Andy and Dave had bought along a Kontiki, which in its self was a mission to launch in such narly conditions,this was deployed since the conditions were tough on any form of rod fishing.  A long cast was needed as the steep drop off caused good swells to dump right on any short casts.

Tally of the mish
Scuzzy~Lost four ledger rigs
Jordan~0
Andy~Wet chest from wave hitting Quad incident
Dave~Lost one Surfcaster
FreeSpoool~ Found one Dive knife sheath, found one Surfcaster belonging to Dave three hours later,and caught one ledger rig lost by Scuzzy.

Great mish, even though the conditions didnt play ball, great to be out and about. Nice to meet others from here, look forward to the next mish. More than likely stuffed up the pics but not to worry, had a great time and was good to catch up with a few of the guys, we will do it again.

By Ozz
haha yeah, we got out there a bit late… wasn’t a bad day fishing, pretty dead over the mid day high and cheers again for taking my pack that last 20m pretty unfit(and u know why) and u realised what i was to tired to realise as well. Pack straps were too loose (don’t use that pack often, the pack swaying on my back was taking the piss out of me)… my god that berley u picked up was SHIT and that’s an understatement!!! blue/green rotten logs of crap!!! I’m 90% sure it wasn’t even fish as well, it smelt like rotten meat, like rotten old maggot filled steak!! not rotten fish… and those pillies I picked up on the way that weren’t even pillies… moral of that story don’t buy southern bait rubbish, make ya own berley, double check there are actually pillies in the bag when ya buy them, or buy the action bait pillies, they were in a class of there own compared to the southern bait ones… they don’t have all the oil/flavour/juice frozen out of them… shit one bag of the southern bait pillies even had some weird flourie shit all over them, almost like salted but wasn’t salt, was flour or something…
lol… the story of the swimmers/warehouse dive gear kids around the corner that made me laugh… we heard voices around the corner so Mark goes up to check, sees these teenagers messing around “oi, OI, hey you guys!! we been berleying up hard!!! we had some big sharks coming threw right where ur trying to dive!!!” almost walking on water out of there and gone… We go back to fishing without Muppet’s scaring off our fish… just like that Muppet in the yak that parked right on top of our lines “duh huk, what are the fishing regulations around here??!?!”
I’ll remember to bring the water when u remember to to take a good 50m off ur calcutta, fair enuff? lol at ur 9/10 casts bird nesting just coz u were too lazy to take take some line off and tie the trace back on, spent way more time fixing the nest each cast then it would have to take the line off… mind u were both lazy fishos, sit back relax and just wait for the clicker to click…

We started to get the gear ready for the moki bash. A few of the guys had never fished for moki before so I spent a little time getting the Kina/Mussel berley going, along with showing them the best rigs and how to bait up with mussels and prawns. It all happened pretty quick as young Jordan popped his Moki cherry on the first cast, it was a little under size but hey, he got the first Moki. A little time went by and all was pretty quiet until dark when the lice turned up.

Jordan with his Moki

At around 10.30pm Kiwicaster made the call to go so he and Jordan left for the night. We were running a sweep steak of $5.00 per person including a few other bits and pieces like Sakuma hooks, line and lures, that I donated. As Jordan caught the first fish it was only fair that he won the prize so good on him for a job well done.

After the guys left we decided to move down the beach to get away from the lice, approx. 400-500 meters. We got the berley going again as everyone got there gear sorted and lines out. It was like the gods were watching as the next 8 hours was full on. There were approx. 50 Moki caught between us all and they were all between 1- 4+ kg. I managed to land 17 of them and it was one of the best nights I have had targeting them. Mole also did very well with at least 10, while the other guys caught the rest between them. It was also great to see so many guys keen to try the new Sonik rods. I think most of them certainly felt the difference when fishing with them and I appreciate all the positive feedback. Thanks guys.

Early the next morning just as the sun was rising, some good fish caught during the early hours

At approx. 7 am we decided to call it quits as everyone was pretty tired, so we packed up and headed back to carpark. After the standard photos of the fish we headed off when Scattershot and I decided to go over to Oriental bay for a kingy mission. We put out some live baits and then tried to have a snooze. Well we got no sleep so after fishing pretty hard for 24 hours straight we called it a day and headed home. I had a 2 ½ hour drive ahead of me and was pretty stuffed by the time I got home. All an all it was a great nights fishing and good to see the guys catching Moki and a few of them popping that cherry. I will definitely organise another trip and would like to make it a regular event (well every couple of months or so). The next get-together will be in a different/remote location and targeting a different species.

