New Zealand Polespear Adventures

Conditions have been pretty rough in Napier these days, with near zero vis and cold water. Last dive I registered 11.7 degrees on my watch. Brrr. Spring has just begun, so a few decent days ahead. You can see the water is a lovely shade of dirt, but at least we can get a few paua and crays.

Actually, you can get to this bit of coast if you're hard enough to walk for about an hour, then swim for another 30 minutes to an hour. It's not hugely productive for big fish, so it doesn't get a lot of pressure. There are good crays and paua though, which is always nice. My biggest cray, not quite 7 pounds, came from this area in a spot that was about 15 feet deep.

Just wait till I get out to the islands up north. Then it will be ON.

Until then, it's just waiting out an unsettled, windy, rainy spring.

Kevin! Man, it's been ages since I saw you. Good to hear you and Pete are still kicking around together.

Things have been quiet on the polespear front for a while. Mostly because I was focused on the NZ Nationals and started swimming with the 120.

Anyway, here are some video stills from yesterday. The fish is called a tarakihi, which are a tasty fish that frequent places where rock and weed meet sand, usually fairly deep. I was able to find a spot where they were quite shallower than normal, which is always a good thing. Lucky I had the camera too.

The shot placement is terrible, but no excuses. At least I got him!

Fruits of hard labour away from my beloved 3-prong. Runners-up, New Zealand National Spearfishing Champs.

Ha! Nah, Reid plays by his own rules - he uses a polespear for the Nationals, so it puts him at a disadvantage compared to everyone else with a 120. Unfortunately, it didn't pay off this year for him.

National level competition is pretty insane over here - the guys that won have done so the last 5 years in a row. And they're only 23. They will be hard to topple. They are definitely in the crosshairs of a lot of spearos here, including me!! I'll stick with the 120 as my weapon of choice.

While scouting for Nationals, I came across this john dory. There's a bit of an unwritten law that all JDs should be shot (long amusing story), so naturally, I obliged. Funny enough, I missed! But the johnny thought he was hidden in the weed, which gave me a window of opportunity. I pulled the shaft from the sand and thrust it in the side of the great beast! The stab was in a bad spot, but it landed no less. A short, heated tussle ensued. So much for needing band power...