Two weekends ago James and his buddies took me fishing in the Hauraki Gulf.

We woke up before the sun to head down to the boat dock at 6 in the morning.

Being that I’m Southern California born and raised I still struggle to dress appropriately for the chilly weather.

For our ocean excursion I wore a pair of Lululemon leggings, a pair of sweatpants from my university days, a tank top, a long-sleeve shirt, a running jumper, my New Zealand sweatshirt and my beloved Marmot puffer jacket. Oh, and a beanie and my runners.

Overkill? Probably. The guys asked me if I thought we were going skiing.

Oh well, I was warm. And I caught the most fish out of everyone.

So I was doing something right. 😉

Upon pulling out of the Half Moon Bay harbor, we headed north, straight towards Rakino Island.

The sun joined us over the horizon just as I caught the first fish of the day, a too-small snapper.

With some help from the guys we got the hook out of his lip, and I gave him a quick little kiss before sending him back to grown in to a 20 pounder.

Grabbing the knife, I cut up some bait – mostly squid and pilchard – and dressed my line for the next fateful reel-in.

But first, I had to learn what a “boil up” is, which is when the fish are chased up to the surface of the water by a larger predator and the birds are used as a signal by fishermen to determine a good spot to cast a lure.

Before I knew it I was pulling up a decent-sized snapper pretty much every 15 minutes. A bit in part to the tools I was using.

After awhile I offered to switch poles with James so he could have a shot at catching some and he had better luck. So I can’t take ALL the credit.

We eventually decided to begin heading south, passing by Waiheke Island and shedding layers as the day warmed up.

Once we were back we met up to clean the boat (or in my case, watch) and count/divvy up the fish we had kept. I can’t quite remember how many there were, at least 15 and at least 75% of the lot was caught by yours truly.

When we got home James filleted the fish and prepped them for dinner.

Then, we cooked it beer-battered style and served it up with kumara fries! YUM!!!

In the meantime, a photo I shared to Facebook of my first wee little fish was shared to an account called Girls Who Fish NZ.

It truly was a great morning and now I’m itching to head out on the sea again.