Fishing Report

Sorry if we got your hopes up with the title... there is not much to report. Dave went out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday and still has not caught a marlin. Wednesday and Thursday were spent with Andre on the west coast in the Tasman Sea. The boat was launched from Hokianga Harbour, which has a very dangerous bar to cross. Every boat that crosses the bar must call into the coast guard before they start and again once they have safely crossed. Wednesday went well. Thursday getting out was fine, but coming back in was a bit scary. The tide was dead low so there were waves crashing all the way across the bar. We had to sit just outside the bar and watch for a few minutes to plan our crossing. We all put on life jackets, waited for a small set, and rode in between two swells. We made it safely across, but we could clearly see why some days the harbour is completely closed. Coming thru there in rough seas must be very scary. Jill tagged along on Thursday hoping to bring some good luck for the fishing, and to work on a suntan. We did get several albacore tuna, which were delicious, but no marlin. The weather was amazing though. It was flat calm which is practically unheard of on the west coast. We did see a marlin jump about 60 yards behind the boat twice, which was really cool. It was a huge blue marlin, that we would have loved to catch. On Friday the boys went out from Matauri Bay, but had no luck. Friday night we had a cook out at the campground with the guys we had been fishing with and their wives. We ate kina(sea urchin) and tuatua(clam) that they collected right on the beach in front of the campground. We also had

some fresh fish that had been caught from the boat. It was a great meal straight from the sea, that couldn't have been any fresher. On Sunday Dave went out with our friend Vinny, but they didn't have any luck with the marlin. We are keeping our fingers crossed for the next trip out.