The weather forecast for this weekend was for rain and strong winds and so the Motueka RSA fishing club postponed its fishing contest for two weeks (when rain fell, causing another postponement). However, on the Sunday 20th the weather for the trip was excellent.

We sailed through French Pass to the region of the Rangitoto Islands to fish primarily for Snapper as the Blue Cod limit had been lowered to 2 fish per person.

Lynley was not with us on this trip - we met Bryce, son of Lynley and Barry who crewed for us. Also missing was the much sought after hot scones, due to the fact that scone mix was currently unobtainable. However, Lynley had risen early before the trip and cooked some muffins for us!

Barry removed all the swivels from the lines as Barracouta were active and love to bite shiny swivels. Their presence was soon discovered, along with another habit - swimming round and tangling other lines. This kept Barry and Bryce quite busy with untangling the lines.

(Nearly) everyone caught a snapper - Ian caught four in his corner (which he offerred to sell) along with a selection of other species - gurnard, Jock Stewart, Blue Cod, Kawhai and Tarakihi.

All people seemed happy with their catch as we boated home to Nelson Haven in the afternoon.