Tonight’s paper has a story of a fisherman who caught a big-eye tuna yesterday while fishing off the Boulder Bank here in Nelson. A magnificent fish and an extremely rare catch in these parts. People commented on all the action right now: lots of small fish, kahawai and even kingfish. I can quite believe it, because look at this action from this morning.
At around 9 am I was alerted by the sound of water splashing, like a washing machine. It was a shoal of small fish being attacked from above and below, directly below us. I watched for a while, fascinated, then remembered to get my camera. I think I must have been quite excited, because these are not as sharp as they should have been. Here’s what I saw:
I tried a longer lens (a disappointing result, but you might be able to see some of the fish jumping out of the water).
Things would quieten down for a bit, then the water would start to boil again. For example, over towards Haulashore Island:
Moving in a bit closer:
If you’re a sea fisherman, that sight really gets your heart thumping. It takes some quite big fish underneath to generate that sort of action.
Right in the middle of all this excitement, along came some very different fish: slower, and not very edible. (Swimmers, in case they’re too hard to pick out in this shot.)
Of course the local boaties were drawn in. Some were really stupid, motoring right through the middle of the meatball, causing it to disperse. Others knew to keep their distance and cast in, or gently troll around the perimeter.
The fishermen were having a great time, I watched some very nice kawahai around 2-3 kg being taken.
I just didn’t get any good photographic evidence. Anyone casting off Wakefield Quay would probably have done quite well, the fish were occasionally in quite close to the road. Unfortunately we were expecting guests, so that wasn’t an option for me today. (Of course, all this was happening just as the tennis was being called off for the day in Auckland due to rain.)
If I had
