Snapper know where the tuatua are

Liam Shephard-Quedec with the result of an evening's surfcasting off 90 Mile Beach. Photo / supplied

Anyone after a bucket of 90 Mile Beach tuatua has had to travel north of the Bluff for some time, but the snapper obviously know where they are according to Kaitaia man Thierry Quedec.

He and his son Liam Shephard-Quedec had a good evening's fishing off the beach on a recent Friday night, around the Ngataki access, Liam pulling in two very good snapper, both with stomachs full of the shellfish.

The bigger of the pair was 75cm and 16.8 pounds (7.5kg) cleaned, taken on squid on a falling tide.

Thierry said Liam, who was born in Kaitaia 20 years ago, had been fishing since he was capable of holding a rod. He had taken his son to the Unahi wharf as a child, but he had graduated to much bigger fish long ago. And he was as passionate as his father.

"If we're not working we fish," Thierry said.

He had had to make do with a couple of kahawai and a smaller snapper while Liam was catching the big ones, but that was a much better result than last Thursday's outing. They had their luck on the east coast, without success, then had a look at Waipapakauri Ramp, finally chucking their hooks off the rocks at Te Kohanga, but even there the conditions were too rough to produce any sort of catch.