"He went to hook up the lifejacket and found the man holding on to it," she said.
The deceased man had been seen fishing on Waikaraka Beach Rd - about 6km from where the body was discovered - about 6pm on Monday.
Police recovered gear including oars and a tackle box along that shoreline yesterday.
His car, and a small boat trailer were, yesterday afternoon, at the entrance to Waikaraka Beach Rd.
A plane and a vessel from the Whangarei Coastguard were searching the area for the missing boat which is about 2.5m long, fibreglass over ply, and a creamy white colour with a worn, varnished gunnel.
Onerahi Community Constable Aaron Furze said the recovery of the missing boat would shed more light into what exactly happened to the deceased.
"It appears he'd gone fishing and either his boat capsized or something's happened to him at sea. At this stage, we believe he set out to sea alone. He was known by locals as a regular fisherman in the area."
He said the body was found on an incoming tide.
A rahui will not be put in place.
"At this point his death is not suspicious but we can't rule anything out. It could be a suspected drowning but we won't know that until a post mortem is done in Auckland," Mr Furze said.
Sea conditions were fine with a light southwesterly when the body was discovered, he said.
As a general water safety message, Mr Furze said those venturing out to sea should ensure they wore a life jacket and let others know where they were going and when were they expected to be back.
Having some sort of a communication device was also advisable, he said.
