Wheel alignment

Friday 28 January 2011

One of those magic days

Yesterday, we woke to a beautiful sunny day (again, grin!) and it would have normally been a super-early breakfast and away for the day on the bike for a few hundred km.  However, Thursday was a special day.  Not only was it sunny and hot, it was also flat calm with a high tide in the early afternoon.  With the remains of a tropical cyclone due to hit at the weekend,  it was a timely opportunity to take the boat out fishing!

As usual, we motored to a spot about 20 minutes from the ramp just down our road and tied up among the commercial mussel beds which are a haven for marine life.  It was our best day ever and in 3 hours, had completely filled our large chilly bin with snapper and run out of bait!  Given that snapper is over NZ$30/kg in the shops, not a bad haul!  Beautiful cooked, or diced and marinated raw in lemon juice, then mixed with coconut cream, diced red peppers, onion and fresh chilli, then chilled for a couple of hours - yumm!

Jennie with 4lb snapper

Me with 11 lb snapper

 Bobscoot will note the lucky red shorts being worn - certainly lucky on this occasion!  No pink Crocs though, just boring brown.

The only downer was having to fillet them all whilst a bit dehydrated and tired but never mind.  Just one cold beer was a mistake 'cos all I wanted to do was doze!

After an excellent feed, we sat on our deck with a cold gin and tonic and watched the sun set - and spectacular it was too.  Here's the photo:

Dusk from our deck

Doesn't get much better than that - have a great and safe weekend everyone!

20 comments:

  1. Fantastic effort there Geoff......(that reminds me that we have some snapper fillets in the freezer waiting to be eaten)

    The colours in your sunset photo are magical. Well done!

    Hope the weekend is a good one mate.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Although I am suitable impressed at your haul of fish, and your beautiful sunset photo, do you really have to go to such lengths to wind up us working class!! I will take mine smoked.............

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'll have mine marinated and raw thanks :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anthony:
    Better than the last but one outing when we caught nothing. It was blowing a bit so went to a sheltered area called "No Fish Farm" by the locals. Now we know why. You too mate!

    Roger & Nick:
    So fishing and riding motorcycles all day isn't work? This retirement business is tough! Given a short bit of notice of your impending arrival in Coromandel, we will do our best to accommodate you both. My old smoker fell to bits a couple of years ago and one of our sons bought me another one for Xmas. Guess he was thinking of his stomach too :-). Have a great weekend guys!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Geoff:M

    you took the words right out of my mouth. When I noticed your photo and before I even scrolled to the bottom I was already thinking of your Lucky red shorts. Soooo glad they worked today. I love snapper but they are nearly fished out up here and not that available. nice to know you have your own secret stash.

    Great minds must think alike. Whilst riding home tonight I also snapped a red sunset. I saw it and was desperately trying to find a spot to pull over.

    Retirement must tire you both out. You have to go on vacation soon

    bob
    bobskoot: wet coast scootin

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bob:
    Plenty of snapper and other fish stocks down this way as long as we can keep the S-E Asian fishing boats at bay. Geographic isolation pays off sometimes!

    Saw your sunset and loved it. The trick is to be quick eh? There was a glorious sunrise this morning and I missed it by less than a minute.

    Yep, definitely need a break ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Stunning sunset! You can have the fish all to yourselves, though... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cheers Sue. Catching fish is nice, but the greatest pleasure is simply being on the water on a gorgeous day. Never really mind if we don't catch fish, as long as it doesn't become a habit!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Geoff:

    How would you like it if you were a fish and just out for a quick float around the bay, and just happened to be hungry and reached up for the swinging bait. Now the whole family is waiting at home for him to come home for dinner, but he doesn't show up and is never seen again . . .

    bob
    Wet Coast Scootin

    ReplyDelete
  10. A salutary lesson Bob - don't accept food from strange humans.... there's always a hook in it :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Geoff

    Bob has a point....

    But fish have an attention span of only 5 seconds so no great shakes

    Nikos the fish expert

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you for your expert knowledge Nikos...

    Aha.. free food

    Ouch, there's a sharp bone in it, I'm stuck.....

    Now where was I???

    The light is getting brighter, am I going to Heaven?

    Now where was I???

    ReplyDelete
  13. Gorgeous sunset picture. Sounds like a lovely relaxing day of fishing and basking in the sun. Makes me long for summer......

    ReplyDelete
  14. Trobairitz:
    Thanks! Trouble is, after a few hours out on the water, followed by washing the boat and filleting, I don't stay awake long enough to appreciate the evening! Summer will soon be here for you....

    Mike:
    Apologies - for some reason, I stuffed up the publishing of your post :-(. When's dinner? About half an hour ago but don't worry, we have more than enough if you can get over here in the next few days; otherwise I'll go out again just before you arrive!

    ReplyDelete
  15. A bike, a boat, nice climate and a view to die for. You are a lucky bunch of people. I hope to live for the day, that I can have this, too ;-)
    Now I have a craving for fresh fish... where did that come from?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Greetings Sonja!
    Thanks mate - after 30 years of 55-60 hour weeks, it's nice to reap the rewards.

    Errr.... you're not pregnant, are you? ;-).

    I'll pop a nice fresh snapper in the smoker whilst you're over!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Geoff, where do you get the red shorts from? I really do with some that work that well!!

    That big snapper is a catch to be proud of.

    Cheers Jules.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Jules:
    They're actually swimming trunks and I hate them! I have a preferred blue pair which for the life of me, I can't find anywhere. However, you know how it is with fisherman's superstition!!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Geoff:

    I hope you were just joking ! You had better not get rid of the RED pair, or else . . .

    bob
    Wet Coast Scootin

    ReplyDelete
  20. Bob:
    Nope, I'm more of a "blue" person but with catches like that, I'm not about to stop wearing them!

    ReplyDelete

Hello! I love to hear your feedback as it often leads to other things. However, if your comments are blatant advertising, then they won't get published.