Fishing at Himatangi

Himatangi Beach is heaven for fishermen.  Or should that be fisher-people perhaps?  We took a walk along the beach in the weekend and came across a family group winding in a long line.  So we just had to stop and see what they had caught.  The line went out over 2 km, we were told, and it certainly took quite some time to wind it all back.  Luckily there was a handy motor doing most of the work.

The group were very well organised, it was obvious they had spent a lot of time fishing together .  While the line was slowly winding back on the reel, one person got the holder ready to slip the hooks onto, and another brought out a plastic bin to put the catch in.  On and on came the line, and finally we could see the dangling hooks. Wonder what sort of fish those are?  The children were very interested as the flapping fish were pulled ashore. 

Ooh, look at that flappy fish

Most of the catch was red cod, with a few tiny sharks caught as well.  “We don’t eat shark”, we were told, so these were returned to the sea.

Plenty of fish for the evening meal

One of the ladies walked into the surf to collect the brightly coloured motorised Kontiki and bring it ashore.  It was nearly as big as she was.

Bringing the Kontiki ashore

Further along the beach were a group of people fishing the old way, with their rods and lines.  One of these people was being difficult and insisted in casting out across the long line belonging to the other group.  The resulting line tangle was not well received, and he was lucky he didn’t get caught up in the hooks on the long line.

More fishermen on the beach

After our beach walk, what could be better than relaxing with a nice cold ice-cream?  This is the life!