Fattie goes fishing

Ha!! I look like a bean bag with a hat on!! This was taken on Labour Weekend when I went out to the Barrier to see my Tommy. I dare say it's the last time I attempt kayak fishing until after baby arrives now! Still it was a lovely afternoon to be out on the water and the fact that none of my catch were keepers (by our measure) didn't matter at all... especially when Tom had a couple of snapper on board by the time we finished up so there was plenty for dinner... mmmm!

Tom had already been away for a couple of weeks at this point and I was missing him a lot. Work had been really hectic so it was an instant salve to arrive on the island! It really is a magical place!

Saturday morning we went down to the local market day for a look around and catch up with anyone we knew. Then back to the bach for a nap before heading off for the aforementioned fishing trip.

I slept like the dead that night ... a welcome change from the wakeful nights I'd been having! And Tommy got his first few kicks from wee fatty dancing about in my belly while I was asleep!

Sunday is golf day... given how much Tom enjoys his golf and the fact he only plays on the Barrier these days I could hardly tell him he couldn't go... I walked around the first nine holes with them. The course has some stunning outlooks so it wasn't really a hardship and the boys were a laugh ... despite my ignorance of the finer points ... or really of anything to do with... the game. I left them to it for their second nine holes and hung out at the club house. I had a book with me but hardly needed it as people are always so friendly and inclusive. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting a few new people until Tom got back.

Monday saw me wake up with the blues. I felt really quite unenthused about the idea of heading home again and ended up getting a bit teary about ... sheesh! Harden up girl!

Tom dropped me at the airport just after 2pm and had to race off to meet someone arriving on the ferry in Tryphena. A short while before we were due to head off we were told that take off would be delayed as the weather at the other end was abysmal and there wasn't enough visibility to land the wee planes. I caught myself hoping it would stay that way and give me one more night before having to go home. It started looking more and more likely ... but then just after 5pm there was a gap in the weather so we all piled into the plane and were whisked away. We flew really low all the way back to dodge the cloud which was ... er... different.

We got back to the mainland before the weather turned again which was both a relief and a disappointment. What a sook!!

Mind you as it transpired over the next day or so I was coming down with a cold/flu bug so perhaps I should lighten up on myself a bit!

Too much fishing...

... is there such a thing? I'll admit for a few moments last weekend I felt as though it was most certainly possible.

It had been a very busy week. Not only did I have the shock of being back on the mainland and back to work but I had been running about in the evenings trying to assemble a load of stuff for Tom's kayak trip... all the things he wasn't able to source of organise from over there.
I arrived at Claris airport feeling shattered! Tom arrived to pick me up and asked, "Wanna go fishing?"

To be honest it was the last thing I really wanted to do right then, I was feeling tired and harrassed from my week back in the city... I just wanted to relax. We decided to go to the sports club for a cold beer. A couple of jugs later we went home and Tom cooked up the steak I'd taken over with me... after a week of sandwiches on the run for dinner it was lovely to put my feet up and enjoy the meal. Once I'd eaten I could barely keep my eyes open... Tom said I was snoring before my head hit the pillow.

I was deep asleep.... Tom was stirring.... I peeked through one eyelid to see it was still dark but I knew it was getting closer to morning. I knew what was coming... Tom gave me a nudge, "oi... you awake?".
I played dead... it wasn't hard to do. Then there was a bigger nudge... "Mmmmmmmphrrrm? Whaaaat?"
"Wanna go fishing? The wind has dropped, it'll be pretty flat out there. If we go now we can be on the water by 6."
"Errrphmmmmm...."
"Well? You in?"
"No babe... can't move... tooooo tired.... you go on ahead...."
"You sure?"
"Mmmmmmhm... have fun"

With that he was off.... I lay there in my doped state listening to him get his gear together and thinking. Why? Why do we have to be fishing every spare moment? It was too much... sucking the joy out of it for me... aarrggh..... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzz zzzzzzzzz

I woke up a couple of hours later in a better frame of mind and pulled out my book. After an hour or so of reading I was starting to feel more human... I had needed that extra sleep and after a couple of cups of coffe I was feeling human again. It was okay, we could go out together for a fish again in the evening.
I pottered about the place until Tom arrived home at about 10:30.
"You didn't miss much babe... it was pretty hard going and not much happening"
I went out to the van to get my camera out. That's when I saw it... a large tail poking out of the fish bin... I laughed... "Sure it was a slow morning!"
"It was! I didn't get that until I was about to head home... and it was on my last scrungy bait!"
Still... it'd be fair to say he was pretty pleased with himself....

This one weighed in at a bit over 12 pound... a bit big for just the two of us so the decision was made to smoke him and share it around with our neighbours.

Too much fishing indeed!! What was I thinking?.... Sheeesh!

We set out again in the late afternoon for an evening fish. Tom had decided to drop the collapsable cray-pot he'd been given by a friend but once we got to the wharf we realised we'd left the fish frames we would use to bait it at home. He decided to drive back up to the house and get it so I started paddling out ... he would catch up later.

I'd made for "my spot" where I've had the most luck this summer and set myself up. Just as I saw Tom paddling out of the bay towards me I hooked up. By the time Tom had reached me I'd landed a reasonable snapper... that would do us for dinner with a bit of bread and butter.

Tom carried on past me to set the cray-pot and then headed out into deeper water to try his luck out there.

