Fisherman's 'one that didn't get away'

KEEPER: Raymond Forrester with the snapper he hooked this week.PHOTO/SUPPLIED

A dedicated Greytown fisherman got just reward for 40 years in the sport when he landed a giant 11.3kg snapper near the mouth at Lake Ferry this week.

Raymond Forrester, 66, let out a whoop of disbelief when he saw the big snapper "flop on to the beach" thinking he had hooked a shark.

"I let out a yahoo and then half a dozen blokes on the beach came to have a look.

"One of them got a photo of themselves with my fish."

Mr Forrester hooked the snapper close to the mouth on Monday "roughly an hour before high tide."

It was the first snapper he had ever caught off the beach and "by far my best catch".

Snapper off the beach are a rare catch these days, especially in Palliser Bay, and the sheer size of this one put the icing on the cake for the Greytown fisherman.

The hefty fish was his second catch of the day, the first being "the biggest kahawai I have ever caught" so all in all it was memorable day at the Ferry.

Mr Forrester had used just standard supermarket squid bait to hook the snapper and landed the fish after "letting him go with the current a bit before coming in on the next wave."

"I have had a feed, and so have my neighbours," he said.

Ironically Mr Forrester, who is a member of the Feilding Surfcasting Club, was planning to go on a trip with the club especially to try to catch snapper.

Now, he doubts he will be able to trump his Lake Ferry catch any time soon, if ever.