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The fishing Paper
www.thefishingpaper.co.nz
The Big Foreigner By Jim Mikoz
The mission was to get some puka off the south coast of Wellington near Makara, but they were few and far between. We tried a few spots but the current was smoking, making it virtually unfishable. We mooched around, but the fishing was slow until eventually, a spot was found with little current and we
The Banana Salmon By Darryn Palmer
He threw the caravan door open and stood triumphant in the half-light of dawn, salmon in hand, fourteen pounds of shimmering silver. It was 7.15am and wife Joan was still in bed. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she gazed in awe at the magnificent fish, making all the right comments about how spectacular it was and how skilled he must have been to land it. “Hurry up” Ross urged, “I need to get back on the river, the fishing’s firing.” “What are you going to do with it?” Joan asked. “Stick it in the fridge, I’ll get a photo later when it’s a bit lighter outside,” was his hurried reply. The whole salmon was wrapped in a black plastic bin liner and all the shelves of the small fridge were cleared of food and drink. The fish was shoved in, but the door wouldn’t shut! With a flash of handyman brilliance, Ross pulled the drinks shelf off the inside of the door and it was slammed shut, and stayed shut! Back to the river rushed Ross, the intrepid salmon angler, to give his 40-year-old Mitchell spinnning reel, cane Kilwell rod and favourite Zeddy lure, another thrashing. Wife Joan was left to clean up the kitchen of the caravan, find new homes for the previously chilled food and head back to bed. The photo session was about three hours later, and despite their best efforts, the frigid bent salmon couldn’t be panel beaten back into shape!
managed to get a few snapper and cod. Then something hit the baby squid on my line and it was all on. I thought I had a really good snapper, as I worked it to the surface from about 45 metres, but my first glimpse as it came closer revealed a visitor from warmer climes. It was a porae, common in northern waters but very rare
around these parts. Porae, also known as morwong in Australia, have no teeth but instead use a huge crusher plate inside their mouths to grind up food. It turned out to be a record breaker for the Wellington Surfcasting and Angling Club, weighing 6.1 kilos, beating the previous record by nearly two kilos.