Everything I thought I knew about the seasonal fish in Hawke’s Bay just went out the window.
While continuing my holy-grail-like quest to catch a snapper, I dredged up a sulking red cod.
Why are these things here in the middle of our so called summer? They are a winter fish. Usually caught in the cold, rough, dirty water of winter, I was most perturbed to see this pathetic thing hanging forlornly on my hook at Haumoana the other night.

Aside from that, two baby tope sharks managed to choke themselves to death trying to swallow my pilchard and skipjack baits. No snapper.

Baby Tope’s don’t usually have enough pull to move the sinker, so you don’t know they’re on until you wind in to re-bait.