Fishing: Let them find you

Lachie Stevens was happy to take his grandfather's spot on a fishing trip. Photo / Supplied

When Mark Stevens was offered the chance to go snapper fishing, he hopped in his car and drove to Auckland from his home at Oakura, south of New Plymouth. His fishing buddy was his 12-year-old son, Lachie, who was only too happy to take his grandfather's place on the boat. It was the family patriarch, Geoff Stevens, who had won the trip, a promotion to celebrate the Herald on Sunday's fifth birthday. But being a generous type, and because he hurt his back in a fall, he offered the day out to his son and grandson.

What you missed, Geoff, was a serious lesson in the importance of using berley. The trip was a week ago, and in early January you can expect snapper to be climbing all over themselves trying to get into your fish box. But not this year.

As we have mentioned in the Saturday fishing report, the unseasonal cool temperatures combined with an El Nino weather pattern, which delivers prolonged westerly winds, have resulted in the majority of snapper staying well out in the Hauraki Gulf, where they will carry out their annual spawning ritual.

When heading out from Okahu Bay, we would usually plan to travel no further than the Rangitoto Channel, the Worm Beds or the Rakino Channel; but the fish are a bit thin on the ground in these popular spots and a little more gas is needed in the tank at the moment.

With signwriting all over the boat, there is more expectation than usual; but it turned out that Mark grew up in Auckland and spent time living on Great Barrier Island, so these waters are like home territory. The peaks of the Barrier are looming on the horizon by the time we pass Tiritiri Matangi and continue north. There is little wind, which is always a prerequisite when heading out into the open spaces, and three pairs of eyes scan the sky for flickering white dots. For where you find the birds, you usually find fish. Before Christmas, it was never a problem locating the action; there were birds and dolphins across the inner gulf from Gannet Rock to Kawau Island and back to The Noises.

But not on this day. A few dolphins splashed around, but no birds. A small patch of gannets sitting just off the Ahaaha Rocks attracted a score of boats, but there were no rods bending. After a short exploratory drift, the chunks of pilchard on the ledger rigs came up untouched. It was time to burn more petrol.

The large dolphin-watch catamaran was mooching around just inside the cable zone north of Tiri so, in the absence of work-ups, that seemed a pretty good indicator.

But instead of drifting it made more sense to drop anchor and set a berley pot on the seabed 40m below. If you can't find the action - bring the action to you. Seems a logical approach.

And it worked.

Mark and Lachie had bending rods within five minutes. It's always a pleasure fishing with somebody who knows the business, and Mark knew the business. He soon had Lachie baiting his own hooks and spiking his catch.

The tide was four hours on the way in and at 3.1m high, it delivered a good current. The fishing would slow as the tide eased, but after an hour it died altogether.

"The berley will be gone," was the verdict, and sure enough the pot was empty. No berley, no fish. The remaining two berley bombs would fit in the pot at a squeeze and as they had partially thawed would start their work quickly. What you can do at slack tide is go hard on the berley, which means slicing the plastic bag right open and giving it plenty of jiggle on the rope.

The berley will spill out and lie around until the current starts up again, then the scent and particles will be pushed along the bottom. It is all about letting the fish know where you are and enticing them into your zone.

The object is not to feed the fish but to attract them. You feed the fish with your baits, and hopefully hook them. So it went for another hour-and-a-half. A steady stream of snapper, the occasional gurnard and some mega-sized jack mackerel came over the side of the boat. With this type of fishing you can be generous with sizes and the rule on our boat is if a fish has to be measured then it is too small to keep anyway. The fresh yellowtails make great bait and will deter the small fish. A combination of pilchard and squid chunks on the ledgers work fine, but for larger snapper a strip of mackerel works well.

Legally, three anglers can take 27 snapper and 60 other fish. But 87 is overkill for two families, even allowing for the fillets given away; so 15 good snapper and a few gurnard were lying in the salt ice slurry when the berley ran out and the action stopped again. The yellowtails (mackerel) were put in the bait freezer. This shows how spoiled we are in this country, for they are also fine eating. I know a friend from Japan who would be overjoyed to have them in his fridge, in preference to snapper.

Berleying tips

* Thaw the first berley bomb in advance so it works faster.

* Take plenty of berley and keep it going continuously.

* In shallow water it can be deployed on the surface, but otherwise drop it to the bottom and lift it about a metre so it catches the current.

* If on a separate line, tie it off at the bow to keep the line clear of the fishing lines.

* Give the line a pull occasionally to release more berley.

* Commercial berleys work fine, but they can be made at home with old bait, guts and frames put through a mincer; or mix pig pellets with tuna oil.