The Washer Woman's Snapper
By Gina Wadsworth
My partner and I decided to spend a weekend at my parent's bach in Momorangi Bay. The weather forecast was terrible, but we still took the fishing gear and thought we might try for a snapper off the rocks (bit of a joke after many hours spent watching the world go by with not even a nibble!). Friends also claimed to have spent 30 hours the previous month fishing around the same area with no luck, so the prospects weren't looking that good.
Low tide hit at 10.00am and off we set, carefully making our way around the rocks with the appropriate assortment fish catching paraphernalia. The line had been in the water for all of ten minutes when chomp, we had something. Nigel grabbed the rod and started hauling it in while I grabbed him by the jacket to stop him going in - it was a big fish, huge, enormous, very big and obviously quite large!
The surfcaster was almost bent double with the weight of the fish, and judging by my man's pained expression, it would have to have been the biggest snapper I had seen in real life! And then the line broke!
I know everyone always goes on about the one that got away but that fish was HUGE! (Did I mention its size?) We needed a net so I raced off back up to the bach to try and find one. All I could come up with was a lovely pink washing basket, so back I scurried with my version of the Kiwi piece of No 8 wire. It did the trick and we were able to land four out of six snapper and one lonely kahawai. In case you hadn't noticed, a washing basket doesn't have a handle, so I did end up in the sea up to my waist at one point, but it was well worth it!
The following day, a couple of friends who were impressed by our gloating came down and five more snapper were landed - what a weekend. Good old Momorangi!
