familiar preliminary only hold four of the fish, so we tied tugging of the line before a snapper the rest to a suitable piece of driftruns, then she was away. I let the line wood and staggered back to the beach run off the reel under my thumb, then carrying the awkward and heavv load. the break as he swallowed the bait. The We took some photographs in the last anxious moment waiting for his next of the daylight and filleted the snapper run, then awav again. Flicking the reel placing the juicy pieces into the pack. into drag, I brought up the rod even as They filled it more than halfway up; Ralph was calling, "T've got another all solid boneless fillet and a good load run". There we both were, our rods to carry back. bent over together, each of us into a Another half hour saw us on the good fish. Mine was a big snapper and top of the saddle where we cast our he ripped off the line quite a few times eyes back into the glow of the sky over in his attempts to get into the weed, but the point and watched those movina eventually I had him in sight with the water beckoning us back once more to tell-tale red flash as he cut across to meet with the mighty snapper of Cook one side. These big fellow invariably Strait. come in to one side instead of straight -ERIK JORGENSEN