Geoff Thomas: Divers win champs five times running

Dwayne Herbert rises from the deep with a high scoring snapper. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

A pair of young divers from Whitianga are the best spear fishermen in the country, for the fifth consecutive year.

Dwayne Herbert and Julian Hansford, both 23, last week won the New Zealand Spear Fishing Championships, which were held at Doubtless Bay. About 80 divers competed in one of the toughest fishing disciplines in the world. It is called free-diving and these divers hunt fish underwater while holding their breath. They do not use scuba gear, and with no bubbles to betray their position they can creep on fish and surprise them, spearing the quarry at close range.

But while most free-divers will venture down about 10m, Herbert and Hansford, who make their living commercially diving for kina, are supremely fit and can go as deep as 35m without scuba gear.

The champs usually involve two days of diving but last weekend the weather deteriorated and the second day was cancelled. The divers hunt in pairs and worked the stretch of coast line around Berghans Point.

The object is to spear 12 fish of specific species and the winners weighed in two butterfish, two snapper, two blue maomao, two pink maomao, two kahawai, one kingfish and one blue moki.

The sport has been likened to hunting under water, and involves camouflage wet suits to blend in with the terrain. Some divers specialise in what is known as extreme spear fishing and target big game fish like marlin, huge kingfish and tuna. That sort of diving is not for the faint-hearted, as the diver is connected to the quarry by a line which comes off a reel on the speargun, but it can be attached to a float as well.

Regular fishing recovered after last weekend's storm, although more bad weather is expected today. Fishing can be good after the sea has been stirred up. Tides are getting smaller, which will make fishing in the channels and harbours easier.

The Kaipara Harbour is reported to be fishing well, with good numbers of snapper inside the harbour although better fish will be found if conditions allow boats to venture out off the coast. But most boats venturing out wide are chasing marlin on both coasts, as game fishing continues to improve in most areas. At Tutukaka 33 marlin had been recorded up to a couple of days ago.

Whangaroa has had a lot of striped and blue marlin, with the best blue going 300kg, plus two yellowfin tuna. The one feature common everywhere this year is the number of short-billed spearfish and mahi-mahi being caught. These tropical visitors follow the warm currents.

Snapper schools in the Bay of Islands have dispersed so the fish are more spread out, and tarakihi are being caught close to shore which is unusual for mid-summer.

The good fishing has continued down the coast as far as Tauranga with nine marlin recorded in one day out of Whitianga before the last full moon, plus two at tairua and two at Whangamata. The eastern Bay of Plenty is not faring so well, and Whakatane and Waihau Bay have been quiet. Only one marlin had been weighed at Whakatane, but skipkack and albacore tuna are within 3km of the shore. The absence of yellowfin over the last years has prompted the Whakatane Sport Fishing Club to change its annual tuna tournament to a different format. It is now called a $20,000 four-way tournament, with cash prizes of $5000 for the biggest fish weighed in four categories - tuna, snapper, kingfish and marlin.

Around Auckland the channels are all holding plenty of snapper but there are large numbers of small fish. One solution is to keep moving to avoid the juveniles, or use fresh bait like mackerel, piper or kahawai which will produce larger fish than the regular pilchards and squid.

The number of kingfish and bronze whaler sharks is causing comment among anglers, and one boat hooked more than 15 kingfish one day at Crusoe Rock before the storm, and had four of them taken by sharks. When using live piper for bait it can be difficult hooking a large kingfish as the small ones will attack quickly. Larger livies like a good-sized kahawai will target the big kings.

The Manukau Harbour is producing varied reports with some anglers calling it the best summer ever and others reporting hard fishing. Fishing throughout the Firth of Thames is going well when weather allows, and one angler surfcasting from the rocks on the Thames coast was home by breakfast one day with a limit bag of snapper up to 45cm.

More fishing action can be found on Rheem Outdoors with Geoff, 5pm TV3, and on the new internet television channel, FishnHunt.Tv.