We have been trying to get out to sea with my grandson Pheno for a bit of fishing and paua, unfortunately those damn weather gods have not been playing fair. Jude and I had done quite a lot of maintenance and repairing on Aftershock and thought we might as well test all the systems in Lake Manapouri over two days. The weather at Manapouri was fantastic… better than we expected and so it was decided we will spend the night out on the lake as well at Stockyard Cove, a very secluded and protection location from just about all points of the compass. First day we went straight to Stockyard Cove for brunch and to check out the spot for an overnight sleep, enjoyed a bacon and egg buttie then off to the end of South Arm. Idled along the edge toward the across to the Refridgerator where Jude sprinkled “Forget me not” rose petals for her mum and dad whose ashes are sprinkled there. From there it was a trawl up North Arm where Jude got her two Rainbow Trout… nice ones at that. By the time we spent 6hrs fishing it was time to head back to Stockyard Cove for the night and an evening meal. By this time though the easterly had ramped up quite nasty and she was a good punch heading east so it was nice to enter the shelter of Stockyard Cove. The water was flat as but a good surface breeze made anchoring difficult and ended up attaching a weight belt 10mtrs back from the anchor to help the chain to sit flat and cut the anchor into the silt…. well that worked fine. Slept well over night and woke to a dead still morning, had a cuppa and head for more fishing making our way slowly around to Moturau DOC Hut. Jude hooked a beautiful sized rainbow unfortunately it let her go and returned to the deep lol. Back across to Holmwood Islands where there is a beautiful spot to anchor for a lunch of whitebait and egg Sammie’s, sausages and a coffee before a refreshing swim. With lunch and a swim completed we continued fishing around to Surprise Bay before arriving at Pearl Harbour… no luck with the fishing however a fantastic two days and the boat passed all the test we wanted done.
