Just killing time now until we get some meaningful news.
Port Waikato trip circa 2013.
Took the 15’6 with the 75hp on the back down to Port Waikato for a game fish in early Feb. Nice two hour drive from Auckland.
Turned up at high tide with a solid 3-5 foot swell running with a light easterly breeze (off shore). I was towing with the patrol and got stuck twice getting to the southern end of the beach, fellow fishers gave me the two retrievals to make it to the water line. Super soft sand and the beach hates the patrols, 2.5 tons empty! Never had these issues with the hilux.
We launch with little drama and spend the next eight hours dragging lures out to the 550 meter mark, approximately 55km off the coast and beyond sight of land, despite numerous bait balls and plenty of signs off life not a marlin sighted all bloody day. Around 3pm the S/Wester kinked in and it was time to run home, only took us 1.5 hours to cover the distance home at around 20-30 knots as weather was the dictated.
Anyways, we get back to the beach at Port Waikato and the surf is 6-7 foot (I’m talking Surfer Feet) so the faces are 12-14 foot. We can’t get within around 600m of the beach and there is no chance of getting the boat in on the beach at low tide….
I go to my bro, just spill me out here and I’ll swim in with a dry bag over my shoulder and you will have to take the boat over the bar and I’ll meet you at the boat ramp inside the harbour.
Good plan, then the nightmare begun..
I got smashed by three sets in a row, ended up stuck in the southern end of the beach rip dragging me back out to see. As I managed to swim back in again with the bloody dry bag over my shoulder I got closer to the rocks where there were half a dozen fishermen on those rocks looking at me going where’s this crazy lunatic come from?
After around 40m I made it to the beach and dragged my sorry tired arse to the patrol dreading the drive back up over the sand dunes even without the boat on the back. By this stage the beach and the only way out if covered in tourists and local families.. I had to get the patrol up to 90k on the lower beach and then charge up the dune track at full pedal down, Horne blearing, Families and dogs, tourists spread like butter in a hot pan as I wasn’t stopping.
So I get to the bloody boat ramp thinking I’m so late and bro is not in sight, infact it wasn’t until another 2 hrs I saw him approaching with the outriggers still out and lures still skipping as he came up the channel.
We finally got the little boat on the trailer when I saw his face, had shattered his nose and there was blood everywhere.
He’s a very seasoned Fisherman and and extremely accomplished Surfer that does Fiji and Indo every year, we have done half a dozen Hawaii trips together since we were kids.
We got the boat on the Trailor and he sat down and said can I please have a cigarette. Gave him a cigarette as he continued to wipe the blood off his face, I think he was enhaling more blood than smoke.
I turns out it was a solid 8foot at the bar by this stage, it was impossible to actually work out where the bar was as the whole beach was just a sandy mess of whitewashed crap, bro came over the bar and the first thing he sees is an 18f tinny upside down with chillys, life jackets, general shit everywhere. And then three big guys in the water right on impact zone.
My bro was unable to stop to rescue as he was being chased by a monster wave , he had to pass them by as if he had stopped he would have been another in the water.
We waited for several hours at the ramp until confirmation came through that all three made it the land.
We have not been back there since!
Im just filling in time to we get some meaningful announcements.
If you are partial to the odd real life story while we kill some time, just let me know, sometimes a distraction is
the best cure for a temporary SP depreciation.
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