Geoff Thomas: Double score for top prop

Tony Woodcock's first 'puka was a double-header. Photo / Geoff Thomas

"Point the rod at the water, and the line will run out faster," said Aaron Covavich. At 130m you want the line to get down as quickly as possible. His boat, Thor, was drifting in an easy swell about 10km off Great Barrier Island and the target was hapuku. In fact, the mission had been dubbed "pigs and 'puka".

The first step was to drop off the pig hunters in a small cove on the east side of the island. Shane Coulter and Keith Townsend usually send their dogs into the bush after wild boar in the hills around Port Waikato, and this was new territory for them.

The wild pigs on the Barrier have been there for generations and are not wanted. The Department of Conservation employs cullers and private hunters further reduce the pig population.

The hunters set off in a dinghy, laden with dogs and camping equipment.

"Good luck boys, you get the pigs and we'll get the 'puka," said Aaron. And we did.

Our guest fisherman, All Black prop Tony Woodcock, was a 'puka newcomer so, as deckie Jake steered the boat towards one of the many points on the chart-plotter, Aaron explained how to fish for the large, grey predators that are so highly prized.

"You want the bait to hang down so we hook it only once through the top, and we don't need big baits," he said, as he threaded the circle hook through the end of a half squid.

"I like to put the head on the bottom hook, so the tentacles wave around right in front of the fish," he added, baiting the second hook on the thick 100kg trace.

When Jake gave the call to drop baits they quickly plummeted out of sight. Once on the bottom you can fish - either with the reel in free-spool, thumbing the spool to let a little line out as the boat moves over the reef, or put it in gear and wait for a bite.

But the baits have to be right on the seabed.

Aaron will always look for the fish sign on the screen of the depth sounder before fishing.

"If the bait fish are there, the 'puka will be too."

He instructs Tony on how to strike. In fact, you don't strike, you simply wait till the rod is pulled down, then start winding, keeping the pressure on all the time.

It is important to keep a bend in the rod, as the hooks can fall out of the corner of the 'puka's jaw if the line goes slack.

"Just keep working the rod, and winding," he says.

And it works. Tony's rod was pulled down, he wound line and kept working the rod and winding.

Soon a dim silver glimmer appeared, quickly morphing into not one, but two fish which broke the surface and wallowed gently until Aaron twisted the heavy trace around his hand and lifted them over the side and on to the deck.

It was high-fives all around.

The next fish up was another hapuku and Aaron urged the fishermen to rebait hooks and get them down as fast as possible.

"Have to get the baits on the bottom while they are biting.

"It won't last long."

He always tries to get over the hapuku grounds at slack tide, for once the current starts running it is almost impossible to get baits down.

The heavy gear is swept away and doesn't reach the seabed until it is a couple of hundred metres behind the boat.

Five fat, grey 'puka were resting in the salt ice in the fish hold when the sharks turned up.

That is the other common species out here, and there is nothing more frustrating than winding a heavy fish up from the bottom to find it is a school shark or spiny dogfish.

Time to move to another spot but that yielded only sharks so Jake turned the bow towards the distant island, dropping anchor beside a deep reef for a spot of stray-lining with big baits for snapper.

That is another speciality of the guys on Thor, and they delivered as always.

The next morning, the hunters pulled up alongside with two wild boar strapped to the bow of the runabout. The plan worked.