Chasing Spring Hapuka - A great afternoon of it out of Tairua!

There is nothing like the prospect of a little bit of fishing to help you pile through the work that little bit quicker! Paul and I planned a little afternoon hit at the puka, to coincide with a very nice weather window.

We took off from Tairua about 1pm, and the seas were the glassiest they've been for a long time! 

I had a pile of frozen, whole mackerel that survived the last trip as live baits, and the plan was to deply them as slap baits (a little bit like butterflying a bait, except leaving the backbone intact it involve cutting down the backbone of each side from the gills down, leaving a fillet slapping around in the current)

Second drift and my CD tournament bent butt loaded up on a nice fish, that had to familiar tale beat of a shallow water puma - man they still fight hard when you catch them in the shallows. Awesome fun! Sure enough 12kgs of prime hapuka popped to the surface. I managed a couple more fish, with the weight getting up there, then Paul nailed the fish of the day, a nice 20kg model - he was STOKED!  Job done, we packed the fish down on salt ice for processing the next day. Nothing gets wasted - guts into the garden, skin scaled and eaten, flaps, backbone and heads out to mates for the smoker, and some of the tastiest fillets you'll ever eat!