AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH it's the school holidays; what do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?
Well, if you're lucky, you get invited to go fishing and you take your daughter along.
Gary and his daughter Gabrielle were going to have a fish off the Whangamata wharf, stay the night and have another fish in the morning, then come home, and they were kind enough to invite Ella and I to come along, so we did.
We got there about when it got dark, so after chucking our stuff inside, we got dressed up:
and headed down to the wharf. This picture doesn't really convey the awe-inspiring conditions:
It wasn't raining much, but I'd estimate 900-knot winds. The only reason Ella isn't blowing away is because of the sinker on the end of her line.
Nothing was caught except fish and chips at the takeaways. This was followed by some card games, giving Ella plenty of opportunities to call her father a loser:
I don't know where she gets this from.
The next day we woke up so early that EVEN ELLA WENT BACK TO SLEEP AFTER THE ALARM WENT OFF. We had a quick look at the wharf, but it was too EXTREEM even for us, so we had a bit of breakfast first.
Then it was back into it:
It was still windy, just not as windy as the night before.
Can you imagine the neverending gloating if Ella was the only one who caught a fish? Luckily, there's no need for me to imagine it, as this is exactly what happened:
Actually, she was just very excited - anyone who's ever caught a fish for the first time will know exactly how excited she felt.
After that, all that was left was some breakfast and hot bread for lunch, a couple more games for me to lose, and icecream on the way home in Paeroa.
Massive thanks to Gary, Gabrielle, and their extended family whose bach we stayed in.
Tell me about your first fish.
8 comments:
I was 12 and invited on a Take a Kid Fishing ocean jaunt with my mate Daniel. After hooking and throwing back a few scorpion fish, I got really sick and chundered everywhere for the remaining 5+ hours on the boat. Then I chundered all the way home in the van from Tauranga to Tokoroa.
I don't think I've actually ever caught a fish. Hmmm.
I see guys fishing in the filthiest waters in central London that just catch and release (assuming they actually catch more than a shopping trolley). A little perplexing but I guess I'm from a country of spoilt fishers (what is the plural for fishman?).
Having spent every single holiday as a kid at Whangamata, and fished from that very wharf more times than i can remember, that is one of the biggest fish i have seen caught there! Around Easter however is a good time to go there, there are sometimes john dory hanging around that are catchable (i did spear one there once) Go ella! Mostly it was sprats, with the odd small spotty. Very often at night there would be asian people catching crabs using fishheads tied to crab nets down there. Ahhh the memories.
Never caught a fish but spewed heaps of Mirinda over the side of the boat when when I went on holiday with Mitch Morton in Form 2. That probably helped the other people on the boat to catch something..
Ella's looking older and bigger and more like you&rach, especially in the "loser" photo!
Related to London fishing, I was watching the F Word, which I really enjoy, and the bit where he goes and catches some real food was catching crabs in the Thames that are this specific flash chinese crab that is really expensive. Heaps of them hitched over years ago on boats, but they in a grey area legally, so you can catch em on the quiet but can't do it commercially.
I'm hungry for crab now.
I have a relatively early memory (for me) of walking about in the water at Mahia beach with a school friend. We were surrounded by sprats. She had a net and caught a few. Then she buried them in the sand when they died. That night we ate so many lollies, I spewed. I think this was the beginning of my fish fear... it traumatised me somehow.
I remember fishing with my Dad in the south Canterbury rivers. I don't think we ever caught anything but maybe that's just me. I also used to love fishing off the wharf in Auckland harbour. But I don't think I caught anything then either..... Ella you did well to catch a fush. Goodonya
I went fishing with Grandpa a lot, off Little Bucklands in the dinghy. I think I may have found it boring, not helped by him telling me to be quiet so as not to disturb the fish. I believe I caught a few, but no memory of arm-stretchingly big ones, or me going "Wooohoooo!!!" so I can't be sure. I hope Ella went "Wooohooo!!!" adequately. Was the fish eaten?
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