East, West, an old rod, Tua tuas and a jelly fish tentacle
Posted by fin-nor on 3/2/2016, 10:42 pm
Over the long weekend just gone my son James, my partner Joyce and I went on our own little surfcasting mission seeing I was not going to be able to make the matata comp so we headed out to our spot at Aotea harbour for a pretty uneventful surfcast, while the jack mackerel were getting a hammering from kingfish and Kahawai our baits the usual pillies and squid which normally take a hammering were totally put on the ignore list by the local fish, I was busy kicking myself for forgetting to pack the trout rod and reel for some light tackle fun because those horse sized jack Mackerel would have been some delightful fun. Just to be a smart arse I got James to put a soft bait on his line for giggles after hours of sitting and waiting for our baits to be swallowed and put it out, well he hooked a fish while bringing it in only to lose it due to a blimmin big bird nest right where the leader joined the mainline so after that was rectified he went back to using normal baits he threw a bit of squid on his hook while the green and silver sequins glittered in the sun. Ten minutes later the tip of his rod (the penn prevail combod up with an 850ssm) started twitching I thought this is it they are back on, and much to my amusement James landed a horse of a Jack Mackerel the thing was over 30cm in size and of all things it had swallowed the 5/0 circle hook that was on the end of that line, well that was the west coast done and dusted for the day. That night I got a call from a good mate of mine in Tauranga he wanted me to go over for a visit and right then the plan was hatched to go and pay the east coast a visit so on the monday morning we hit the road and headed for my mates place in Te Puna and was greeted with a good stiff cup of coffee while we chatted as the drizzle was falling which did not put us off of trying our luck. Mike had snuck out the back door and had disappeared into the barn so I went down to see what he was up to and here he was wiping all of the old bird crap from his surf rod and reel which happened to be missing the rod tip, he happily exclaimed that he had not used that gear for at least 10 years so he did not know if the line was good or stuffed she'll be right he says worst thing to happen is it might snap if I get a fish but he still stuck a brand new shock leader on it just to make sure he would not bust off on the cast. Any way we all headed over to Papamoa for a fish his line was fist to go out while I faffed around getting our gear ready and eventually got a line out with the veritas and shimano combo and went back to set James up when he indicated he did not feel like fishing that day so he just happily floundered about in the surf I managed to land a snapper that was just a slight hair under the 30cm limit so it went back in the water and on went another tua tua bait which was left over from the last lot I got from pack n save, a little bit later my mate mike was messing around in the surf and next thing he came up with a hand full of tua tuas in water that was not even ankle deep, so that was it I headed out and started to collect a few to top up the bait jar with that little mission of shucking out tua tua meat to fill that jar completed it was time to wind in and check my bait after I noticed a few good tugs on my line well this is where the jellyfish tentacle comes in one of those nasty things was well hidden in the sand and a toe on my right foot just happened to find the bloody thing so I decided to call it quits and head to my aunts to ask nicely for an antihistamine tablet to try and settle it down enough to get home which was not very successful not even half way home it looked like someone had taken a bike pump to my foot while it felt like some other rotten sod was jabbing it with a white hot poker. What a way to end a damn good weekend just glad the meds the doc gave me worked damn quickly so I can get back to work for two days and we can still get a line out again this weekend with our little stash of tua tuas to back us up.
Re: East, West, an old rod, Tua tuas and a jelly fish tentacle
I have to agree with Ron, how nice to read a story on the lighter side of the sport.
Personally I have never come in contact with a jelly fish, but several years ago they brought out a special rod to catch them, from memory it was called a 'Jelly Tip'.
on 3/2/2016, 10:42 pm