May 2025 - 236 The Fishing Paper and Hunting News by The Fishing Paper

Gone Fishin' pg 3

• The challenges of shared fisheries - pg 6 - 7

• Snapper cup results - pg 11

• Unmatched precision with the Pulsar Thermion 2 LRF 60 - pg 12

• Kaikoura recreational paua season dates - pg 14

There’s one. A young stag, lightly timbered, is illuminated by my ute headlights as he gallops across the forest track. He’s of no interest to me, I’m speeding toward distant ridges, on a roar mission, so I don’t ease my foot o the accelerator. Oh shite. Deep shite. The youngster has had a change of heart and U-turned. Both focussed on our ﬁnal destinations, we’re traveling at breakneck speed and a collision appears inevitable.

In the same instant we both realise unless evasive action is taken, we’re potentially going to die today.

There’s lots of desperate braking, long skids and swirling dust. There’s bulging eyes and accelerated heartrates and evasive manoeuvring. There’s hair’s-breadth avoidance and a dual exhalation before we continue our separate journeys unscathed. Phew!

Up on the distant ridges dawn reveals cloud so low its skirts are dragging in the dirt. Stags are roaring - absolutely cranking. They’re literally left, right and centre. They’re up high and way down low. They’re near and they are far, and they are all, every single one of them, invisible in the morning mist.

Nature’s shroud not only keeps her treasures hidden it also cools the atmosphere and sprinkles a fairy dust of moisture on all and sundry. Circular spider webs weigh heavy, and wispy native grasses hang their heads, their silvery tiaras a burden. I am saturated in no time, but I’ll accept today’s challenge. It’s not all bad. I cannot see the stags, but they cannot see me either and there is no errant breeze to give me away. Just a slow and steady climb of moisture-laden air as temperatures gradually rise.

There are so many roaring stags in this catchment that the dense cold air is ﬁlled with sound. Unable to see, I can only assume he in the middle, guardian of the best feed

Die another day

Kim Swan

area, will most likely be the master stag.

So, I slither ever closer, bypassing other roaring stags as I go. In full predator mode I drop into the bowels of the catchment till I’m just downwind of action central. The sun now smiles down upon me. The cloud hoists her skirts and bares her buttocks as she departs. I face into the slightest of breezes and assess the stag holding his harem of hinds on the small clearing.

He’s a big fella; his body is enormous. He is magniﬁcent and conﬁdently pumps volume from his boom box whenever a invading stag ventures nearby.

Undoubtedly ‘king of the castle,’ the stag is only an eight-pointer. Oh, he’s heavily timbered, with long strong, white-tipped tines but still, an ‘8’ is kinda disappointing.

At 100 metres he’s well within shooting range but I feel no inclination to let a bullet ﬂy. Not yet.

For quite some time I sit studiously observing the master and his dames. None are ovulating, they do not welcome his a ections, preferring to eat instead. This infuriates him, especially with the

ever-present satellite stags circling relentlessly.

Crazed with frustration and lust, the stag faintly hears an enticing ‘mew’ on a steep bony spur just 100 metres away. He stares intently; every sense honed. He hears the mew again and sights subtle movement on the edge of the tall scrub. He cannot resist temptation and begins to wend his way towards me.

The stag is no fool. He doesn’t herald his departure. The satellites don’t realise yet that he has ventured away from his harem. His intention is to stealth within scenting range of the mysterious female on the spur. If she’s hot, he’ll hurriedly herd her toward his rut pad. If she’s not, he’ll turn away.

The mysterious female, human not hind, twists her rifle scope to minimum magnification. She finds a safe zone, establishes a shooting alley then waits, heart aflutter. He’s coming. He’s sneaking, catlike, weaving through the vegetation. Closing in, his stench permeating the air, his breathing audible.

Head low, the stag’s neck is at full stretch as he slides his antlers under an obstacle. He is silent, as am I. As

his big searching eye slides past the crosshairs in my scope he is just 10 metres from me and oblivious to my presence.

One more step and the riﬂe beneath the scope sends a tiny messenger of death on its way. Neck shot, vertebrate shattered, the huge master stag crumples dead. Gotcha.

I attempt to move my trophy onto clear ground to get a photograph. He is very heavy, the hillside very steep. He begins to roll head-ﬁrst and, somehow, my camera strap loops around a tine. Worse, as he rolls over, the bottom antler harpoons into my leg.

Head down, bum up, I am in deep shite once again.

The camera strap pulls tight about my throat, my carotid artery bulges. The tine against my thigh pushes harder and harder till the fabric of my pants rends.

I brace, frightened but steady - my body trembling with the e ort. I manage to hold the stag’s weight for just long enough to slide the camera strap free. Then, like a contortionist, I release my pinned leg before letting the big fella slide and crash downhill. Phew!

