We love our cats, but still build monos

Push biking home from  the beach shop by Ohope Top Ten holiday park I was reflecting on how my exercise campaign was not really working.

We were on our summer holiday at Ohope Top Ten Holiday Park. Rochelle commented rather too often that I had beefed up a bit over the Christmas period and she had me on a rigorous campaign of exercise and dieting. Long walks and bike rides were scheduled each morning followed by a nice bowl of fruit and a carrot for breakfast.

I soon worked out that if I got up before the rest of the family I could bike off in my exercise gear, get a coffee and a pie from the shop, bike back splash some water on my face and everything was honky dory.

It was on the way home after enjoying a steak and cheese and a full milk flat white that I noticed my mate Quinton Lankshere standing in the back of his brand new Kingfisher 595 Centre Console. This was a really tidy rig complete with custom alloy Kingfisher trailer and 140 Suzuki on the back. I slid the treadly to a stop and climbed in with him to check out the new boat.

Quinton had only just picked up the boat in a rush from Kingfisher to be ready for Christmas and was quick to point out it wasn’t quite finished. Looked very tidy to me with bimini top and rocket launcher, and a small screen to push off spray.

Beside Quinton’s boat was it predecessor, his brothers Kingfisher 5.5 center console . His brothers happiness with the boat had had a large bearing on Quintons decision to go center console. Quinton went to great lengths to point out his boat was a bit longer and had a bit more power than his brothers.  Seemed to me he was a little pre occupied with size and length .

It wasn’t long before talk got around to a fishing trip. A plan was set to get up early the following morning and set the flounder net on the tide. I had set nets before for flounder and either got a net full of weed ,some sting rays , some other unwanted species  but no flounder. Still Quinton was undeterred and over a few beers that night told and retold stories of huge catches of Flounder up the Kutarere Arm of the Ohope harbour. Apparently the flounder were so numerous up there that you walked on them to stop your feet getting cut on the shells while setting the net. I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t just grab some then but didn’t say anything.

5.30 am, the day dawned bright and clear but we had perhaps 20 knots  from the west.  I was wondering how wet we were going to get in the center console, secretly I’d always looked at them and thought good for the driver, crap for everyone else on board.

At the ramp the boat slid effortlessly off the custom trailer and the big outboard fired up without a hitch. It’s such a treat to be on a new boat where everything works as it should. Quinton knows the harbor well and guided us down with the wind toward the Kutarere arm. The water flared off the high bow without a drop in the boat.

There’s a few different schools of thought with flounder, some say fish the outgoing tide as the fish have to come off the flats, the same people believe if you fish the incoming tide the fish don’t have to come onto the flats so you may not get any. The big hauls up the Kutarere had been taken on the incoming tide so Quinton after much studying landmarks and channels threw the pick over in knee deep water and we stretched the net across part of one of the up per channels.

I did notice a few shell cuts on my feet, I mustn’t have been able to find the flounder to stand on. After a couple of hours of incoming tide it was time to reap the bounty of Kutarere.

The water was a lot deeper now so as it was Quinton’s boat we nominated him to jump into neck deep water with a dive catch bag to check the net. He seemed particularly wary of any swirl which could have been one of the massive stingrays that inhabit the area. We kept a good lookout for him from the safety of the boat.

The end result was no flounder and one manky looking carp. We helped Quentin back into the boat and headed back.

We were going across the stiff westerly chop now and while we got a little bit of spray as we quartered chop , it was amazing how much water the flared bow shed off. The attention to detail sets Kingfisher apart from others, for instance the double port phone charger in the glove compartment in the dash. Keeps every thing tidy and dry.

In the strong currents at the ramp we retrieved the boat very easily. I commented that maybe we could buy some flounder at Pak’n’Sav in town which was met with one of Quentin’s steely steers. I wasn’t able to accompany them on the next flounder trip as I had to go for a bike ride,but it was far more successful with 13 bagged so we could skip the fresh fruit and carrot breakfast and have flounder instead.

Chris Jensen