Parengarenga Harbour Fishing

On Friday we drove north to meet our friend/guide Marty at his house in Houhora for an overnight land-based fishing trip. We loaded everything up in his van and hit the road with his boat in tow. We went to Parengarenga Harbour, out onto Maori land. We had to stop on the way to pay $20 for a key to open the gate for access to the land. We were out on a flat open peninsula, with a beautiful view of harbour, ocean, sand dunes, and farmlands. Once we were there we unloaded and put the boat into the water. We headed out to catch snapper for dinner. We drove the boat across the harbour and onto a beach, scaring off some wild horses on the land. The beach we were on had remnants from the mining days. Years ago in this area they mined some type of mineral used to make asbestos. It was mined and loaded onto barges, then sent out of the harbor. There was an old barge rusting away on the beach and some old parts of buildings. It was pretty interesting to think that years ago there would have been loads of people working in this area and now it is a deserted beach that the environment is slowly converting back to the way it was. The waves and weather are slowly breaking up the barge, as the wind and sand work together to cover everything. We caught dinner and headed back to camp. We set up a makeshift tent using a tarp. We pulled it off the top of the van like a lean-to and used a fishing net to hold it up off the ground. While it was a bit ghetto, we used what we had! We cooked up our fish for dinner and set up our beds under the tarp. We sat around our fire for a bit and ate, then Marty played harmonica for awhile. It was a very peaceful place to be and a clear sky allowed us to see all the stars above. The next morning we woke up and got ready to head out

fishing. We took the boat across the harbour again, but this time headed out into the ocean. Once we were through the break we stopped at a rocky point to fish. We unloaded our fishing supplies and got to it. Even though Dave was fighting the waves crashing into him over the rocks, he still managed to catch a great 30 pound kingfish. We stayed in that spot about 45 minutes, then headed out since the tide was coming in and the swell was a bit hard to fight. Our next spot was way back into the harbour in a calm spot on a rocky beach. We caught some bait and started our fishing. There we caught a John Dory for our first time ever. Even though it was only a few pounds, it was a great size for the species, and exciting for us. Dave also caught a 40 pound kingfish in this spot, which put up a good fight. We ate lunch and packed up after several hours. We then stopped at a shell bank to spend a few minutes casting along the edge to see if anything was around. Even though there was no bite there, it was a pretty cool spot. It was like a sand bar sticking out of the water at low tide, but rather than sand, the entire 100 yard long, 5 foot wide bank was solid shells. Next we headed over to another beautiful beach and fished the rest of the day. We didn't get any more kingfish but we did catch a couple snapper in that spot. We headed in just before dark and packed up. After a very full day of land based fishing, we were ready to head home. We had such a great time. It's always nice to catch fish, but its even better to see more spectacular places in New Zealand.