Is there an app for that one? The question we asked as we landed our mystery fish.
Five hours earlier, on Friday morning, we had come up from Christchurch to Kaikoura for a long weekend fishing.
We had launched the Osprey from the South Bay wharf in the mid-afternoon to cool and calm conditions, as we headed out and back around to fish the top end of the Kaikoura Peninsula. After a 20-minute trip, we slowed the boat down and cut the motor, in about 50 metres of water, to an amazingly still and cool afternoon.
The battle of the brands was about to begin as I reached up to the rocket launcher and grabbed the wife’s trusty Shimano 10-15kg Aqua tip boat rod with a Penn 6000 reel and hooked her up to a blue green flasher rig with squid bait. I went with my Daiwa 10-15kg Boat Rod, Penn 7500 reel with a Kabura jig.
Although the fishing competition above the water had commenced, it was slow fishing below the water and we only caught a few rock cod and blue cod by late afternoon.
As we were enjoying the sun and a snack, suddenly, there was the whizzing and bending of Shimano rod, as something fast had just taken the flasher rig with bait.
Nothing like the whizzing sound of the reel and the rod nodding and bending, as the wife grabbed her rod with the magic words “fish on’’ and the excitement of the battle, which had unexpectedly commenced.
A quick tightening of the drag on the reel and the whizzing of the outgoing line had now started to slow down the mystery fish, as the rod began the bend even further. It was time to regain some of the lost line and with another quick half turn on the drag, to finally slow it down. Over the next 15 minutes, wifey continued to reel in the mystery fish. Just as we saw the fish getting close to the surface, it decided to make one last run, the rod bent further and the whizzing of the line continued. With one more quarter turn of the drag, the fish ran out of its final fight. With a few lifts and winds, the fish neared the surface.
As I grabbed and netted it, we looked at each other with huge smiles on our faces and the look of bewilderment at what had just been caught. A tuna? On a flasher rig?
I had better check the app!
A quick call to the brother-in-law, sounds like a TUNA – but check the app!
I rechecked the APP and it’s TUNA!
The fish was quickly prepared and placed on ice as we headed back to the wharf to the setting sun and the excitement of fresh tuna for dinner.
