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THE FISHING PAPER - APRIL 2015
Salmon Stutter
By Brody Neil
It was Christmas holidays 2014. I was 6 years old. Dad asked me to go salmon fishing on the south side Rakaia mouth and I excitedly said yes, because I love fishing! When we got there, Dad’s friend, Marsh, was there and he already had a 20 pound salmon, which got me all excited because it was such a big fish. We started to fish and I was doing lots of casts. I asked Dad if I could fish with his rod because I couldn’t catch one on mine. On the very first cast I got a bite. Dad told me to ‘strike and wind, strike and wind’. Wow, the fish was pulling lots. As it got closer we realised it was a kahawai, so I wound it in and Dad took the hook out and I released it. More casts later I got another bite and Dad yelled at me ‘strike and wind, strike and wind’. But it was another kahawai! By this time we had seen some other fishermen catch some salmon, so Dad told me to keep casting boy, which I did. Then I got another bite and Dad....’strike and wind, strike and wind’. This time it was really pulling on the rod so I kept winding and as the fish got closer Dad yelled out, “It’s a salmon!” I freaked out and wanted to give the rod back to Dad but he said, “You hooked it, you own it!” So I played the fish out with Dad’s help. When I got it in I was so happy and excited, my first salmon ever! All the other fishermen were cheering, clapping and shaking my hand. Wow! Dad was so proud of me. Last weekend I caught my second salmon. I’m getting good at this!
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White Island Erupts with PB’s
Story
By Jason Neute
I’d heard a lot about Rick Pollock, a very respected charter skipper out of Whakatane, so when the opportunity came for mates and I to fish White Island with him aboard Pursuit, I was stoked. I was keen to try out my new Penn 25NLD2 lined with 50lb Penn super X coloured braid and also the new Penn 40NLD2 lined with 80lb braid. I’d matched the 25 to a Penn Fathom 15/24kg rod and the 40 was on the 24/37kg rod. I was anticipating serious action, so didn’t want to go in under-gunned. We arrived at White Island around 10pm and promptly set about catching flying fish for live bait, attracted by the boat lights. It was a lot of fun scooping these kamikaze airborne bullets up with the net and it kept me amused until well into the early hours. After brekky, Rick got us in amongst the schools of baitfish and John loaded up with his stick bait; the rod buckled over and the reel screamed, while John could only hang on. Unfortunately, mid-fight, he dropped what Rick called a stonker of a fish. I floated a dead flying fish and was in! BIG TIME. “Your 20kg king has just turned into a 200kg tackle breaker,” said Mark, the deckie.
I cranked my new Fathom 40 up, went to full sunset and leaned on the fish. After twenty harrowing minutes I had the beast at the boat. Rick was impressed with the reel after seeing the huge bronzy surface and following a quick cut with the knife from Mark, it was released with no harm. Moving to avoid sharks taking big kingies, our first baits were immediately smashed. To start with they were only 1015kg fish but as more baits dropped, the fish got bigger, with some solid 20kilo fish coming over the side. For the rest of the morning it was bent rods screaming reels, with 20-36kg kings coming aboard. By the end we had caught several fish over 20kg and a handful over 30kg. Most of the lads scored PB’s and all of the fish were tagged, except for two that were too far gut hooked. It was an amazing experience aboard Pursuit to see how these fish are looked after for a successful release, from making sure the deck is wet to constant water flow through and over the fish. My PB measured 140cm and Rick said it had 40kg written all over it a couple of weeks ago, but it had lost a few kilos after spawning so it weighed in at 36kg. It was the highlight of my trip.
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