SnpperWhisperer
01-13-2008, 09:21 PM
It seems most of my dives are now developing into great sagas and epics that I could write up for hours; full of physical trials, and intense emotional roller coasters from hope, despair, jubilation, and wonder. This is the level on which people lived before technology killed the challenge of everyday life, and the level I prefer to live at when I step back a few notches to enjoy diving the way it used to be done. Pictures do not really tell a thousand words, especially when taken by yourself with an old cellphone. So here's a few anyway.
Of course this was not all done off a kayak. Day 1 was unproductive. Day 2 was long-range, heading to Snoop’s spot at Sailor’s Grave, where I swam into the same spot and was surrounded by big snapper well out of range for me in a very surgey one metre swell. Eventually, a silver drummer volunteered to be hung drawn and quartered in order to lure the big ones closer to a ledge where it was possible to make a shot, but still it was a long shot with the swell and depth and lack of cover. After some cat and mouse, I was in position in a trench, peering at a monster eating the fish frame five metres away, and knowing my carbine had a range of about 1 metre on a big fish. There’s nothing for it, but to take your chances at times like these – the moments that you have to take the fight to the enemy. I swayed out with the kelp and used the sun to do a ‘vampire’, drifting down silently as the fish was concentrating on its last supper. The gamble paid off, there I was mid-water, dropping, closer and closer, and expecting to hear the thump of its tail, but I hit the right distance and released the spear, followed with a powerful drive towards the bottom to ensure penetration and security. Wedging my hand around the body, I realised that the fish had been stoned dead. 8.6 kg (19 lb) on my scales. That’s enough work in this swell.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/Image010-1.jpg
Back to my snapper island. Not much current today, so I drifted out to a gut where the big fish were yesterday. I eased silently along the edge of the kelp, a break opening up beside me. In it was a 6.9 kg (15 lb) snapper that didn’t even realise what had happened when 1.5 kg worth of steel and aluminium hit it with a bang. Stoned it.
A 13 kg (28 lb) kingy would also feel the joy in this spot a few days later. A poor shot meant some gentle handling but finally I swam down, pushed the spear through properly, pulled the fish into a b ear hung, and hauled it up to the surface.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/PC270039sm.jpg
I spooked a boarie in 3m of water at Bumper Point. Later he swam past me at about the same depth heading for the weedline. I stoned him. He was already scratched up like that when I got him. Andrew Tasker got a kingy too.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/P1010068sm.jpg
A few turkies and a squid got shot at the usual place at Korapuki. Plenty of scallies at Great Mercury, as you can see. Also saw the rear end of a small and skinny shark take off at speed at Korapuki.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/Image019.jpg
The serious kayak missions started when a mate came down for some yak fishing. We headed to my snapper island. Early in the morning, they were all over the place. I spooked one in the usual gut against the cliff, and thought it was gone, but i later ran into it making its way home. I dropped to the ledge above it as it drifted in the kelp, then let him have it full power in the back. The big fish fought hard, as bigger fish do, dragging me around a bit, then got off. I was just gutted. After a few minutes combing the area, I saw some dust coming out from under a rock. I dived and saw the tail of my fish. I grabbed it and it went ape! I tried to shoot it but it was dark and I could not see the body, so I took some blind shots and blunted my spear badly. In the end, after a couple more dives, I just horsed it out by the tail enough to get my arm under it and through the gills. 8.2 kg (18 lb). Boy was I happy to tie him onto my kayak. I paddled around the corner to another spot, and snooped a 4.5 kg (10 lb) snapper in a deep gut. Just perfect, stone-dead textbook stuff. When i t comes together, there is no greater feeling. My buddy had caught a few pannies on nuclear chickens, and we paddled home to be daddies for the afternoon.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/Image009.jpg
The last day was a little more epic. Opito at dawn, paddled to black rocks (50 minutes), flat rock, then back to Ohinauiti (the smaller island beside Ohinau). I paddled over a school of kingies in the early morning light. Maybe 50 of them, circling me for a few minutes. A picture would not capture it. At Ohinauiti I found a new weedline I had not dived before and managed a nice tarakihi and a small Johnnie, and at the back side I spooked a few small snapper in the metre swell which made it pretty hard. An hour and a half of paddling in a small headwind got me back to land. All up I did about 8 nautical miles.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/Image020.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/Image021.jpg
