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FISHING STINKY BAITS AND BOYS BY CAPTAIN ASPARAGUS I n the last few months my good mate Bill Hohepa, New Zealand's snapper fishing guru and all-round good bloke, has started a small fishing club, the Stinky Baits Club. The club caters for fathers and sons who want to go fishing together and learn the tricks and tips of fishing from Bill, and the boys especially can get a handle on all the various skills involved. It's a great idea, so I thought I would trundle along to one of the meetings to see just how it was supposed to work. Of course it helped that I was due to go out fishing with Bill the next day, so I would have been at his place anyway. It was a revelation to me. I guess I have never really thought about how much you pick up over the years. How to tie knots, what rigs to use, and where, how to rig a bait and clean a fish – all this stuff is almost just second nature to me these days, but to these young guys they are all mysteries of some arcane art. Let's start with one of the most basic things, the simple uni- knot, otherwise known as the Billy Ho Special. It's a simple knot, used just about everywhere, with nigh on 100 percent of the line strength, so it doesn't weaken the line, making it break at under the stated breaking strain. But these kids had never heard of it. That amazed me, although on reflection, I guess it shouldn't have. We all have to learn, but wow, man, I cannot remember when I first learned about it. I suspect it may have been in-born for me! Next, we had a bit of a looksee at the rods and reels the boys had. Oh. My. God. I was very impressed. The reels weren't particularly flash or anything, because there were no sets of gear that would be regarded as specialist or expensive. It was just good, sensible kids' stuff. But the quality of such "kids' stuff" these days is so far advanced over the gear I grew up using it amazes me. My first rod and reel set was one of the old Bakelite spooled, one-to-one reels on a true stump-puller 4ft (1.2m) rod. It dealt to lots of snapper but it sure as heck was not at all flash. Then, for my tenth birthday (I remember it well), my Uncle Albert bought me a Proper Reel, a Penn Sea-boy on a real Kilwell rod! Hey man, I got a lot of fish on that rod and reel set, including my first two yellowfin tuna! But that's another story … That is why, when I saw one young guy actually had a Penn Sea-boy on a stump puller rod, I darn near cried, in a suitably manly and non-sissy way, of course. The gear on display, a huge range of small reels, was certainly pretty impressive. I had been expecting simple, basic (cheap) gear, but some of this stuff was darn good. Kids these days eh, they don't even know they're born. (Cue the suitable Pythonesque Yorkshire accent.) Over the following meetings we covered such diverse topics as rod repairs, how to rig soft-baits and even chart reading, a complex little subject to learn such useful stuff as finding your position using the compass rose (fairly handy if you ever lose your GPS, I guess), but most importantly, what all the little stars, asterisks and lines mean. Again, this is all so ingrained in me I have forgotten ever learning it, so it was very interesting to see how many people just cannot fathom a chart ('scuse the pun). The more important things for me as far as being a fisherman goes are finding rocks, channels etc, so it was interesting to explain to the kids such things as the symbols for a sunken rock (good for fishing), an awash rock at low water (good for fishing) and a permanently awash rock (good for ... ummm ... fishing?). We also arranged for club days out on the water, where we could all get together and wet a line. With four or five boats, ranging from 4.8m tin boats to 12m game boats, the club found room for all its members, and we spent time out doing the watery thing on the Hauraki Gulf, getting the kids into some nice fish, in a spirit of friendly competition. The Stinky Baits Club is not just relying on members' boats however, with trips arranged to the Coromandel Peninsula mussel barges and the New Zealand Angling and Casting Association nationals down in Wellington, as well as to more exotic locations such as the Ranfurly Rise, White Island and the Far North all being mooted. Bill is even seriously considering turning the club's exploits into a DVD or a television series. We shall have to see, eh. Certainly the first video of our initial club fishing day was very amusing and good to watch. It has also been very gratifying to see how various tackle suppliers have chipped in as well with prizes for the club. The folks from Berkley supplied packets of Gulp soft-baits and Berkley Lip-grips for draw prizes, and the Penn people have let Welcome to my world, a paradise called for fishing, diving, surfing or just relaxing in the sun, visit ZIPOLO HABU RESORT ZIPOLO HABU RESORT Munda,Western Province, Solomon Islands. Visit our website at www.zipolohabu.com.sb Email zipolo@solomon.com.sb • Ph 00677-62178 or contact Captain Asparagus Email StuCawkerCapt.Asp@xtra.co.nz 52 Professional Skipper November/December 2011 VIP.S79