CHATHAM ISLANDS Fishin’ Mission

If you’re a keen fisher man - or woman - then you’re probably already aware of The Lateral Line, the free-wheeling Kiwi fishing series taking YouTube by storm. The shoot-from-the-hip show follows the adventures of Milan Radonich and Nathan ‘Nato’ O’Hearn as they travel up and down the country catching big fish and small, making friends with the catchphrase of ‘Chur Chur my brothers and sisters’ - and actually imparting some useful tips along the way. It’s a great exploration of the amazing fishing we have in Aotearoa New Zealand, and even if you aren’t a keen fisherman you should check out the boys’ channel to see why everyone else is!

If you’re a keen fisher man - or woman - then you’re probably already aware of The Lateral Line, the free-wheeling Kiwi fishing series taking YouTube by storm. The shoot-from-the-hip show follows the adventures of Milan Radonich and Nathan ‘Nato’ O’Hearn as they travel up and down the country catching big fish and small, making friends with the catchphrase of ‘Chur Chur my brothers and sisters’ - and actually imparting some useful tips along the way. It’s a great exploration of the amazing fishing we have in Aotearoa New Zealand, and even if you aren’t a keen fisherman you should check out the boys’ channel to see why everyone else is!

Air Chathams loves the classic Kiwi ‘just do it’ attitude of Milan and Nato, and when we heard they had made a show about fishing on the Chathams we were keen to get them back there to explore even more. The result was ‘A Chatham Island Fishing Adventure’, as the boys took to the skies with us for more great fishing and yarns. We highly recommend you check out the episode when you can, but in the meantime, over to you boys!

“New Zealand has some incredible, untouched locations that don’t really get the limelight they deserve,” says Nato, who is very much the voice of the duo. “And the Chatham Islands is one of those places. For some it’s the perfect holiday destination, there’s only one hotel, one restaurant, a couple of fast food joints that open once a week, a general store for shopping, and a liquor store with the most enjoyable of publicans who makes your shopping experience one that you probably won’t forget in a hurry.

“For us it’s all about the fishing, and the seafood along the shorelines. Every time we go we have a plan and that plan never comes to fruition! The weather is always the deciding factor while on the island, as you can get swells and wind from all directions, meaning you have to work with the hand you are dealt.

“Our plan for this trip was concentrating on catching kingis in the massive lagoon and hāpuku off the rocks, but with huge swells and wind every day it made both options unachievable. So new plans were hatched and we decided to spend time on one of the beaches where the lagoon opens out into the southern Pacific.

“There’s nothing quite like cruising down a beach without a footprint or tyre track in sight, and we were to be the only visitors on the beach for the week - and who knows maybe the month. Every kilometre of coastline you found something different, either a dead pilot whale or a spring pumping freshwater out onto the beach. It was an untouched supermarket that was fully loaded - you just needed to remove your shoes and start gathering a feast.

New Zealand has some incredible, untouched locations that don’t really get the limelight they deserve. And the Chatham Islands is one of those places

“The fishing here is incredible - every cast resulted in giant kahawai eating your offerings until you just couldn’t catch another, and with all that bait around our target the mighty kingfish shouldn’t be too far behind. Kingfish on the Chathams is only a recent thing, the locals don’t recall them being there forever, but over the last 10 years they have been showing up in the warmer months in big numbers. So it’s a pretty untapped fishery and one that required some time to try and work out, but the more you fish, the more you see the potential.

“Catching kingis off golden sand in crystal clear water, around massive schools of bait was something special”

“A story of massive schools of kingfish hunting the lagoon for piper over the warmer months is what got me to the island, and one day the weather gods will align and we will get the time to hunt the lagoon, but for this trip we decided to start stick baiting the beaches.

“With crystal clear water, we started scanning the beach with the drone, and what we realised was that the kahawai schools weren’t just on the river mouth, but pretty much the whole beach. It didn’t take long to start finding kingis around the bait and then lures were deployed; these kingis haven’t seen lures before, and they mowed down every one. Catching kingis off golden sand in crystal clear water, around massive schools of bait was something special, and it’s not every day you get to have this type of fishing.

“Following the kingfish adventure, we moved on to moki which is not that common on the mainland - but that’s another story you can see in the show!

“The more we visit the Chatham’s the more it shows you its true self. We have only scratched the surface of what this place has to offer, and our next trip that we are planning now involves hunting the island for pigs, wild sheep and cattle, game birds like swan and emu; this place has it all if you don’t mind crazy weather and incredible hunting and fishing.

“Thanks to all on the Chatham’s that allowed us to come and enjoy their home!”