Sea fishing

On Saturday Bhav and I went sea fishing for the first time. We had the chance to do it since Bhav works for Recreational Services at the University of Otago. We woke up early (by our standards) to drive up to Port Chalmers to get on the catamaran. On the way out Bhav got the opportunity to steer whilst Alan, the skipper, set up the rods to catch some barracuda as bait.

It was about an hour and a half up the coast on quite calm waters before we arrived at the kelp forest, one of the largest in New Zealand, where we would fish. We were out there because the trumpeter fish we were after live in shoals and prefer the habitat and relative safety of the kelp. I really got into it and was loving the whole experience, others were suffering a little from sea sickness. I caught 5 trumpeter (would have been 8 if 2 hadn’t fallen back into the water and the other had been bigger).

On the way back I got to steer for most of the time. There was a yacht race near the peninsular though so Alan had to take over as he knew how to avoid interfering with them. It was a really enjoyable day and a successful catch. I don’t eat fish but Bhav’s dinner is set for a while to come.

Kelp forest

Bhav and her barracuda

Getting off the boat