FISHING

Golden Bay Adventure

To add variety and fun to our fishing experience, five couples from the Fishing Section travelled to Pohara with three boats on Thursday 10^th of April and stayed for two nights in self-contained cabins at the Pohara Top10 Holiday Park.

We arrived mid-afternoon and one boat headed out to assess the state of the fishery.  Within two hours they were back with 12 good size snapper, perfect for the pan.

That night we had a self-catered BBQ using the camp facilities, very much enjoyed by all.  By a strange coincidence a caravan was parked adjacent to our accommodation which turned out to be occupied by a previous Fishing Section member and his wife on holiday from Christchurch.  They both joined us for the BBQ and they helped on the grill plate.

Next morning all three boats were on the water about 7.30am, launching at Port Tarakohe, just a few minutes along the road from the camp.  Initially all three boats tried the area around the mussel farm which performed well the previous afternoon, but no bites.   We put that down to it being slack tide and headed off in different directions.

Two boats put down set lines then headed away for some rod fishing.  As the morning progressed the snapper made their presence felt and bins started to fill.   A solitary large Albatross accompanied one of the boats and must have been very hungry, attempting to take a medium size snapper before it could be landed.

When retrieving the set lines the distance between the floats on one line had considerably reduced, suggesting the loss of a grapnel anchor.  After recovering about 5 snapper the problem became apparent.  The remainder of the line came aboard as a bird’s nest, a tight mess of main line, traces and untouched baits, followed by the second grapnel and float.  We suspected that a shark had been involved.  Later, two hours of detangling revealed that 6 traces were lost but otherwise no serious damage.

All boats came in with good catches which were processed on the substantial stainless steel filleting table at the camp then vacuum packed and frozen for the return trip home.  Stuart Lea’s 56cm snapper was the largest.

On Friday evening we dined at Molly B’s restaurant and watched the first half of the Hurricanes vs Adalaide rugby match.  We then moved to the camp social hall to watch the second half while enjoying the left-over deserts from the previous evening.

A second odd coincidence happened.  The writer was reading a book on the history of the Cobb Power Station where I had worked for a short period in the early 70’s.  The construction spanned the years of the second world war with those workers, who did not go to war, being required to join the Home Guard. As I turned the page describing the work of the home guard, installing coastal defences along the Golden Bay beaches, my wife spotted a concrete feature partially buried in the dune immediately in front of our cabin with a sign reading: “This gun emplacement was erected for coastal defence by Golden Bay Home Guard during World War Two when invasion of New Zealand was threatened by the Japanese.”

After a leisurely breakfast on Saturday morning, we again crossed the mountain on our way home, all pleased with the experience.  We are booking to do the same next year.  This may become a fixture in our calendar.

For membership enquiries contact: Secretary, Peter Duncan, 022 3808932

12/04/2023

The Fishing Section of Club Waimea was informed and entertained by Daryl “Crimpy” Crimp of The Fishing Paper & Hunting News at their April meeting.  Daryl was accompanied by his Wife/Administration and Sale executive, Annette Bormolini who takes a leading role in the appearance of the publication.

Crimpy explained how they came to be owners of a successful outdoor publication with wide distribution in New Zealand and abroad, in the face of strong competition, rising costs and the advent of the Digital Print Media.

He was raised on a farm in Tadmor with a river bisecting it.  Here he had an early introduction to hunting and Fishing.  Later he became a schoolteacher then, with no formal training, became a freelance author and cartoonist.  During the 1990’s freelance work started to dry up and he started looking for other opportunities.

He met Annette when he was 40 and they married shortly afterwards.

Together they realized that paid-for news papers and magazines were losing readership, but free papers were booming.  They took the plunge with The Fishing News & Hunting Paper producing the first issue in September 2005 with a goal to last 6 months.  By paying attention to what is important to readers and advertisers and balancing the layout to keep it readable, they built their circulation to a maximum of 50,000 copies and are still going strong both in print and online.

