| Easterly swells forecast for the week of the annual family Northland retreat – just typical. Optimistic - maybe things will settle down? Peering over the cliff edge to SpotX2 100m below, pure dismay. Green swells breaking, white gungey foam, days to clear no doubt. Making the most of things Dezzy and I killed time cleaning up Speedy Scallop – Porae’s 3.8m inflatable RIB Two days later, after a long 2 hour drive north along the coast we eventually puttered to an old favourite haunt. The easterly surge was still strong but the vis revealed schools of juvenile parore, deimoselles, kawahai and small snapper in numbers. Dezzy fished, I snooped. Working some of the deeper ledges I lazily opted not to dive before a gentle ridge covered in the light patchy weed that I’ve noticed snapper seem to like. Drifting slowly over a big moocher sitting in the gut jolted from stationery into gear and bolted with a couple of powerful thumps of the tail – a goodie – shouldn’t have been so lazy. Second time in 6 months I’ve made this mistake. Lazy, lazy, lazy. No other snapper spotted I returned to Speedy with a small trevally as reward for four hours swim. Great to be in the water though. Thankful. Eventually we made it back to the bach – despite nearly running out of diesel in the van 50km from home. A farmer helped us with a top up – Kiwi hospitality, much appreciated - thanks Next day we made our way around the corner from the bach to the point of the wide open bay. Big rolling waves rolled in from the north east. Braving the conditions, trying to hold lunch – swimming to the outcrop 200m from shore a small kingy soon felt the steel. A couple of snapper were added to the plat on burley. Managed to head butt a 5kg snapper that bolted before I could force the gun around against the surge. Same issue with a goodie 4-5kg trev on the edge of a drop off – well, nah, poor excuse for what was a poor shot. Puttering home the wind changed to the north west - promising The next day the north-wester flattened out the swell. Game on. Entering the water after 5pm the swell and surge made snooping hard work. White water formed 10m off the edge of the coast. Pushing out to better vis 50m off shore, big kelp covered boulders appeared below dropping to a stoney shingle base 20m below. Noted - excellent territory for better days. Make the most of it. Keep going. Fighting the big rollers, holding onto weed, gunning across a wide open bay, just 30 metres from SpotX2. I remained blissfully unaware that the anchor on Speedy had unclipped as Dezzy had set it. He puttered 200m from shore monitoring my progress keeping the engine alive About 50m from SpotX2 things got interesting. Peering to my left the coast edge curved down to the right 20 metres below. Looking further out the strangest rock formation attracted me – a mushroom shaped plateau 5 metres below the surface funnelled down into the gloom. I’ve learnt from Bounty Hunter – deep drop offs are worth a go. Fighting the surge I kicked as hard as I could, grabbed a fist full of weed on the ledge 10m below to stabilise. Peering around I couldn’t believe it – the most beautiful sight appeared – white, orange and glowing green hues powered into view head on as if to check out the intruder. I tried to draw the effesub around in the surge, fighting – the barrel drew level, but the shot wasn’t quite on. What seemed an eternity – probably was a second, she turned, presenting a glistening broadside. I squeezed the trigger, hitting the backbone killing the fish instantly. Unbelievable. Went 8.6kg, and fortunately had spawned prior. Eventually made it to SpotX2. Grabbed a nice cray from Never Fail Hole. Will brave the elements today to find the anchor. Guess one thing I’ve learned, swim hard, never never give up and eventually you win. Stoked AXEMEN FOREVER - Snoop |