The near miss is di cult to process. Our combined weights well over 200kg, the gravityassisted tumble would have included multiple roll-overs. Tethered head-to-head as we were, my skull and upper body would have been punctured innumerable times by those long, white-tipped tines. Would the camera strap have broken, or twisted ever tighter till my brain was starved of oxygen?

I stumble back up to my tiny safe zone and slump against the lichencrusted rock there. More keenly than ever I appreciate the sun on my back and the breeze in my face.

A satellite stag has already found the master’s harem unattended. Another eight-pointer, he herds the reluctant hinds away. I let him go. Like me, he can die another day.

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Wild food recipes with Marcus

What a great time of year it is with the ROAR just ﬁnished, and we’re sitting on a tonne of bounty so what better thing to do than turn all that meat into a tasty sausage.

Well my mate Coby and his Grandad knock up a sensational venison sausage with a generous splash of Smoke and Spice “Original” seasoning in the mix and they are tasty!

So I’ve put together a wild Kiwi classic in honour of great people and a bumper harvest.

mushrooms and a mighty onion gravy Coby's Creation

Method

Venison sausage lightly oiled and fried or grilled to your liking.

Roast a whole Kumara or two , peel , add butter and Original seasoning and then give it a mash to your preferred consistency.

For the gravy , slice brown onion and cook down with butter , seasoning and about a cup of chicken stock.

Grill ﬁeld mushrooms…popping up in a paddock near you!

Easy to prepare , a hearty nosh and well done on all your mahi!

Cheers and Enjoy

Marcus

Int’l Kiwi Chef

Quite good with rod and gun

With the water temps rising and the clarity of the bay and the many work ups I’ve seen from my o ce widow I knew this was going to be a good kingy season. I headed out after work one evening for a wee look to see what’s about.

After towing lures up and down the bolder bank till sunset and about to call it a night then wallop, screaming reels and the commotion of a double hook up on kingfish. The adrenaline and excitement soon become “what the hell do I do now” as the lines had crossed so I had to take both rods out of the holders to sort. For some time I had my knees firmly pressed up against the boat to stabilise myself . I held a rod in each hand with two reels screaming and me laughing hystercally. What rod do I grasp ? after making my choice I placed the other rod in the holder and went on to play the fish like it was the last fish I would ever catch , meanwhile the other kingi was still thrashing away on the other side. Once I had finally landed the first kingi after a great battle I was surprised to see the other rod well bent with fish still on, so I casually swapped rods and went to work on the second fish successfully landing it . After a quick tidy up i went home on a flat evening sea with a beautiful sunset and two kingfish as trophies. Back at the boat ramp I ran into some very keen fisherman from Neama who had no luck that

Whevening, but were absolutely blown away when they saw these two beautiful kingis, each taking their turn to pose for the camera with the ﬁsh “probably thinking of a great tale to tell their friends” Should have seen their faces when I told them to pick one to take home, that feeling of making someone so happy really topped o an excellent evening.

A couple of days later I head out again with my daughter Jazmine and her partner Callum with the intention to get them their first kingfish. After ttrolling for a whole ten minutes, there we go again , another double hook up with Jazz and Callum both on their first fight with angry kingis and me wondering how I’m to talk both of them through the fight. But nek minit Callum’s fish gets away so i had full attention on Jazz's fish. Advice on how to hold the rod with no gimbal belt that awkward place to put the rod handle, when to wind, when to release pressure, many runs and many attempts to pass the rod on for a break (not given tho) we finally get the fish on board . Firstly feelings of relief and then the excitement followed by the banter. I still feel sory for Callum as he gets reminded often of the ones that got away.

Heading into the setting sun we made our way back to the boat ramp with huge smiles and most importantly great memories. What a ﬁght what a night

Ashley Millar

This story starts back in 2024. I was on a pre-roar trip when I encountered three stags feeding in a head basin. I had time on my side, so evaluated each head and decided on the best option.

The ﬁrst stag was a young sixpointer so he was out, stag number two was a nine-pointer with heaps of potential, while the third stag was a 14-pointer well past his prime with small tines. He was in fact smaller than the nine-pointer.

The 14 drew the short straw and is now hanging in my garage. After the shot I got to watch the two other stags exit the basin and could only hope both reach maturity, and some lucky hunter gets to take them in the coming years.

Fast forward to 2025 and I had another pre-roar trip planned to the same area with the hope of securing a good head. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas and the trip was canned. Due to work commitments, I could not look at another date until mid-roar, so the plan was put in place.

The forecast was good so at midday my dog Frankie and I set o on the track with high anticipation. The day was warm and as it was a Sunday I was reasonably conﬁdent of having this public valley to myself. After three hours we were at our campsite where the tent was soon pitched and all our gear sorted out.

An hour before dark we set o uphill to listen for roars and suss out a plan for the next day. There were a few stags roaring in the beech forest and we saw a couple of hinds, a pig and a chamois. Just on dark we

spied a small stag with two hinds on the other side of the valley but due to the spot and the size of the head he was left to grow. All night we heard stags roaring throughout the valley so hopes were high for some action in the morning.

