The Great Snapper Escape

Many aspirations realised - The inaugural Island Passage Great Snapper Escape lived up to its name.

The inaugural Island Passage ‘Great Snapper Escape' lived up to its name, with a full complement of 20 anglers getting amongst some great fish on the NZ Fishing News hosted trip, over October 27-November 2.

Prior to the trip the wind had been consistently 20-knots-plus out of the west - not great for offshore fishing. For the Great Snapper Escape, the wind didn't get above 10 knots, so there were no excuses on the weather front for not doing well.

It was an eclectic group that set sail from Auckland's Princes Wharf on the Sunday afternoon, all with widely varying aspirations to match their angling experience and skills. Included in the mix were a number of mates, two couples, builders, businessmen, a farmer, a detective, a charter-boat operator, a solicitor, surgeon, scientist, psychologist, as well as several tradesmen.

Regardless of their work and fishing background, all had one thing in mind: a personal best snapper or kingfish. I am pleased to say that for many this aspiration was fulfilled, and in the case of Leanne Dixon, it applied to both species.

Island Passage is a luxuriously appointed ship. Her hull was originally built in Fiji, where she was destined to become an interisland vehicular ferry. For one reason or another she was never finished, so her hull, sans topsides, was towed to Nelson where she morphed into a 500-tonne cruise ship.

Island Passage boasts three levels of accommodation, all with their own head and shower, wide-screen television linked into the ship's entertainment centre, and individual air conditioning.

Add to this a large dining room and saloon, along with a covered outside lounge, and you have a great base for a week's fishing or cruising.

Fishing is done from three tenders. There are two six-metre Surtees centre-consoles powered by Yamaha 100hp four-strokes, and a new seven-metre Commando Boats' ‘landing craft,' powered by a Yamaha 200hp four-stroke. The tenders are set up for fishing with a good quality sounder/chartplotter, a live-bait tank, baitboard, rod holders, and a range of Shimano tackle to take on snapper and kingfish.

This first trip was hosted by Sam Mossman and myself, and we had the pleasure of The ITM Fishing Show host Matt Watson dropping in - literally, by helicopter - for a couple of days. (Did I mention Island Passage has two HeliLink helicopters at its disposal for those who want to go rock fishing in style?)

The NZ Fishing News Ramco Seahunter 2300 was also roped into the mix, towed to the offshore grounds by the mothership.

The first day of fishing, out of Great Barrier's Smokehouse Bay, saw some reasonable fish caught, with the boats spread from Miners Head in the north to the Broken Islands in the south.

The ‘fish your feet' principle was applied by the team aboard Fishing News, skippered by the writer, who never had to go any further than the Greys Island group.

Subscription trip winner, Andrew Hine, set a good pace with a 73cm snapper. The friendly competition was based on length, enabling the fish to easily be compared before being released, especially during the first few days of the trip. Leanne Dixon had a great day, not only catching her first kingfish of 100cm (around 13.5kg), but also landing a personal best snapper.

Day two saw plenty of fish caught, but none bettered the previous day's marks. One of the better fish this day was Jim Watson's 66cm fish caught off the rocks. This came at a cost though, as Jim slipped on the rocks and banged his head, leaving him with a visual reminder of his catch every time he looked in the mirror.

Unfazed, Jim said he had an amazing day, one of the highlights being the number and variety of fish he saw drifting in and out of the berley trail. That evening Island Passage cruised out to the Mokohinaus, anchoring in perfect conditions under the lighthouse.

The Mokohinaus, because of their remoteness and exposure to the conditions, have a mystical feeling to them, and anticipation of some good fishing here was high.

The Fishing News crew headed out wide to an outer pin with kingfish in mind. Initially they were met with wall-to-wall barracouta, but perseverance eventually paid off when they finally found the target species - some 25 of them in fact! While most could be described as ‘rats,' they provided great entertainment, especially when Matt Watson pulled out his light soft-plastics rod and proceeded to deal to them using Squidgy baits.

Tim Tasman-Jones, fishing with Sam on one of the Surtees, upped the ante in the snapper stakes by several centimetres, setting the new benchmark at 75.5cm. On the same boat, Keith and Bronwyn Langham were learning a wide range of kingfish techniques from the master, resulting in Bronwyn heading the field with a 102.5cm fish caught slow-trolling a live mackerel. With the heaviest snapper and kingfish onboard, they enjoyed a truly great day.

You always felt the Mokohinaus had more surprises in store, and that was to prove the case with a dramatic ending in the snapper stakes. Steve Hooper, at the helm of the Commando and with Matt on board, headed back inshore in search of bait work-ups. They found what they were looking for, and the six anglers on board soon had a bin-full. Matt estimated they boated over 80 snapper that day, the bulk of which they put back, many in the double-figure range.

Meanwhile, closer to the mothership, Sam's crew was fishing steadily, with fish to 8kg on board setting a blistering pace. The ‘last of the summer wine' crew were with the writer on Fishing News, and we went to Simpsons Rock. There we encountered several hapuku, the best stretching the spring scales to just beyond 15kg. These were great fish, but not target species. Despite this, it would have been difficult to wipe the grin off ‘puka puller Jim Watson's face, even with a D8 bulldozer and winch!

Quizzed over the radio, Sam explained where they were and their results, so with less than two hours until ‘lines out,' the call was made to shift.

Then, with less than 30 minutes to go, Graham Stevens hooked a big fish in 60 metres of water using ‘Mister Whippy,' one of his own rods, so named because of its soft action.

We had encountered a number of sharks over the previous few days, and it was a 50-50 call as to species: tope or snapper? Much to Graham's delight, he landed a 79cm snapper that tipped the scales at 20 pounds (9kg)- his first fish of this proportion and obviously a personal best.

It was a delighted crew that made it back to the mothership with 10 minutes to spare, to be greeted by the accolades from fellow anglers once the lid on the Icey Tek bin was opened to expose the contents.

The win saw Graham take away the overall prize of a Shimano TLD15 reel on a matching Backbone rod, along with a Shimano vest, fishing jacket and Maxima line.

Kingfish were noticeable by their absence on the last day, leaving Bronwyn to take that species honours and the Shimano tackle package with her 102.5cm fish from the day before.

A special NZ Fishing News prize for the most meritorious catch went to Jim Weston for his efforts of best snapper off the stones and his hapuku on the last day.

This trip, part of the magazine's 30th anniversary celebrations, has set the benchmark for others to follow. The first seven trips have been filled, with several more in the New Year advertised.

They are a great way to get offshore (weather permitting!) and check out these two remote destinations. The surveys filled out by the participants indicated the same, and all rated the service and on-board facilities highly, so why not check them out for yourselves and join a future Snapper Escape?

 

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