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    Shark Weekend Archived Message

    Posted by Rex HB on 27/2/2012, 3:38 pm, in reply to "Pania Club weekend"

    Nice pics Mark. A difficult weekend at the mercurial Whakaki. Of course the water at home was a picture begging the question? Why go at all you fool. Well the pilferer was convinced Whakaki was the place to be. Apparently he had not seen decent fish in the last several outings despite the rest of Napier’s surfcasters hauling in snapper and gurnard right left and centre. As I am an idiot I decided he must be right. Dumb and dumber. But he was right to a degree. If you like sharks....... lots and lots of sharks.

    On arriving at the beach it didn’t take long to hook up a fish. Two in fact, small kahawai both on the one trace. I threw them back noting how nice and clean the sea looked. All looked very promising. Too promising. The pilferer was grumpily sitting on the beach tying traces, apparently claiming I hadn’t given him enough time to prepare,(probably sleeping all morning) when my rod nodded again and soon after the first snapper hit the sand. Excellent stuff I thought, and even better the pilferer was still fishless. Things were looking up. Or so I thought.

    Oh yes there were snapper. The problem is Whakaki snapper mostly feed with their mouths closed. They hit your bait hard and then they run away. Then I reckon they tell the sharks. "Hey look fellas free pilchard." and whammo a bored seven giller hammers it and cruises off, wondering why it has a sudden toothache. Ping there goes a trace, a shock leader or a pulley rig. I took me ages to make those pulley rigs, carefully measuring the length against traces, tying line and knots together and carefully placing the impact shield. It took the shark about 30 seconds to demolish it. Clearly sharks have no regard for skill, care and detail of rig presentation. The seven giller I landed was definitely of that opinion. It was also very keen to take a piece of the pilferer who had very generously offered his bare foot to the shark as he attempted to haul it in by the tail. Damn those sharks are quick. The pilferer was lucky not have become Mrs Pilferer. I was not unhappy to return that cantankerous bugga to the sea. But it was a sign of things to come.

    As dusk beckoned the snapper began to bite. Well pretended to bite. I managed to hook another but the rest just taunted me. Hitting the rod but disdainfully avoiding my gamakatsu’s as if they were rusty nails. The frustration continued and when I finally did hook up again the fish at the other end showed little enthusiasm to show itself. I waved goodbye to my first pulley rig. Another shark. Meanwhile the pilferer had managed a couple of fish including a snapper, but despite my rantings in the last outing, now seemed determined to encroach on my space. To be fair it wasn’t his fault this time. The real culprit was a turbo charged eagle ray that was hauling him down the beach. It stopped just in time to thrash around between both of my rods. Somehow the pilferer and his pilfering catch avoided both lines and he landed the annoying little beast. Back it went. But that was it for the fishing. It was ping, ping, ping from here on in as the sharks took control. I lost so much gear it wasn’t funny. After a while I gave up and left the pilferer nervously sheltering under a log surrounded by chilly bins in the blustery wind and hopped into my truck. Hehehehe sleep tight pilferer. Watch out for those sharks.

    Well morning came and with it the predicted Southerly. But of course it came earlier than expected and the sea turned to mush in a few hours of daylight. I got one more snapper and then you guessed it. Another seven giller. Yay. I kept that one mainly because I was a bit sore about the night before. The fact the pilferer had never landed one had nothing to do with it.

    Left and came home after that after a stop at the snapperless, gurnardless and generally fishless snapper rock. And wouldnt you know it. Caught snapper at home. Probably never even had leave in the first place.


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