Wildside - Wharf Fishing

Wharf a good place to start
 

© Zane Mirfin, Wildside Column, Wharf a good Place to Start, Nelson Mail, 19 July 2008

LOOK, DAD: With inexpensive tackle and a bit of guidance, kids can learn basic fishing skills
while catching a good range of fish from the wharf.

Wharves, kids, and fishing for sprats are a natural combination around the  ports, harbours and estuaries of New Zealand. Here in Nelson, we are fortunate to have a multitude of venues suitable for family fishing. Nelson Wharf, Sunderland Pier, Richardson St Fishing Platform, Mapua Wharf and Port Motueka are just a few examples that spring to mind, but with a bit of research, imagination and experimentation, many more places are available throughout the Marlborough Sounds and Golden Bay.

They make for great places to learn the skills and enjoyment of fishing in a safe and easy-access environment.

Small baitfish are attracted to the stable environment of wharves. Most of the fish caught will be small and rarely of a size to bother cooking – the humble spottie and the yellow-eyed mullet, but also mackerel and kahawai – but sometimes a good-sized specimen of snapper, kahawai, gurnard or dory will start tugging on someone’s line, so you just never know.
Light tackle is the way to go and eln cheapo kids’ rod and reel sets are readily available at any local sports store. These rods take a real hiding with young kids stepping on them and shutting them in car doors so it’s probably wise to not have too much money tied up in them. The cheapest version can be as simple as a spool of nylon, although a rod and reel is more effective and fun for young kids.

One thing that has always staggered me is just how unsuccessful many wharf anglers are when it can be so easy to catch a bucketful of fish. A few pointers for new chums would be to go on a nice high-pressure day with light winds. Try to fish either side of the high tide, when water volume will be at a good level and strong ocean currents will be lessened.

All the fish species above respond well to ground bait or berley. You can buy all sorts of fancy berley pots to disperse attractants but they are easily made out of chicken wire or drilling holes in old peanut butter jars or milk bottles. Add some cord long enough to reach the bottom and a few rocks or chunk of lead for a weight and you are set to go.

The berley you put in your pot can be as simple as pieces of bread, cereal scraps from breakfast, or dinner scraps.  Add a few tablespoons of tuna oil, frozen commercial burley preparations, chicken pellets and/or fish scraps and you will have a winning combination. If your berley pot is positioned in the upper of the water column, you will tend to catch sprats and mackerel, while if you fish your berley on the bottom, you will often catch more spotties and other fish types, so it pays to vary your technique depending on what you are trying to achieve.

Get your berley pot in the water early to let the magic begin and then lower your lines over the side downstream of the berley flow and at about the same depth.

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that most people use hooks that are too big. Use a light line and small hooks. A tiny sliver of frozen squid is our bait of choice.

Arm yourself with a pair of surgical forceps to remove hooks from fish. Many fish can be released alive once your kids have satisfied their initial desire to take fish home to show grandparents and friends. If you can avoid handling the
fish, clamp the hook with the forceps and flip the fish back into the water unharmed.

Pinching the barb down on small hooks also aids fish release and helps when someone hooks themselves or their
clothing.

I try to limit my kids’ fish kill so that there are always plenty of fish left for other days and other people. There are no fisheries regulations governing many wharf-fish species but if you are taking fish away, then the onus is on the supervising angler to understand and abide by the regulations.

A bucket is a good place to store and display caught fish and we try to never waste fish, offering them to neighbours
to feed their cats, burying them in the garden as a marvellous fertiliser, or keeping them for bait on later adventures.

Another great technique from wharves is jigging using the ready-made sabikitype strings of three to six hooks dressed with flashy materials. Unwind the rig, tie to your rod and line, clip a small sinker on the bottom and you are ready to go. Lower the rig into the water and lift up and down to mimic small fish or shrimps. The fish will hook themselves. When you feel a fish on, let it struggle a little, as its motion will attract other fish to attack. It can be common to catch a
fish on each hook.

Nelson Mail photographer Martin de Ruyter used to make his own jigs for fishing the wharf with his boy Troy by wrapping white cotton around small hooks to imitate small flakes of bread in the berley trail. It is a deadly technique.

❏ Wild Side is a new regular outdoors column by Nelson fishing and hunting guide Zane Mirfin. It appears fortnightly
in the Weekend section.

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