Of course this was not all done off a kayak. Day 1 was unproductive. Day 2 was long-range, heading to Snoop’s spot at Sailor’s Grave, where I swam into the same spot and was surrounded by big snapper well out of range for me in a very surgey one metre swell. Eventually, a silver drummer volunteered to be hung drawn and quartered in order to lure the big ones closer to a ledge where it was possible to make a shot, but still it was a long shot with the swell and depth and lack of cover. After some cat and mouse, I was in position in a trench, peering at a monster eating the fish frame five metres away, and knowing my carbine had a range of about 1 metre on a big fish. There’s nothing for it, but to take your chances at times like these – the moments that you have to take the fight to the enemy. I swayed out with the kelp and used the sun to do a ‘vampire’, drifting down silently as the fish was concentrating on its last supper. The gamble paid off, there I was mid-water, dropping, closer and closer, and expecting to hear the thump of its tail, but I hit the right distance and released the spear, followed with a powerful drive towards the bottom to ensure penetration and security. Wedging my hand around the body, I realised that the fish had been stoned dead. 8.6 kg (19 lb) on my scales. That’s enough work in this swell.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/Image010-1.jpg
Back to my snapper island. Not much current today, so I drifted out to a gut where the big fish were yesterday. I eased silently along the edge of the kelp, a break opening up beside me. In it was a 6.9 kg (15 lb) snapper that didn’t even realise what had happened when 1.5 kg worth of steel and aluminium hit it with a bang. Stoned it.
A 13 kg (28 lb) kingy would also feel the joy in this spot a few days later. A poor shot meant some gentle handling but finally I swam down, pushed the spear through properly, pulled the fish into a b ear hung, and hauled it up to the surface.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/PC270039sm.jpg
I spooked a boarie in 3m of water at Bumper Point. Later he swam past me at about the same depth heading for the weedline. I stoned him. He was already scratched up like that when I got him. Andrew Tasker got a kingy too.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/P1010068sm.jpg
A few turkies and a squid got shot at the usual place at Korapuki. Plenty of scallies at Great Mercury, as you can see. Also saw the rear end of a small and skinny shark take off at speed at Korapuki.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/Image019.jpg
The serious kayak missions started when a mate came down for some yak fishing. We headed to my snapper island. Early in the morning, they were all over the place. I spooked one in the usual gut against the cliff, and thought it was gone, but i later ran into it making its way home. I dropped to the ledge above it as it drifted in the kelp, then let him have it full power in the back. The big fish fought hard, as bigger fish do, dragging me around a bit, then got off. I was just gutted. After a few minutes combing the area, I saw some dust coming out from under a rock. I dived and saw the tail of my fish. I grabbed it and it went ape! I tried to shoot it but it was dark and I could not see the body, so I took some blind shots and blunted my spear badly. In the end, after a couple more dives, I just horsed it out by the tail enough to get my arm under it and through the gills. 8.2 kg (18 lb). Boy was I happy to tie him onto my kayak. I paddled around the corner to another spot, and snooped a 4.5 kg (10 lb) snapper in a deep gut. Just perfect, stone-dead textbook stuff. When i t comes together, there is no greater feeling. My buddy had caught a few pannies on nuclear chickens, and we paddled home to be daddies for the afternoon.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/Image009.jpg
The last day was a little more epic. Opito at dawn, paddled to black rocks (50 minutes), flat rock, then back to Ohinauiti (the smaller island beside Ohinau). I paddled over a school of kingies in the early morning light. Maybe 50 of them, circling me for a few minutes. A picture would not capture it. At Ohinauiti I found a new weedline I had not dived before and managed a nice tarakihi and a small Johnnie, and at the back side I spooked a few small snapper in the metre swell which made it pretty hard. An hour and a half of paddling in a small headwind got me back to land. All up I did about 8 nautical miles.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/Image020.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/reidfish/Image021.jpg