Horses for courses

FISHING ADVENTURE
By Sam Mossman
Horses
for courses
Where the hell is Porangahau?
Readers not familiar with the
geography of the east coast of the
bottom half of the North Island
might struggle to place it, but being
a Hawkes Bay boy, born and bred, I
knew exactly where Porangahau was
– just south of Blackhead and north
of Cape Turnagain, of course!
Porangahau is a small township on
the Porangahau River, originally settled by Maori. Porangahau Station
was established nearby in 1854
by some of the earliest European
colonists, who loaded their stock
and wool off the beach by boat.
Today the golden sands of Te Paerahi
Beach, about five kilometres from
Porangahau township, host a second settlement consisting mostly
of baches, beach houses and campgrounds. The region is probably best
known for having the longest place
name in the world (okay, you asked
for it) – Taumatawhakatangihangako
auauotamateaturipukakapikimaung
ahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.
The mouth of the Porangahau
River is shallow and difficult, so
most locals prefer to launch off the
beach. Even this is not simple, as a
shallow sandbar a short distance offshore adds a second obstacle to getting a boat out. Although launching
restrictions limit the fishing opportunities to calm weather and there
are normally a few capsizes each
year, Porangahau has an active boating and fishing club, with local Steve
Paget and his tractor always available for a surf launching.
Hastings businessman Dave Vesty
and his wife Michelle have a place
out at Porangahau and spend as
much time there as they can. A
keen fisherman, Dave and his
crew suffered their ‘baptism’
a year or so ago when
he sportingly let another
boat owner, who was
The high sheerlines of the Dickey 9m are ideal for cutting through
the surf break. Dawn is a fine time to be on the water.
42
New Zealand Fishing News February 2011
Showgirl 6 is backed into the surf for a dawn launch at Porangahau.
having trailer problems, use his trailer. While hanging around off the surf
break, waiting for the trailer’s return,
he got caught; the outboard legs dug
into the sandbar on the way over
and the big pontoon boat flipped,
fortunately without any injury to
the crew, and the boat was recovered
later on.
Dave’s answer to this episode was
a new boat. After shopping around,
he went to Napier custom aluminium-boat builder Jason Dickey, who
built Dave a nine-metre hull with
Dickey Boat’s trademark steep entry
and rising sheerline. The answer to
the shallow-water surf work was to
fit the boat, Showgirl 6, with a jet
unit.
Launching a nine-metre jet boat
through the surf and fishing a difficult-to-access piece of the southern
Hawkes Bay (or is that northern
Wairarapa?) coast sounded like a
neat adventure, and Jason Dickey
organised us a day out with owner
Dave Vesty, who, coincidentally,
turned out to be a distant cousin of
mine.
Just before dawn, on the last day of
2010, boat-launcher-in-chief Steve
Paget hooked the beach trailer onto
his big Massey Ferguson 590 and we
trundled off along the beach, the
boys searching for a suitable gutter
to launch through about a metreand-a-half of surf. The beach trailer
is a custom aluminium model with
Te Paerahi Beach, Porangahau, has
launching challenges common to many
surf beaches.
solid groper of 10-15kg, with a few
big gemfish and the odd trumpeter
thrown in. I was using a Torium
30 reel loaded with 24kg braid and
no harness or bucket, and a decent
groper can pull a bit. By the time we
had 20 ‘puka in the boot and Dave
professed himself happy with the
catch, it was still only 10am.
“Fishin’s a bit slow today,” he said,
and I don’t think he was kidding,
but it was the best groper fishing I
had had for quite some time, and
my arms and back were ‘feeling the
burn’.
We ran back inshore to a tarakihi
spot closer to the coast. It appeared
to be an underwater hydrothermal
vent, as streams of bubbles were
coming to the surface around the
boat, like that other famous tarakihi
spot ‘The Bubbles’ off Whakatane.
The tarakihi certainly liked the spot,
and it took little time to fill the gaps
between the groper, before heading
in to run the cray pots.
Showgirl 6 has been fitted with a
davit and winch, which made lifting the pots quick and easy. An
aluminium shield fits into two of the
(L-R) Dave Vesty,
Trevor Sciascia, Jason
Dickey and Greg Davis
with some decent
groper taken wide of
Porangahau.
