Wildside - Fishing in the Marlborough Sounds

 

©Zane Mirfin, Wildside Column-Playground in the Heart and Mind, Nelson Mail, January 17, 2009

The Marlborough Sounds would have to be one of the wonders of the world. A recent family holiday there made me realise that there is always something special about family holidays with the opportunity to renew and strengthen family ties together.

After being on the road a lot lately working hard guiding customers, it was a welcome escape into the bosom of the Mirfin family for some serious fun and relaxation.

Covering a huge geographic area, the Sounds are a complex mosaic of drowned river valleys, headlands, bays, rugged coastlines, islands, tidal passages and blue water magic.
They have a rich history of Maori and European exploration and settlement, and names
such as Queen Charlotte, Port Underwood, Tory Channel, Endeavour Inlet, Portage, Kenepuru, Havelock, Penzance, Forsyth Island, Elaine Bay, Bulwer, Okiwi Bay, Croisilles Harbour, French Pass and D’Urville Island leap off any Marlborough Sounds map.

Among the explorers, Maori, and whaling, farming and fishing families associated with the sounds, the name of maritime explorer Dumont D’Urville stands alone.  In 1826, D’Urville set sail on the Astrolabe on a three-year voyage of exploration and scientific inquiry. His investigation of Tasman Bay and the discovery of French Pass and D’Urville
Island were significant contributions to the discovery of New Zealand’s coastline.

Today there are literally hundreds of places for modern explorers to visit in the
Sounds and the area is a vital outdoor playground in the hearts and minds of
thousands of people from the northern South Island and beyond.

Roading in the Sounds is as good as it has ever been and even the most remote
places can now be reached within a twotothree-hour drive from Nelson or
Blenheim – a far cry from the early bridle tracks, which were one horse wide. Boat access is virtually unlimited, with the main entry points being Picton,
Havelock, Tennyson Inlet and Okiwi Bay. Whatever way you access the
Marlborough Sounds, it doesn’t take long to figure out that the area is very special
to a whole lot of people.

The Mirfin family has been fortunate to have had regular family holidays down the Sounds with family friends for more than 35 years and these memories are treasured
and enshrined in family folklore and photo albums.

This trip was not such a frenzy as in times past when my brother and I, as single men, often fished like mad men. No more dawn starts, always back before dark, and more time spent with wives, parents and children made for a relaxing holiday.

We had a great time with the kids, six youngsters having a wonderful time with their cousins and their grandparents. The kids swam, fished, fossicked and built sandcastles on the beach, saw closeup live dolphin action, explored rock pools, built huts, trapped possums with Granddad and went on treasure hunts and searched for pirates.

My older boys, at six and eight years old, have developed into demon fishermen, often out-fishing their father, uncle and grandfather this trip. It was fun teaching them the fine art of setting nets and setlines, as well as them learning the various merits of synthetic
soft baits, metal jigs, and traditional cutbaits to fish on their rods. Watching the boys fishing from the boat and wharf, helping bait their hooks and taking the fish off their lines was fun, but watching them develop selfreliance, independence, perserverance
and confidence was priceless.

The Marlborough Sounds are a fish rich environment and although those people holidaying and fishing in the inner Sounds this summer will have been mourning the loss of blue cod from their diet with last year’s imposition of the notake zone for the fish, we were fortunate to be able to enjoy many fine blue cod dinners with fish from the outer Sounds.

We also got to harvest and eat many more fish species, including snapper, gurnard, rig, monkfish, kahawai, flounder, moki and butterfish, as well as catching a few less palatable species like spotties, mullet and stingray. The individual fish species’ different
behaviours and habitat preferences made for valuable learning experiences for the
kids.

I learned lessons too, like the need to have sharper knives to process fish with or to be more organised with my fishing equipment so there was a quicker turnaround when a jig was lost on the sea bottom or a hook was bitten off by a barracouta. The lessons learnt this trip give something to aspire to on our next adventure and something to plan and
think about during those times when we can’t go fishing.

The Marlborough Sounds have been a marvellous training ground for me personally over many decades and it is special to me that my children can experience and enjoy this world-class area and resource also.

Sure, the fishing and hunting may not be what they were in times past, but our latest adventure together as a family showed that great sporting resources still exist and are readily accessible to most people with a little effort and exploration, whatever their age, sex or ability.

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