Fishing: Making most of spear time

Andrew Grierson holds on tight to a striped marlin.

It takes a fair amount of guts to jump overboard in the middle of a baitfish school in 140 metres of water five kilometres offshore.

You know that something has herded the fish up to the surface where they are vulnerable to attack. But what?

Andrew Grierson and Murray Clark were out off Cape Brett with skipper Chris Hornell from the Bay of Islands Marine Centre looking for schooling work-ups and ready with both video, still camera and speargun.

"We'd got some awesome video of manta rays and seals. There's a lot of time sitting around on the boat, too, looking about for the baitfish," Grierson said.

Then the huge adrenaline rush as they go overboard. They had visibility close to 35m when a large striped marlin speared into the school of mackerel and ate its way out the other side. As it seared back in again it came straight past Grierson at speed. "It was flying past me, I got a shot off and hit him about a metre back from the tail."

The fish towed him for 40 minutes as he held onto the float line and float, Clark swimming with him but frequently having to jump in the boat to catch up.

"It's not so bad when your mate is in the water with you but you do wonder about sharks and things when you're in there by yourself. I've seen plenty of sharks but not when I've had a fish on."

When the marlin was boated the spear was hanging in by a piece of skin. Weighed by Dave "Captain Cuddles" Caddell back at the Bay of Islands Swordfish Club, it came in at 127kg, "every kilogram of it smoked and eaten, nothing wasted", Grierson said. It was his second marlin after an 82kg effort two years ago.

* The billfishing has slowed considerably from the Bay of Plenty north, with westerly winds pushing the blue water offshore.

Charter skipper John Batterton put anglers onto seven stripeys last week at the King Bank off the Three Kings and it appears the big predators are congregating up there earlier than usual for their final feed-up before leaving New Zealand waters.

Around Auckland the snapper fishing was hot before the blow early in the week and it should remain so for another month.

You don't even need bait or berley - the 60g Black Magic silver or pink and white jigs are working well, as are plastic scented soft baits with a small ball sinker placed right on the fish head. Run the lures through the whole water column to find where the fish are biting because often it is mid-stream.

* A group of keen Auckland small-boat anglers have formed the Hibiscus Kayak Fishing Club, which held its first meeting at Johnson Outdoors in Silverdale to good response.

A committee has been formed and another meet planned for April 19, the club intending to present guest speakers, provide fishing tips, improve safety and organise trips. Contact John Klingenberg on 027 627-1864.

SPY YOU THERE

The annual Boat Show from June 1-5 will feature watercraft and other spy items that were part of the James Bond series of movies.

Included are the tow sled from 1965's Thunderball; the bath-o-sub from 1971's Diamonds Are Forever, the Neptune submarine from 1981's For Your Eyes Only and the Q boat from the 1979 hit The World Is Not Enough. Gadgetry includes an electrified wristwatch, a wrist dart gun, a rocket-firing cigarette and the bowler hat used as a killing weapon by Chinese bodyguard Odd Job in Goldfinger.

FISHY TALE BRINGS BACK MEMORIES

Adrian Paalvast replied to last week's story of a 24lb rainbow trout caught in Canada but reported as a Lake Taupo catch on April Fool's Day.

The home of his godmother's mother featured a mounted rainbow trout that weighed 13 3/4lb, caught at the southern end of the lake in the 1950s.

"That fish used to be my inspiration as I grew and fished the lakes and rivers. My own best was a smaller but still impressive 13-pounder caught trolling off Rangatira Point," he said. "The best trout I've seen was also hung on a wall at a fishing lodge in Bemidji in northern Minnesota, USA, a 42lb brown."

* From next week the fishing column will run on Saturday.