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A recent kayak fishing trip from Devonport on Auckland's North Shore, kayaking
and kayak fishing under the Auckland Harbour Bridge, where we caught a huge 6.1kg/130cm Eel from the kayak...
Personalised kayak
fishing tours in small groups, or even for individuals, are our speciality and this always proves to be much more personal and fun for our valued clients. They are looked after much better than in a large group, in which they mostly have to paddle in double kayaks. We prefer to give each client his or her own kayak, of course provided he / she is able to handle it. We are nearby at all times to look after our clients just in case anything happens. We are also well-qualified with current Boatmasters Certificate, GPS and VHF Operator Certificates from NZ Coastguard, current First Aid Certificate, plus various Bushcraft/Outdoor Certificates from NZ Mountain Safety Council. So no worries - we'll take care of you!
It was a beautiful early Winter's day in Auckland. Early Winter on this day meant sunshine, calm sea and 18 degrees Celsius! We had received a booking from a client who wanted to try
kayak fishing and of course we wished to provide him with a great time on this stunning day. His main focus was on kayaking and in this case not on fishing, so we decided to only take a kayak longline as our fishing method of the day. Usually we use fishing rods and in some instances also a longline with about 10 hooks but the focus for our client was on paddling to the beautiful Harbour Bridge. So we packed 2 kayaks on our trolleys - one for our client and the other one for Neill - and set out from Devonport Wharf.
After paddling about 500 metres, we set a kayak longline with fresh bait, attached it to a buoy and left it to fish. A further 500 metres towards the Harbour Bridge we set another line. It was a nice, long paddle to the Bridge, under which we were dwarfed in our kayaks when passing through it. We even saw a bungy jumper while not far away jumping off the AJ Hackett Bungy site on the bridge. Thankfully, on the way back we had both the tide and wind helping us and this made it a lot easier. |
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I then attached this to my kayak, so that even if the Eel had broken the line or lost the hook, it was still attached to the kayak. We use this tactic to stop fish that are struggling beside the boat from being able to free themselves if they are able to break the line or lose the hook just before being landed.
Since I wasn't able to land it into the kayak even despite several attempts together, we decided to pull it alongside while landing on a small beach. The looks we got from amazed tourists who were enjoying a waterfront stroll and the day in beautiful Devonport and the clicking of cameras was quite funny. The Eel, an Eel locally called a "Bighead", must have been on its way out to sea to spawn. It weighed in at a massive 6.1kg and was 130cm long!
We fried and smoked the Eel that evening and it was delicious. It is called "Tuna" (pronounced Tunna) by Maori and is considered an absolute delicacy, so our family was indeed very happy that evening and we enjoyed a great feast. It was a good reason for a get-together and we fed about 20 people with the one fish. By the way, we are always more than happy to give our clients the fish they caught and if requested to also cook them. In this instance, our client was travelling on and didn't want to take the fish. The Snapper that we also caught were |
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