My First Fishing Exploit
by Rob Mather
Out on a motorbike excursion recently, I bumped into Brent Shearer of Canterbury Fishing Adventures and he asked me on a fishing trip. The only fishing I'd ever done was off the wharf with my son; I'm more of a tusk and antler kind of guy than chasing round after (what I thought would be) piddly, smelly, scaly little suckers.
Brent and his team of Andy (skipper) and Debbie picked me up from Diamond Harbour at 5am and headed out for what would end up being one top notch day - three weather changes throughout, but that just made it interesting. A couple of hours of cruising along watching albatross and dolphins and we'd reached The Hole off Lyttleton Heads. On the way I was well looked after, fed and watered by Debbie and I had energy to burn for this fishing experience. The team were very experienced, both the skipper Andy and Brent knew a lot of good marks, so we were catching fish straight away. My first was a tiny sea perch and I thought, "Here we go, a sign of how my first fishing exploit's going to be!"
When my next fish felt like a submarine by comparison I thought it was just my technique; it was too early in the day for me to have taken on board any advice and I was heaving and puffing like a rhino on speed. Cor, I thought, I'm gonna look blimmin' stupid if I pull in a tiddler. Brent came over with a big gaff and I thought he was extracting the urine, but up came a 40kg Groper! I couldn't believe my eyes! I was stoked.
That wasn't the end of it either, the skipper just kept on finding more great spots and we fished until everyone had a decent feed's worth then headed back - with Brent and Andy doing all the filleting of the fish, whilst telling me tall tales mixed in with a whole lot of very useful tricks to improve the old technique and strike rate!
Heading back into Akaroa, we hunted out some crays then got the hard yakker done before heading to the local for some celebrating. It's amazing how a few bevvies miraculously grow a fish to double its size.
A cracker day, just getting out there and having a go was awesome, and Canterbury Fishing Adventures get a big tick from me!
