No more driving around! So we’re going to go fishing instead! Aside from fishing a large wild gold fish out of a village pond in Swindon in the heady uni days of 2005, this will be my first proper fishing trip…in the sea! Hopefully I’ll catch something bigger! Not quite sure how I feel about having to kill these beauties tho, that will be the hard bit.
According to the Maori fishing calendar and general fishing knowledge (something to do with the full moon and the effect it has on tides and things like that) today is a hopeless day to go fishing. Nothing is stopping us tho, so we pack our supplies: water, snacks, more snacks, flairs, radio, cool boxes, rods and bait and hit the road.
We arrive at the wharf, which is deserted – probably because everyone else has taken the advice of the Maori fishing calendar – and lower the boat in. We head out of the harbour and speed up the boat until we reach the open water, at 18 metres deep we (well, everyone else as I’ve got completely tangled in my rod) cast out, and the wait begins…
…two hours later and its beginning to look like the Maori calendar was right…
…Try a couple more spots…still nothing…
…We call it a day and begin reeling in…when suddenly its like half the snapper supply of New Zealand has been redirected under our boat, we just can’t catch the fish fast enough! Maori Fishing Calendar my arse! Devastated at having killed my first fish, I stick to catching them, and covering them with a towel while someone else masters the ‘icky stick’, I will master it, just not yet. Once we’ve caught what we need for the next couple of days, we call it in and head back to scrub the boat down and fillet the fish for tea – battered snapper anyone? Mangonui Fish Shop eat your heart out!
We had another fishing trip 4 days later resulting in an equally good catch and being followed by a huge white stingray! He obviously knew we were onto something!
BATTERED SNAPPER – A RECIPE – COMING SOON TO THE RECIPES PAGE
The Adventures of Elle Coco 