Today’s brag is about the half dozen fish, some of which are shown here.
These are not record beating, but they sure were tasty… and being small (but of legal size), they were not loaded with roe. I am beating my chest over these as I had not spend a penny on bait. The previous evening the Admiral and I were walking on the beach where we spied evidence of pipi (bivalve, clam, shell fish or whatever). A dig down produced several dozen fat pipis that we kept alive in the seawater, in a plastic pipe with holes drilled into the sides to allow the oxygenated water to bathe them.
When I was a teenager, prior to a fishing expedition, I would cycle south down the stretch of sandy coast to where the big tuatuas were, and if the tide was high, dive under, madly digging into the beds before I ran out of breath, meanwhile dodging the random waves.
Besides the pipi bait, I had caught a half dozen pilchards off the back of the boat using a line and baitless hook system with shiny little fluffs attached. Brilliant!
The best catch of bait was after using a Piper net gifted by Graham and Lois Gilmore. On a high tide in Army Bay at BOI, at morning smoko time when I spotted a school of sparkling silver fish being chased in towards shore. Luckily we had the net, and soon after had scooped a bucket of bait fish.
A bunch of piper for bait!
The final clincher for catching these fish had been a predawn start, much the same as when my two daughters at 4 and 5 used to wake me in the dark for an early start in the tin boat, coasting down the driveway so as to not wake the Admiral. No wind, no crowds, no chop and lovely conditions for admiring the Bay of Islands scenery. Best of all, I get to see a gorgeous sunrise every time.
Part of the tasty snapper catch
