On Monday Ben Viv and I decided to take a fishing day at Motenau. It’s true offshore Canterbury fishing, and has a tricky shallow bar you need to cross in only certain conditions within a tight timeframe either side of the low tide. Our boat sits about 60cm deep in the water and the whole way down the river and out the water was averaging 50-70cm – so man she was tight!
Over the bar’s waves and into the open ocean it was ver clear that the 2 metre swell was here to stay. It was confused sea, coming from two direction in a motion that made us pretty green.
Once over the bar, we are unable to come back for 4hrs til the tide is right, so we decided that we’d get out to the spot. I had marked the fishing spots on the GPS so we drove about 6kms up the coast and 3kms out and got within a few metres of the spot!
The fish were biting, but our lunch was coming up. We both spent about 3hrs vomiting over the side and attempting to fish in between chucks!
We both caught plenty of fish, but Ben caught the ‘keepers’ and also hooked into something huge that fought hard for 10 mins before breaking off. We think it was a huge shark!
As soon as the tide was right, we got ourselves together and got back in over the bar. Land sweet land!! I think I like Motenau – not a 1st choice spot but I would do it again… Just never again on a 2 metre confused sea!
Some shots above of the river going out to the bar. Very shallow and tricky but doable if careful.
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