And the fishing is like it was 50 years ago on the mainland. You only have to steam for 10 minutes from the main wharf and drop a bait and you will have a blue cod instantly. That is then chopped for bait, and it is all on. The skipper looked sideways at the rods and handlines which came across on the plane from Christchurch, and produced half a dozen handlines which comprised rope, not line, with a huge weight on the end and a couple of heavy traces inside plastic tubing with circle hooks which looked as if they could handle a marlin. But they work. How they work. He demonstrated the special technique - drop the terminal bits and just let the rope run out. When it stops, take up the weight gently then when a bite tugs on the end, jerk the rope savagely to set the hook. Do that a couple of times, then haul in the rope hand-over-hand as it slides across the gunwhale, then lift the whole lot including a couple of fish over into the boat. He flicks off the fish with a special tool, rebaits the hooks, then slits the throat of each fish and they go straight into a bin full of cold seawater.
It's a slick operation, and when a small groper comes in, the smiles get even broader. For while you are fishing in only 20m of water, you can often hook school groper - as they call hapuku here and in the South Island - among the blue cod.
"What do you reckon? Blue cod or snapper?" asked a bloke from Dunedin. The two Aucklanders were outnumbered, so it was a tricky question.
"Snapper is so popular in the north only because it is so common," we suggested. "But the colder the water, the better eating the fish are, and the best come from the bottom. So the blue cod here and in the South Island are probably better."
It was a political sort of answer, important when you are sharing a vehicle, meals and evening drinks with a bunch of South Islanders. But there was never any doubt the blue cod, crays and paua would be warmly welcomed in the north.
Fresh water
Trout in the spawning tributaries at Lake Taupo, and those hanging around stream mouths in Rotorua are darkening in colour.
This is to be expected this far into the winter spawning runs, and fish in such condition make poor eating and are better returned to the water. There are good numbers of fish in most pools on the Taupo rivers and streams, and the usual small nymphs are working - globug, hare and copper, caddis and bead-head.
On the Rotorua lakes, a glo-bug fished off the beaches at Lake Rotoiti and the Landing at Lake Tarawera is catching fish during the day, while lumo flies are better at night - but the full moon this weekend will make night fishing hard. One approach may be to fish from an anchored boat at night, casting over the drop-off into deep water.
The lumo flies don't work so well in bright light, so large, dark, bushy patterns like a fuzzy wuzzy or large woolly bugger might be a better option.
Tip of the Week
Use local gear when you go fishing in new destinations. It is like local knowledge. They know what will work best in the conditions.
The Chatham Island gropers were caught on the handlines because the baits lie flat on the bottom, while the lighter line and sinkers on the rods delivered the baits differently.
Blue cod are much more aggressive and will attack anything. An underwater camera revealed how they attack their food and twist in the water while gripping a chunk with their powerful front teeth, then they revolve in the water, spinning their body to tear off a piece.
This is how they attack their natural prey, which includes paua. There are so many fish, they are very competitive.
Bite times
11.30am and 11.50pm today, and 12.15pm tomorrow. More fishing action can be found at GTTackle.co.nz
