Fishing: How the fisherman calls the tune

By HARVEY CLARK

Piper schools have arrived in force with the spring weather, waving their little sword-like bills around the country's rocky coasts, wharves, sea walls, bays and estuaries, where they school in the shallow water and feed on sea grass, algae and tiny creatures.

These mini-marlin, known overseas as garfish, will be around for the spring and summer.

They are easily caught and are one of the great unheralded delicacies of the sea, largely ignored as a table fish and rarely available in fish shops.

A piper is a lean, mean, silver-green and agile little predator, growing rapidly to 40cm and feeding voraciously, its powerful tail working as a motor to propel it after prey at high speed.

Jetties, such as the one at Cornwallis Beach on the Manukau Harbour, are ideal spots to fish for piper, which like to feed in the currents and tides that swirl around such constructions and also offer shelter from bigger predators hunting them in the fish-eat-fish jungle of the sea.

You can put together a piper-fishing outfit for next to nothing.

A good rod for use off a wharf or sea wall is a light bamboo pole cut from the garden, on the firm side of springy and 4m long. You don't need a reel. Simply fasten a length of 1.5kg nylon line, 1m shorter than the rod, to the tip.

On the end of the line tie a float such as a piece of polystyrene cut from an old fishbox or chillybin. Under that, on a 1.5m trace, suspend three small hooks with tiny baits about 15cm apart, and some lead shot or a small sinker to keep the baits submerged in any current.

That outfit will cost you about $10 for the hooks, nylon and sinkers. It is a highly efficient setup that is preferred over the traditional rod, reel and six Sabuki lures because it is easier, faster, cleaner and you hardly ever tangle.

Trout hooks, which are manufactured in smaller sizes than sea hooks, are best for piper fishing. Never use the circular-style sea hooks that bend inward, because the piper can't get its mouth over the point. The smaller the hook, the lighter the nylon, or you won't be able to thread it through the eye.

A variety of coloured plastic floats is available, but in a stronger current they'll be dragged under by the heavier sinker needed, and that's when the more buoyant polystyrene float is an advantage. It keeps the baits and sinker drifting at an even depth.

Piper will attack any bait ranging from shellfish to snippets of bacon fat to maggots. The secret is to find something that stays secure on the small hooks. A piece of white squid sleeve cut into tiny strips is effective, and I've heard of some youngsters using cooked rice grains soaked overnight in sardine oil.

Still popular is the traditional bait of flour and water mixed into a dough with cotton wool until you find a semi-sticky texture, rolled into tiny balls and threaded on to the hooks - it's clean, easy to use and the piper love it.

Piper have almost opaque flesh that has been compared to whitebait. They have such small stomachs that you can clean 10 of them in 20 seconds. Those over 25cm might need scaling.

Cook them one minute each side in the frying pan in hot butter. Serve with lemon juice, salt and pepper, a sprig of parsley and white bread and butter. The backbone is easily lifted free and any remaining bones are frizzled crisp. You can then drop two whole sides of piper down your throat in two gulps

I've seen two dozen cooked piper, the heads and swords left attached like a catch of miniature marlin, served on a colourful bed of salads. The dish looked as scrumptious as it tasted, and you won't get it in any restaurant.




How to make a piper rod

1. Cut a light 4m-long bamboo pole from the garden

2. Fasten a 3m-length of 1.5kg nylon line to the tip.

3. On the end of the line tie a float such as a piece of polystyrene cut from an old fishbox or chillybin.

4. Under that, on a 1.5m trace, suspend three small hooks with tiny baits about 15cm apart, and some lead shot or a small sinker to keep the baits submerged in any current.

Trout hooks, which are manufactured in smaller sizes than sea hooks, are best for piper fishing.