Guys Fishing Trip, Part 2: Fish!

This is the second half of the fishing trip story. The first part was all about the paua diving, which is something that is very different that anything any of us had ever done, so I gave it its own entry. The rest of the day was a more standard deep sea fishing experience - with the exception that we caught more fish in one day than I may have ever caught in my life. It was insane. By the time our lines would reach the bottom, they'd have at least one fish on the line. We mostly caught blue cod, but there were a few special appearances by barracudas, leatherjacks, trumpeters, some kind of wrasse, and oh yea, a SHARK!

To refresh your memory, we were in Foveaux Strait off the south coast of New Zealand. Our port was Bluff, NZ. After getting changed out of the wetsuits from the paua dive, we set our sites on other creatures that were waiting for us.

Here's Aaron with a Barracuda. These were fun to catch, and we ended up using them as bait. They are actually mostly diseased and full of worms throughout their meat, which was kinda gross really. But they're still a cool fish.

Captain Keith about to make quick work of that fish for some bait - so we can catch more fish. Fish becomes bait becomes fish becomes supper.  the Ciiiirrrrrrrcllllllle of Liiiiiiiife.

Dan bringing in another Blue Cod.

Justin posing with another fish type that I can't remember the name of. It looks like a wee shark, but the local guys kept insisting that it wasn't. It also wasn't edible, so we always threw those guys back. But they did put up a good fight compared to the cod, so were a fun addition to the mix.

Keith and Mic with  a 'cuda and a scarlet wrasse.

This is a mollymawk, a type of albatross. you can't tell here, but they are very large. and they have sinister eyebrows.  A whole flock of these guys followed us around all day, trying to get a handout. To give you an idea of how big they are, look at that red fish in the picture above this one. These birds would swallow one of those whole. Some of the wrasses were probably 14-18 inches long and 6 inches wide! These birds were big! Any time we would catch one of those red ones, the birds would rush our poles because they knew we were gonna throw the red ones back and would be waiting!

Another Blue Cod!

Leatherjack. Weird fish, huh? Also not edible, so those got tossed, but the mollymawks didn't go after those. Maybe even the birds don't like them.

Nate showing off his double cod catch!

Then along came a Shark!

My shark!

Keith had that shark cut up and dealt with faster than lightning. If you noted in the video, he had a fin removed and almost cut the head off and in the water before we could even take a picture. When he asked if we wanted a picture, I just told him to do what he needed to do and we could take a picture with whatever was left... luckily he paused just long enough to snap a picture!

Towards the end of the day, we passed by a couple islands to look at some seals. We were then told that it was right around this island that Keith had seen a great white shark just a couple days before. He said it was a big one. He told us this after we went paua diving at the next island over...

Blue Cod

Two totes of these guys was a pretty good haul! This doesn't count the ones that were too small or all the other types of fish we tossed back!

Captain Keith cleaning the fish while being swarmed by seagulls. That gull in the middle looks pretty vicious!   Wait a minute... if Captain Keith is cleaning fish, who is driving the boat???

Don't worry. Dan's got it all under control. He drove most of the way back because Captain Keith also cooked us some fresh paua, shark, and cod!

Safely back on land, Aaron and Dan haul in our catches of the day:

Fishing makes you thirsty.

Happy camper after a big day out on the ocean.

Filleting up some cod for supper, and then a LOT of cod for the freezer!

The girls were kind enough to have all the fixins for fish tacos ready for us when we got back (after their day of horseback riding and checking out Invercargill). 

This dinner was a lot more quiet than other. Probably for two reasons: 1. The food was delicious, and 2. we were exhausted after our long day at sea. Such a great day!