An hour before daylight we were up and ready to go. We headed straight up hill so we could be up

on the tops at daylight. As it got light, we could still hear a few stags roaring but they were all in the forest, not in the open as expected.

We continued along the tops, glassing as we went but still could see nothing. As we were quite high, I decided to sidle around to the basin where I got the 14 last year.

As I crested the ridge, I heard a low moan and immediately saw several deer in the basin.

One was a good stag so I wasted no time setting up the 7mm 08 for the 200-metre shot. I had a look at the head through the bino’s and straight away knew this was a good stag. One shot from me and he dropped like a stone. I had a look at the seven hinds climbing out of the basin, then looked back to my stag, which to my dismay was walking around the face below. Action stations and three more shots and he was down for good.

I was dismayed at my shooting as normally it is spot on, a check at the range when I got home conﬁrmed the scope was well out so it must have had a knock at some stage!

We made our way around to the stag and were blown away , by far the best head I have ever shot. He was a heavy 11-pointer, and I am sure he was the nine-pointer I let go last year. He was in a similar shape and length and was shot 50 metres from where I last saw him the year before.

After removing the head and some meat we climbed out of the basin onto the lead ridge, which would take us back to camp. I’m so glad I gave this stag another year as he turned out to be a very good head. Yes, it has faults like a missing bez tine but I couldn’t care less, it is a trophy in my eyes and the back story just adds to its value.

Malcolm Halstead

Snapper Cup - 2025 Review

The 2025 Snapper Cup, hosted by Dawnbreakers Fishing Club took place from the 14th –16th March and was a huge success. The weather forecast looked a bit dubious at times, but it ended up being a great weekend with the extended fishing period and boundaries providing an opportunity for all entrants to get out and experience some of the great fishing on o er in the bay this season. The fish were on the bite and some great catches were had.

Over 420 fish were entered into the competition by the 121 anglers taking part, with the average length of all snapper entered being 54 cm – this is testament to the awesome fishery we have on our doorstep, in Tasman Bay. Aside from snapper, there were plenty of gurnard, kahawai and trevally entered along with a handful of kingfish and some albacore tuna which took out the new category prize for “longest other species”.

This year, the prize giving was hosted by Speight’s Ale House, Nelson and they didn’t disappoint! An awesome afternoon was had sharing ﬁshing stories and celebrating our winners, accompanied by excellent food and beverages.

As always, the prize giving provided a great opportunity to raise some funds for Coastguard

Nelson as well - via donations and a silent auction table put together by our awesome local sponsors, we were able to raise over $3400 which is a welcome success and will go towards an amazing organisation that always has our backs out on the water.

Prize categories this year included adult and junior divisions with prizes awarded for the longest snapper, gurnard, kahawai, kingﬁsh and trevally.

The Trifecta category, awarded to the longest combined length of three species, is an exciting category which allows the more serious anglers to show o their skills and claim bragging rights for the year.

You didn’t need to catch the biggest fish to walk away with some great prizes – this year, all entrants received a handy goodie bag filled with treats from local sponsors and lucky angler Jordan Di Leva walked away with a brand-new fish finder, sponsored by ENL and Furuno, just for entering a snapper in the competition!

The junior section was hotly contested with a lot of youngsters showing their folks how it’s done. Young Theo Pearson was a standout amongst the juniors landing the longest snapper (68 cm) and taking out the trifecta category with a snapper, kahawai and trevally. Theo also caught the longest trevally, tied with Dereck Ludik (49 cm). Dereck Ludik and

Gareth Nicholson – Club President

Madeleine Collier took home prizes for 2nd and 3rd longest snapper, while the closest to average length snapper was awarded to Ash Walzl. Other species prizes went to Bree Dell (longest Kahawai, 55 cm) and Ewan Ludick (longest Gurnard, 43 cm). Junior winners walked away with some epic prizes including rods, reels, tackle and clothing sponsored by DNA boats, Daiwa NZ and Hunting and Fishing Nelson. Results in the adult’s section were quite remarkable this year with some ridiculous ﬁsh being caught. There were four Snapper over 80 cm landed during the competition period and you would have had to beat 68.5 cm to make the top 20 longest snapper over the weekend!

Shannon Scholes walked away with the honours for his 84 cm snapper, which was the longest of the tournament bagging him the trophy and prizes valued at over $2000. Andy Brannen was unlucky to miss out with an outstanding ﬁsh of 83.5 cm, Pete Connoly (81 cm) and Ross Satherley (80 cm) also put their names in the mix and all walked away with some great prizes. Luck fell the way of Fergus Drummond who bagged himself a Yamaha F6 outboard motor, sponsored by Marahau Marine and Yamaha Marine, for closest to average length snapper (53 cm)

The adults trifecta category was won by Pete Connoly who landed a snapper, kingﬁsh and kahawai with a combined length of 229 cm – he won himself a Pit Boss Grill, Daiwa