The secrets of Captain Swish

By ROBIN BAILEY

There is nothing too unusual about those who have grown up fishing the waters close to where they were born seeming to be on first-name terms with every rock or hidden crevice where their quarry might seek refuge.

Aucklander Bruce Duncan is just that sort of character. He was born minutes from the downtown area of New Zealand's biggest city and has lived there most of his life. His knowledge of the waters off his doorstep is as comprehensive as that of any backwoodsman.

Choose any fine weekend day - or any not-so-fine day for that matter - and there's no point in looking for Duncan ashore. He will be cruising his patch, stopping occasionally to land some choice snapper, and almost certainly boating more and bigger fish than anyone else on board.

While other fishers on the boat frustratedly throw back the small ones and re-bait, Duncan will be lifting his bent rod high with his trademark cry, "Captain Swish sets a cracking pace", echoing around the boat.

Intensely competitive about his fishing, he also unstintingly shares his vast knowledge, always enthusiastic about passing on his understanding of both the fish he is pursuing and the environment.

Duncan calls this respect. He rarely takes his allowed limit, believing people should catch only what they need "for today" and he won't freeze fish, saying it should be eaten fresh.

Duncan learned his respect for the sea at an early age. Born in 1954, he was just 3 when he first went sailing and was not much older when he first went solo in a P-Class. His parents were keen boaters who loved fishing and young Bruce could regularly be found exploring the waters off the beach at Kohimarama.

It was sailing rather than fishing that first prompted young Duncan to take to the water. Having won his first race in the 7-foot P-Class he decided yachting was the sport for him and quickly graduated to the 62-foot Kahurangi. Owned by the well-known Auckland Nathan family, the ocean racer was much more to his taste.

"My bum stayed dry and I was much closer to the fridge," says Duncan, who competed in his first Auckland-Suva race at 17, afterwards staying with the yacht cruising the Fijian waters.

"For the next seven years, racing and cruising were my life," Duncan recalls. "I did a heap of offshore yachting - the blue-water life was great."

This was the 1970s and crewing offshore was not the highly paid profession it is today. Duncan realised that while his mates back home had been acquiring cars, houses and wives, he had lots of great memories and total recall of a superb collection of hangovers.

His first "proper job" was - not surprisingly - at sea, working on barges moving freight and stock around the top half of the North Island. This lasted two years and was followed by a "final fling". That meant returning to Hawaii to sail in the Pan Am Clipper Cup (forerunner of today's Kenwood Cup), then back to San Diego for more regattas.

Finally, as he puts it, it was time to "do responsibility". He joined the safety company Hutchwilco and stayed 20 years, meeting and marrying his wife Alison along the way and buying a house close to where he grew up.

In the early days of his life ashore Duncan was soon fishing again, initially from a little ply dinghy. Unable to go far, he began studying the inshore reefs and found them surprisingly productive. While most fishers were "bouncing sinkers" in the channels, he was in shallow water with the lightest line he could find and little or no weight. Today it's called straylining.

By the end of the 1990s he had a bigger boat and began sharing his knowledge through a fishing column in a series of boating magazines, combining a lot of knowledge with an equal amount of humour.

His reputation quickly spread and speaking engagements and appearances on fishing videos followed. Today Bruce Duncan is self-employed and does his fishing from a 32-foot launch. He doesn't do what he terms "guiding" but does occasionally go out with new boaters to show them how and where to fish.

This aspect of his life entered a new phase this week with the publication of Fishing the Hauraki Gulf, a book that opens up to everyone the secrets of the area he knows so well. In words, great colour photographs and explicit charts it reveals to both beginners and experts the Duncan secrets of a lifetime.

* Duncan will be signing copies of Fishing the Hauraki Gulf and providing a taste of smoked fish at the Gaunt St, Westhaven, book and marine chart outlet from 11am to 1pm today.