Although there are regular contributors and articles from Government agencies, from one issue to the next they have no idea of what will be submitted.  The mantra of the paper is “Inform / Encourage / Entertain” and a wide range of articles is accepted to achieve these goals.

The paper has supported and advocated on behalf of amateur fishers including an investment of time and money in the issue of fishery management in the Marlborough Sounds and Tasman Bay.

In the April issue, the paper sponsored an advert for Nelson Tasman Hospice to encourage readers to consider how they can put their outdoors experience and stories to good use as Hospice family support volunteers.  Never the shrinking violet, Crimpy has done just that.

12/04/2023

The Fishing Section of Club Waimea was informed and entertained by Daryl “Crimpy” Crimp of The Fishing Paper & Hunting News at their April meeting.  Daryl was accompanied by his Wife/Administration and Sale executive, Annette Bormolini who takes a leading role in the appearance of the publication.

Crimpy explained how they came to be owners of a successful outdoor publication with wide distribution in New Zealand and abroad, in the face of strong competition, rising costs and the advent of the Digital Print Media.

He was raised on a farm in Tadmor with a river bisecting it.  Here he had an early introduction to hunting and Fishing.  Later he became a schoolteacher then, with no formal training, became a freelance author and cartoonist.  During the 1990’s freelance work started to dry up and he started looking for other opportunities.

He met Annette when he was 40 and they married shortly afterwards.

Together they realized that paid-for news papers and magazines were losing readership, but free papers were booming.  They took the plunge with The Fishing News & Hunting Paper producing the first issue in September 2005 with a goal to last 6 months.  By paying attention to what is important to readers and advertisers and balancing the layout to keep it readable, they built their circulation to a maximum of 50,000 copies and are still going strong both in print and online.

Although there are regular contributors and articles from Government agencies, from one issue to the next they have no idea of what will be submitted.  The mantra of the paper is “Inform / Encourage / Entertain” and a wide range of articles is accepted to achieve these goals.

The paper has supported and advocated on behalf of amateur fishers including an investment of time and money in the issue of fishery management in the Marlborough Sounds and Tasman Bay.

In the April issue, the paper sponsored an advert for Nelson Tasman Hospice to encourage readers to consider how they can put their outdoors experience and stories to good use as Hospice family support volunteers.  Never the shrinking violet, Crimpy has done just that.

On 28^th April, in conjunction with Tasman Aquarium Club, members of the Fishing Section of Club Waimea visited the Whitebait Aquaculture facility run by Whitebait New Zealand, at Clover Road, Hope.

Director, Robert Hutton, admitted us to the building with appropriate hygiene measures.  For all of us we were about to experience first-hand an industry we had previously been unaware of.  Currently the main item produced is whitebait caviar, obtained from the New Zealand native trout, the Giant Kokopu.  Kokopu are bred in the facility in tanks and after four years are ready for egg production, the eggs being sold as caviar both natural “White Pearl” and Manuka Cold Smoked.  We were given the opportunity to sample this delicacy.

Artesian sourced water is used very efficiently with only 4% make-up required after tank cleaning and filter back-washing.  The effluent from these activities is delivered to a digester tank to break-down the waste products, the gas produced being available for process heating.

The Giant Kokopu, being one of New Zealand’s most endangered whitebait species, now sustainably grown for egg production, also provides opportunities for release of whitebait back into the wild, thus assisting conservation efforts to increase numbers of breeding stock in the wild.

Robert also introduced us to two other fish species being developed for potential future commercial production.  These are the Grass Carp for both meat production and controlling weed in waterways, and the Black Pacu, a very efficient converter of fish-feed to meat for human consumption.  Our group were impressed by the size and energy of a Black Pacu Robert scooped from a tank, having donned appropriate protective attire to keep dry.

Another activity is the use of hydroponics for vegetable food production using a fish tank as the water source for the plants.  A tank containing Black Pacu provides all the needed nutrients for the plants suspended above with their roots in the water.

We were grateful for the opportunity to see this enterprise in operation.  Not our usual fish-based activity but well worth the visit.

John Calder with 14.5kg Trumpter

Contact: Robin Ashley

544 3116