Report 051 Extreme Jetskifishing to catch dinner… 22nd of January 2011

After finishing work on Saturday arvo and a not so glam weather forecast, Craig and I had a goal to complete, heading out to catch dinner or having to go to Oceanz! I had just picked up a new toy, the UFO (Universal Food Oven), to take away in a few weeks time for cooking fish on the Jetskifishing Over Nighter... I thought best we test it out beforehand, so the task was to catch some fish while it was steaming some fresh veges for dinner.

Craig and I launched our Yamaha WaveRunners at KawaKawa Bay, which is located ten minutes past Clevedon, to what seemed the calm before the big storm!

The facilities at Kawakawa are great, even with the low tide... We departed at 4.30pm and took shelter from the weather, heading around between Waiheke and Pakatoa to a spot that usually fishes well at this time of year. Craig was fishing the plastics and I tried the jigs. We were under pressure with nine people expecting us to return with fresh fish for dinner. The wind was building with a messy chop developing as forecasted! After half an hour of no real success, I made the call for both us to ride around to Thumb Point to catch some Snapper in a depth of 24 metres... It wasn't long and Craig had one in the bin and soon I also had my first.

The fish were nothing to be proud of, but most important was dinner and we all know how hard it can be in a strong southerly! With all the humiliation of no fish out of the way, we braved it out a bit further to a hot spot for Kingfish and the decision was for me to take a chance and catch a Kingfish while Craig continued for Snapper for dinner... I soon found which side of the rock face the Kingfish were on with the Raymarine and it wasn't long before I struck my first rat... It was very promising, as while retrieving the small Kingfish I was about to release, it was followed to the surface by some good 15 kilo Kingies! I was soon back into it, quickly dropping the jig and maintaining my fitness with a slower mechanical jig, still hoping for a Kingy for dinner. Then it happened, I finally struck a string puller... there was no mucking around as I was desperate to land it before being sharked. After four or five minutes and a quick visual confirmation of a legal size Kingfish, the fish was gaffed and placed in the chilly bin.

It was a great reward for a hard couple of hours on the water, we called it quits and battled a fun ride back to the ramp.

We eventually arrived back safe and sound to hear of the extreme weather hitting Auckland. The fish was no monster, but it was a great feeling to be so fortunate with our fisheries, catching dinner as easy as that.

Within a few hours the fish was all filleted into steaks and prepared for everyone’s various requests for dinner.