The competition was on!
by Neil Stevenson
It had been a year since our last charter and instead of d'Urville and Stephens, it was decided to spend a week fishing amidst the splendour of Fiordland. After a very enjoyable work do many years ago, around ten of us had been getting together every year for more of the same - drinking and lies! Fishing is a wonderful excuse sometimes.
A day's drive saw us over-night in Queenstown, after picking up two more fishos in Ashburton. Then off to Manapouri for the ferry and bus trip to Deep Cove to be reunited with our skipper and his son Steve.
The competition was on! Who was going to win the sweepstake for the biggest fish this year? Everyone was full of confidence. A fantastic time was had by everyone. There was fishing, hunting and diving and while some of the weather wasn't the best, no one worried too much about getting wet! On board ship life was great, all meals cooked for us and we didn't even have to do the dishes. Some would say better than home life, but not me of course. (Wife reads The Fishing Paper, thoroughly).
The fishing was fantastic, with just about every species imaginable coming on board. It was so good, we even caught groper off the mooring in the inner sound.The biggest groper for the trip was around 50lb, but the highlight for me was this thumping big bluenose. The damn thing gave me a great work out from the bottom up - the sea that is!
We must have looked a bit rough and bedraggled on the return bus trip as a comment was overheard from an overseas tourist describing us as looking like a bunch of bushwhackers! Can't wait for a return trip next year.
P.S. Stay tuned for a report on a tuna trip out of Westport next month!