Left: the 274 Hamilton
Jet is a key part of the
big boat’s shallowwater capability.
&.
a padded cage to catch the boat and
massive balloon tires that looked
like they would not have been out
of place as the landing gear on a
Boeing 747.
The spot was chosen and the trailer backed into the surf until Showgirl
6’s hull just started to lift, prompting Dave to back out into the suds,
spin the boat around, and head out
through the breakers, the steep, fineentry bow cutting through them like
an axe. (Radio communication with
Steve Paget ensures the trailer is
ready for when they return to shore
later in the day.)
This combination of a specialist
trailer and big, custom-built jet boat
designed specifically for the task
extends the number of days Dave
and his crew can get out fishing, and
once out there, gives him the range
and speed to get to some of the
deepwater pins well offshore, where
the fishing can be pretty exciting
– if you know the right spots, which
Dave demonstrably did.
Showgirl 6 is powered by a
Cummins 5.9-litre 425hp diesel
engine with a single-stage Hamilton
274 jet. Tapped out, it will do 35
knots, but 25 knots is a comfortable cruise speed, using two litres
per nautical mile from the 550-litre
tank. After an hour of travelling
through 1.5 metres of sea, we found
ourselves well offshore on one of
Dave’s groper marks in 170m. Along
with owner Dave Vesty, boat-builder
Jason Dickey and I, Dave’s brotherin-law Greg Davis and local cray
fisherman Trevor Sciascia were along
to wet a line.
It took all of ten minutes before
the first groper was on its way up.
Personally, I never waited more than
a few minutes for a fish, mostly
New Zealand Fishing News February 2011
43
Dave Vesty and Trevor Sciascia put the hurt on a couple of nice fish.
Showgirl 6’s owner Dave Vesty with another nice groper.
A davit and winch makes lifting cray pots quick and easy. An aluminium shield protects the
Flexiteak gunwale.
through-gunwale rod holders, protecting a section of the Flexiteak gunwale from the pots. Good scheme.
The crays played ball too, and
several ‘lifts’ provided a fish bin full
of ‘keeper’ bugs (and there were not
many ‘throwbacks’, either.)
With a boat-load of prime kai
moana, we headed for the beach.
posed-designed boat like Showgirl 6
– and go a long way towards limiting the fishing pressure there. You
have to make the most of it when
you can.
Dave picked a decent roller and
came in on the back of it, the big
jet boat scooting over the shallow
sandbar to where Steve Paget waited
with the trailer backed into the surf.
The boat skidded into the cradle, the
boys quickly secured it with a couple
of tie-downs, and we were back on
shore, safe and dry.
The best bit…
To me, and many other Kiwis I am
sure, the greatest joys of the New
&.
This may seem like a big catch,
but we stopped well short of the
legal limit – and when split between
five families, friends and whanau, all
keen for fresh fish for a New Year’s
feast, the catch was soon dispersed.
Weather and sea conditions greatly
restrict fishing opportunities on this
exposed coast – even with a pur-
44
New Zealand Fishing News February 2011
About the boat
Dickey Boats
Model:
Custom 900
LOA:
9.7m
Beam:
2.83m
Deadrise:
18°
Weight:
3600kg
Fuel:
550 litres
Engine:
Cummins 5.9 litre 425hp
Jet:
Hamilton 274.
The good bit – beach, bach, beer and BBQ; it doesn’t get much better.
BOP
Specialist Aluminium
Boat Painting
Marine
Painting
New Work • Full Fair & Paint • Antifouls
• Interiors & Exteriors • Touchups • Repaints
FN4643
Builder:
Zealand summer are epitomised by
the five ‘Bs’: Beach, Bach, Boat, Beer
and BBQ. After cleaning the catch
and washing the boat, it was time
for the best part. We sat under the
shade sails on Dave’s deck in the
sunny blue-sky afternoon, overlooking the golden sands of Te Paerahi
Beach as the crisp white surf rolled
in, eating fresh crays and quenching
a well-earned thirst with a few icecold beers, while the freshest of fish
sizzled on the BBQ for a late lunch.
Life doesn’t get any better than
that…
Allen Hartridge - Qualified Marine Spraypainter
ph 027 472 6655 a/h 07 570 3646
email [email protected]
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