‘Fishing chick of Waihi Beach’ keen to get her line back in water after health scare

Heather Bustard is a regular beach sight with her trolley and kontiki.

Heather Bustard is a self-confessed “fishaholic” and she’s suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

The 81-year-old has just returned from a two-week stint at Tauranga Hospital for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and it’s been the longest she’s gone without fishing.

The “fishing chick of Waihi Beach” is a regular sight pushing her trolley and kontiki every morning or night.

“Sometimes three times a day,” she says.

She’s fished every day for the last 14 years. Fishing was a reprieve from a relentless cycle of insomnia after her husband of 50 years, Graham, died in 2009.

She started heading out around 3am or 4am every day with trolley and kontiki.

“I find it relaxing, very satisfying and you can’t fix the world if you’re lying in bed turning over and over.

You’re out there in the dark, you watch the sun rise or set and over the years I have talked to the most amazing people.”

Bustard’s got her spot on the beach and baits up with mullet.

She catches six to eight fish a day, mostly snapper, gurnard and kahawai.

Her favourite is gurnard, but she’s caught all sorts including sharks and even a mako.

Fishing gran Heather Bustard is keen to get those fishing lines back out there.

Bustard dishes out most of her catch to the community. About 35 friends eat well because of her.

She’s taught many how to fillet fish including her children and all her grandchildren.

“Every grandchild gets a filleting knife at age 12,” she says.

The locals are good to her and she has friends at the council and police who look after her too.

“The council came to my house and they measured my trolley so I can get it in between that bollard,” she says.

Two years ago Bustard had had two torpedo kontikis and two winches stolen from her home. The community rallied around and friend Pip Coombes set up a Givealittle page which raised $6000.

At the moment Bustard is getting her energy back to fish on her own “any day now”.

“I’ve had neighbours put out the kontiki for me in the meantime. I’ve only just started driving and when I have the confidence and the help, I’ll be out there.

“That access way is very steep and I would have to stop a few times getting it back up ... but nothing is going to stop me soon.”

Bustard says she got the “red carpet treatment” at Tauranga Hospital and would like to thank ambulance staff, doctors and nurses.