Rum time in the gulf

Chater Connection

MARK KITTERIDGE - AUGUST 2009

I really enjoy heading out from Whangaparaoa’s Gulf Harbour Marina; it’s close to Auckland City, yet just far enough away to seem as if you’re embarking on an adventure.

Nor does it hurt that it’s a well placed springboard to many exciting places around the Hauraki Gulf – especially as they are all realistic destinations for Double Rum, the large and seaworthy charter vessel I was about to be staying on. However, in this case we planned to concentrate on the prolific waters surrounding Great Barrier Island, with Cuvier another mouth-watering possibility if the weather allowed.

While unloading my gear at B Pier, I met up with fellow guest Andy ‘Squirrel’ Campbell, a relatively recent convert to fishing, but as keen as they come. He’d met up with Brett Fleetwood, who co-owns Double Rum with wife Sandra, at one of the innumerable social events held at Hunts Sports Store in Milford. How could he say no to a live-aboard trip to Great Barrier?

It was good timing; just as we unloaded the last of the gear and bait, Double Rum slipped quietly into her berthing spot. Brett, along with skipper Garry Hull and crew Richard Neale and Jason Mascelle, had been out fishing beforehand to ‘test the water’, so to speak, and had enjoyed reasonable success. So, as promised, there was fresh fish for dinner.

Double Rum is one of those boats that makes you feel comfortable and relaxed the minute you get on board. Much of this is no doubt due to the amount of space available; in addition to being 12m long, she also has an impressive beam of 5.6m. This equates to a very big saloon and generous living quarters, while the huge cockpit, uncluttered foredeck and wide sides later provided us with plenty of options when fishing.

However, at this stage all I needed was a place to put my bag and then find out where my cold beer had been put; the perfect conditions made outside the place to be, especially with good music playing in the background.

A lot of sea can be covered while cruising at 16 knots, so although we left pretty late in the afternoon, we still had time for a short fishing session prior to parking up at Port Charles for the night, adding to the fresh fillets for dinner.

As suspected, we awoke to continuing near-perfect conditions, so despite experiencing some great fishing nearby just the week before (including kingfish to 15kg and snapper to 10kg), we decided to head for Cuvier, as the opportunity to fish here doesn’t come along very often.

Even so, a heap of interesting marks on Double Rum’s fish-finder proved too hard to ignore during the gathering early-morning light, so we ended up stopping prematurely. This soon saw us tussling with several rat kings, along with a couple of monster kahawai and a bunch of much less impressive ‘pinky’ snapper. Then, with immediate fishing needs slightly assuaged, it was back to business, with Double Rum slicing smoothly through the barely ruffled waters.

I’d forgotten how quickly Cuvier is reached from Coromandel Peninsula; just over an hour later we were positioned over some of its pins in 70-80m of water – depths that Brett and Gary believed would produce hapuku as well as snapper.

The fishing proved very entertaining, especially as we encountered a wonderful variety of fish species, including a bunch of snapper to pretty reasonable sizes, several red snapper, a good porae, granddaddy hapuku (which are often processed on this boat and eaten, being very tasty), pink maomao, a handful of massive kahawai, blue cod, pigfish and even a Sandager’s wrasse. Less welcome were the occasional barracouta, moray eels, tope and spiny dogs. We were also briefly visited by an inquisitive mako, but were happy to see it remain uncaught. They look truly magnificent, their dark, stocky forms so taut with muscles and latent power, and cruising along effortlessly through the water. Very cool.

However, I haven’t mentioned three more fish we encountered, and without their participation it would have simply been a very enjoyable and pleasant day out without the big tick achieved. At the time we’d already been in the area for a couple of hours, so when Jason’s rod suddenly plunged down, line peeling from his reel, we didn’t necessarily think ‘Puka!’ right away, especially as the odd shark had provided false hope before. Then, just a few seconds later my own rod tip jangled and jerked as well, a slow uplift bringing about a swift and much more decisive response, its bendy upper half wrenching down towards the water’s surface. These hard-boring fish certainly proved worthy adversaries, but I figured them for big snapper, or modest kingfish or sharks.

And even when Jason’s fish turned out to be the first hapuku of the day, it didn’t dawn on me (yep, pretty thick) that I had one too, until my line’s angle abruptly began to angle quickly upwards, indicating my fish had become embolised – typically the signature of a very big snapper or a ‘puka.

Sure enough, a very acceptable Cuvier hapuku slowly spiralled up soon afterwards – just what the doctor ordered – and made all the more rewarding for being caught on snapper gear.

However, I probably shouldn’t have spent so much time clicking away with my camera afterwards, because ten minutes later, just seconds after resuming fishing, Richard hooked and eventually landed a third. And that was our lot. If we hadn’t mucked around so much on my ‘fashion shoot’ up at the bow, we may well have caught several more. Ah well, a bird in the hand as they say...

The next day brought 35 knots of wind and long periods of rain, so options were limited. Nor did it help that I had been gripped by a very nasty dose of ‘the bot’, effectively turning me into a coughing, sneezing blob of runny snot with a person inside. I don’t think it was very pleasant for those around me, either.