Mole with a few of his Moki, caught on the Sonik Bass rod (this is an exceptional rod)

Jaypeegee with his first legal Moki, caught on a Sonik SK3

Rockfisher(me) with some of my Moki caught on the Sonik SK4

Most of the fish we caught were released for next time, while a few were kept for family and friends.

Jimmy with his Moke and Tarakihi caught on the Sonik SK3

A good time had by all I’m sure, until the next fish….Action Bait & Tackle

We were offered a ride by boat round to the saddle in Beatrice Bay, so we jumped at the opportunity. It was supposed to be a day trip. Pete and Gemmis fished a really good ledge while Craig and I set off to fish elsewhere. During the day we caught a few snapper, nothing to great, so we decided to head back to meet up with the other guys. The weather started to turn and the water got a good chop on it, but not to worry as the boat would be here soon. Well the boat didn’t arrive as the weather was too rough. We had to stay the night at the saddle as it was about a 8 hour walk through dense scrub. That night the weather was so bad we gathered drift wood and stacked up against the cliff face to try and get some shelter from the wind and rain, the only problem was there was only enough room for 2 people. But we did have a cask of wine which helped us through. Earlier in the evening we had managed to get a fire going on the beach, so we cooked up some fish and tried to keep warm. At about 10pm we decided to get some sleep, not easy to do when the wind and rain is driving into your face. Around 1-2am we woke up to what we thought was a mad man running around our camp going berserk, only to find out it was Gemmis. “All my #@&# gear is gone”. What the hell is going on we all thought? It wasn’t until he calmed down that we found out what he was going on about. You see when we lit the fire we used the drift wood off a very small beach (approx 10 meters buy 3 meters). We all sat our packs and fishing gear up against the bank. Unbeknown to us, there was a log under the sand (under our fire) which burnt approx 5-6 meters underground until it reached the bank where Gemmis had his pack and fishing gear sitting. Approx $5000 worth of fishing gear had gone up in smoke in one night and as you can imagine he was not a happy camper. After every one calmed down dawn broke and the weather was still crap and still no boat at this stage. The rain had stopped and the sun was out. We had no water left but found a trickle in a rock, so we took turns with a coke bottle lid collecting the water. What a mission! After a while we decided to draw straws to see who was going to walk out to get help as we were starting to get desperate. Pete and I were the lucky ones so we started walking, or bush bashing our way through (one of the hardest things I’ve had to do). We managed to go approx 100-150 meters in an hour when we saw a boat coming around the headland. Great what do we do, keep climbing up or head back to the guys? So we started to head back. As we were climbing our way back down the boat picked up Craig and Gemmis and started to leave. We were yelling like mad but they didn’t hear us (or so we thought). Turns out they were just mucking around. We decided to climb on top off the braken bush and go for it straight down the hill to the water’s edge. Pretty hairy thing to do as it’s really steep. We got back to camp and told the farmer what had happened to Gemmis’ fishing gear. He was kind enough to arrange transport for him to go home. Nothing left to do except get on the piss big time. The following day Gemmis left so Pete, Craig and myself carried on with the fishing trip.
We headed over the hill to fish the other side of the saddle about a 4 hour walk. Not a problem so we loaded the gear and off we went. We got to where we were going to fish when Peter sprained his ankle. We were in the middle of nowhere, oh great here we go again. So while Pete laid down in the shade, Craig and I fished as it wasn’t our problem, or so we thought. Well at the end of the day Craig and I drew straws again to see who was going to get help, as Pete wasn’t able to walk out. Craig lost and started walking, funny thing is about 1 hour later a trawler come around the corner and there was Craig on the boat with a beer in hand. In the next bay around was a house and the owners Gift and Sally were only too happy to help so we went back to their place. And what a place it was. Completely hand built, Gift had milled all his own timber. They bred rabbits, worms and harvested mussels. What a life. Later we jumped on the trailer behind the tractor and off we went back to camp. We headed home after that as we didn’t want to risk what could happen next.
Alister Gemmell was a good man who left us too early in life. He was swept off the rocks in Sydney and treaded water for 1.5 hours because the rescue boat went to the wrong bay. Poor guy, he was a mate

Tight lines
sherppa

Tight lines and shall see you all at the next weigh in.

Sherppa