The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
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FISHING LOST AND FOUND BY CAPTAIN ASPARAGUS I n the last issue I did a big write-up about some neat-o new toys I was looking forward to taking to the islands to try on fishes tropical. I have returned, and despite some pretty iffy weather at times I still managed to give a lot of these toys a fairly good crack. The main one in my mind was the very nice new PE8 rod Kilwell had made for me. I wanted something strong but very light that could easily be used as a one-handed spin-set for chucking light poppers and lures around inner reef areas. Confused about the PE8? The "PE" ratings are a great way to rate the strength of braid lines. It is all very complex and a great use of jargon, but when you get right down to it, it really means "add a nought" to give you the breaking strain in pounds. PE8 therefore is roughly an 80lb line, or in this case, a rod capable of handling the strains of 80lb line use on it. I was only using 30lb (sorry, PE3, sheeshh), so got nowhere near the load capacity of this rod. I wound up using this rod all the time in preference to the heavier popper casting rods, that is when the girls didn't grab it first, even though the rod itself was pretty much unable to comfortably cast the larger poppers I like to use for big fish up there. The rod was built to cast lighter, smaller lures, which in turn meant smaller fish just leapt at the offerings, especially bluefin trevally. They seemed to line up to attack the small lures I was able to use this time around, poppers like the River-2-sea Bubble pop 130s and the Strike Pro Laser poppers. They were so easy to use, so easy to cast a mile and so very effective. Awesome gear. Other lures I was keen on using were some new Sebile lures from the folks at Purefishing. I had a range of these lures with me. Probably the most effective were the small Flatt-shad lures, which I used on a light 6lb spin-set around the mangrove areas for mangrove jacks and for casting at feeding trevally in the lagoons. These lures proved to be deadly in these areas as well as a pile of fun. You catch any three-kilo fish, especially a trevally or a mangrove jack, on a light spin-rod and you have some fun on your hands. I can't wait to try them on skippies, kingies and good snapper here in New Zealand this summer. I had been particularly keen to give the Sebile Stick-shad lure a crack. At the start of the trip I carefully clipped my one precious lure onto my medium-casting set, and after giving it a flick or two to admire the truly mouth watering action of this lure in the water, I popped it into a rod-rack near the jetty, ready to load onto the boat when I was heading out fishing that afternoon. Heeding the old dictum, "Only mad dogs and madder fishermen go out in the mid-day sun", I retired to a cool, shady spot with a fan and a cool drink to wait a few hours for an afternoon jaunt across the lagoon. While I was mid-siesta, a young lad of a touristical nature, one mother's darling little light, decided he could just borrow the rod to have a cast, just to see. Pre-teen boys should not be allowed near real fishing gear! One almighty heave, somehow disaster ensued, the line parted and my one example of this lure and likely the only one in captivity in the Solomon Islands, soared wild and free off into the middle of the lagoon, to sink with a sad little plop. When I returned an hour or so later, his rather breezy and blasé Mum calmly asked what my lures cost. "Basically an average price of around $30 or so," I replied. "Why?" "Well, you see, little Jeremy (or whatever the little goit's name was) sadly went and lost one of your lures." At this point a nasty, itchy feeling started around the back of me neck. "But if it was only a few dollars, it is not that big a deal, is it?" I'm sure I don't need to draw you a picture of my thoughts at that point. It is only here as I type this that the perfect answer comes to me. "No, the lure may only be $30 or so (in fact, they are about $40 for these ones), but it costs two effin' grand to buy the return effin' airfare to get back home to get an effin' replacement!" But ya just never think of these answers at the right time, do you. I was somewhat vexed. Sometimes you just have to walk away. So much for actually using this very sweet lure. Maybe now I'm home I can grab another one and try it here. Grrrr. Bloody ratbag little … say no more … After three weeks in the tropics I was definitely keen to return home, as this summer I have acquired A Project! Yes indeed, a project. Late last year, one of the girls' boyfriends decided to get himself a little boat. He was looking through the TradeMe website when he found what he thought was going to be a perfect little boat, an old Condorcraft Skipjack, a boat of mid- seventies vintage. Phyllis loved the lightweight new rod 50 Professional Skipper March/April 2012 I thought he was buying a right lemon. However, after he shot up to Auckland to bring it down to store in my shed in Matamata, I