However, despite the rain running down our faces and throats and into our clothing, I was impressed by the keenness of all on board, who to a man kept their lines in the wind-swept waters for hours on end. (At this point I must mention that this trip was originally the skipper and crew’s ‘holiday’, so they weren’t actually expected to work hard just because I was on board, yet they still put in plenty of effort at times, especially while fishing.) In the process we caught a reasonable amount of snapper – nothing stunning size wise, but at least our efforts were rewarded – and when Jason dived down late afternoon and came back with a bunch of crayfish for dinner after twenty minutes, things suddenly looked even brighter!

The big wheel of life continued to turn overnight, and we found the third and final morning much more to our liking, with smooth seas and little wind again. However, the comparative lack of success throughout the Hauraki Gulf charter fleet in recent days, combined with our rather mediocre results from the day before, had us slightly hesitant as to where to go, especially as much of yesterday’s promising sign had somehow vanished overnight.

Finally Gary and Brett decided our best chances probably lay in drifting over the foul south of Tryphena Harbour. By now the light was starting to fill the sky, but the marks on the fish-finder looked pretty promising.

Sure enough, after catching several rather modest ‘pinkies’, a particularly large mound of fish filled the screen, and left us with several rods dipping down to hard-fighting fish. Brett’s reel in particular was losing plenty of line, and we were all hoping it would be the big snapper needed to open up this feature. And, thank goodness, it was – not a twenty pounder, but well into double figures, and a lovely orangey-red in colour – a great specimen.

We slowed for a repeat drift just as a good lump of fish showed on the fish-finder again, so I hurled my big mackerel bait out into the wake and frantically fed out line. Sure enough, just a couple of minutes later I felt hard chomps transferring up my line, and a slow uplift of the rod seemed to set the circle hooks. Then, when line began rapidly stripping from my reel, I thought I might just beat Brett’s effort (not that I’m competitive of course), but my mojo must have been blown out with all my phlegm, as the hooks pulled free shortly after. My big chance was gone.

However, there were still several more decent snapper caught, and it was with a heavy heart that I finally wound in my line when time was finally called mid afternoon. I love Great Barrier Island.

The operation
Double Rum is definitely one of the more comfortable and pleasant boats to be on board, which is hardly surprising, as having so much space means you can fit a lot of creature comforts into it.

There’s plenty of seating, both fixed and folding, and for the second time in a row I found myself aboard a boat with a truly superb sound system. A wide variety of music is available, but I did notice the volume went up when good old rock and roll was playing.

At night, after filling ourselves with plenty of food and a drink or two, we watched movies, both black and white John Wayne classics and those made in much more recent times. Outside the water lapped on the hulls and baitfish splashed in the deck spotlights.

I had a very comfortable and spacious double berth up forward, as well as an en suite, a layout that is repeated in the adjacent hull. Two further cabins are located at the opposite end, so depending on your inclination to ‘snuggle’, Double Rum caters for six to eight anglers when overnighting.

Upstairs above the saloon is spacious with reasonable seating, but as it’s also relatively open to the elements, cruising along up there will depend on whether you like the salt-wind in your face and the sun on your skin.

She’s a great boat to fish off. In addition to three fishing platforms at the stern – two down near water level and a central one that’s elevated – there’s plenty of room up in the uncluttered bow area (great for casting poppers, soft-baits and salt-fly), as well as down both sides. No wonder Double Rum can handle 14 anglers on day trips – an aspect that’s further catered for by 20 rod-holders.

A range of various rods and reels are available for those without their own – mostly bottom fishing rigs, but there’s also a couple for soft-plastic fishing and others for ‘puka and kingfish. Bait is supplied, and catering can be organised on request.

Now for the crew, and this is tricky, because they were on holiday. Consequently, I can only tell you what I saw and what they’ve told me!
Garry’s a gem – pleasant and easy going with plenty of boating experience under his belt. However, he doesn’t get many opportunities to go fishing himself, so he was happy to let Brett take over some of the skippering duties and drop a line. He sure is keen.

Then there are Jason and Richard. Having two crew helping is a real luxury for punters, but in this instance the number of anglers able to be realistically accommodated means they can be justified. Both guys are pleasant and easy to talk to, and, same as the skipper, love to fish. They assured me I would normally see them working hard.

Jason’s a qualified dive master, too, and it was great to see him using this skill to our advantage. At the time of writing he’d never dived Great Barrier and not nailed at least one crayfish. (I loved mine – thanks, mate!)

Finally, there’s Brett. Although technically the co-owner, he often joins the crew on trips, and might be even keener than the others. He’s super enthusiastic, always upbeat and never gives up.

So, for those who would like to fish aboard a fast, spacious and comfortable boat that’s great to sleep aboard and fish from, and with capabilities to reach some wonderful places, phone (09) 413 9661 or 021 975 576, email scorpio.agencies@xtra.co.nz or check out website www.doublerum.co.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News