It was a lovely evening so I opened a beer to celebrate it and kicked back. I hooked up another 3 fish... all well over the legal minimum but only kept one... no need to get too carried away! It was pretty slow going though all in all. The fish seemed to be in mid water which meant they weren't on the bite... just cruising. It looked like Tom was paddling back towards me... then I took a hard strike as I was winding my line in. For a while I thought maybe I'd hooked a kahawai but it didn't seem quite right... not running anywhere as much as a kahawai would although I had spooled my rod with a heavier braid that afternoon so maybe that was making the difference? We played tug of war for a while before I could see colour... I reach around for the net... I was going to play this one safe. Tom arrived just as I was landing it. I think he was secretly pleased to see it was not in contention with his fish from the morning.

We pottered about a little more enjoying the sunset before we decided to call it a day. It's always pretty special to be out on the water at this time of night... some of the sunsets are so stunning! This wasn't a particularly spectactular one ... no clouds for the colurs to bounce about with. It was more like a dye leak, the colour slowly moving across the sky getting deeper as time went on.

Then ... the natural wonders never cease... as we got closer into the wharf the water started lighting up. The were some good strong spots of phospherence and the kayaks glowed blue along the water looking for all the world like we had the naff blue lights all the boy-racers install under their cars... except much cooler! We were like a couple of 6 years olds with cap guns... only a lot damper! Splashing about to make the water glow. This bit of video gives you some idea... the white light is my headlight and it's reflection but the flashes of blue are from me splashing with my paddle... awesome!!

Eventually we decided to give up playing and head home for a fish dinner... some for us and some for the neighbours... it doesn't get much fresher than that.

Is there such a thing as too much fishing? Myth and fairytales... don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

Another day on the water

Damn... it's tough but someone's gotta do it!! Not too much explanation except to say that we had a great day out when I arrived on the island last Friday. I outdid the boys fishing but they went for a dive and I think the haul of crayfish the ended up with winning the day.... see for yourself...

Girls' Day Out

The Girls' Day Out event is on this weekend. I've never been to one of these and to be honest I have no real desire to... The type of girl's day out I enjoy is the one we had over our New Year holiday...

We had a great time over on the Barrier at the beginning of the year. At one point Tom was Over at our part ime neighbours - the family that own/have shares in a couple of sections next to us. Louise mentioned to Tom that she's always wanted to go out on a fishing charter but never had because it was difficult to get onto on as a single person. We decided to organise a trip out for Louise, Andrea an myself and leave the boys at home one day. I rang Craig of Tryphena Charters to set something up.

We've been out with Craig quite a few times now and knew he'd be the man for the job. He's keen on his fishing and always so enthusiastic when he takes you out. He's also very generous with advice and tips on technique and tackle... top man! We always had a good time out with Craig and never fail to come home with some good stories and a fair whack of fish.

We arranged to meet him at Tryphena wharf at 2pm in a couple of days... we were all set!

On the day we were going to go Tom, Libby & I went down to the cafe to treat ourselves to breakfast. When we got back there was a text message waiting for us from Craig... "I have a plan - can you come earlier?" ... this was intriguing! When I called him to see what was up he said he wanted to take us out for kingfish! OH.MY.GOD!!! I'd never caught a kingfish before! I ran through the bush to see if Andrea and Louise were home and check if they were cool with leaving earlier. Louise have her foot in a cast after slipping down the hill and injuring her archilles but said she was still up for it. I think Tom was a smidgin (only a little smidgin) envious at the prospect of us catching kingys... he had never caught one at that point either!

We drove over the hill to meet Craig and he motored out towards our fishing spot for the day. He'd given us a rundown on the dos and don'ts and we fired our jigs over the side. Before long Andrea yelled out... she was into a kingy! I don't think the others really knew what they were in for so when Andrea's line started peeling out she hung onto the rod for dear life! Craig started coaching her on when to wind back line and when to let it run... after a while she reckoned it was too hard... Craig told her "You hooked it... you have to get it back to the boat before we can unhook it!" She clung to the rod, knuckles white from the effort. After a few more minutes she said she didn't think she could hold on much longer so I took over for her. Eventually we landed the fish - he was beautiful!! Not a monster but most certainly a good sized fish! Andrea looked stunned when she saw the size of it... it turned out to be the biggest fish of the day.

Craig manouvered back over the spot again and once more the jigs went over the side for the next drift. He threw a popper out the back to show us the kingys chasing it back to the boat. The rest of the afternoon was a bit of a blurr, I couldn't tell you who caught the next fish or how many fish we even caught. Not all of them were lagal size and of those that were, most went back for another day. Every drift over the pin, except one, we hooked up a fish and once or twice all 3 of us hooked up at once!

After her first fish Andrea had a better idea of what to expect and landed all the rest of her hookups herself. Louise had it sussed, she had her cast jammed into the side of the boat she was able to lean on it for extra leverage. We had a ball! There was only one rod end between the three of us so whoever hooked up used it... or whoever had the biggest fish on at the time. Craig later admitted that he did have a gimble on board but his attitude was "the fish feels pain, you feel pain, it's a fairer contest".

Our bodies ached from the effort and eventually, after about 6 or 7 shots at "one last drift", we decided enough was enough! We had 4 fish in the boat and it had been exciting day!

When we got back to the ridge everyone was waiting. I though Andrea's husband was going to faint when he saw the size of of them! The kids were buzzing with excitement and everyone traipsed over to ours where another neighbout (from below our section) did the honours and carved them up!

I went to bed exhausted and aching, and dreamt all night about jigs flashing through the water! The following morning the bruises on my legs, groin and stomach had started to show through and my arms still felt like they were going to fall off... but it didn't matter, I couldn't stop grinning every time I thought about our day on the water with the kings, our awesome girls'day out!