Alone in a Remote New Zealand Fishing PARADISE ¦ (Biggest I've Ever Caught).

Yep, oh he's straight in the reef. Whoa, don't go in there, don't go in there, don't go in there, don't go in there. No, no, no, no, no. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh my, yes boy, that's a freaking donkey. Well, it never ceases to amaze me just how beautiful this place is. Right now, I'm in a very remote part of New Zealand, a part that you can only access by kayak, like there's no boat access to the fishery here, so it's very much untouched. It always makes me a little bit nervous, but also very, very excited to come here. It's a place that I know for very, very big fish. Oh, that's a fish, far out. That's a fish, I thought that was the bottom. Whoa, that's a big fish. And also, unfortunately, some very, very big sharks. Oi, there's a big shark there, why is there a big shark there? But you always sort of cross your fingers and hope that you run into the big fish and not the big sharks, but regardless of what happens, I always have an amazing time up here. It's been a while since I've fished it, I've got the kayak loaded up, I'm here for a good time, not a long time. We do have to catch something for dinner because the fridge downstairs in the van, she's empty and there's no shops anywhere nearby, but we're going to have a good time, try not to get too caught up in the beauty and go and catch some big fish. You guys are coming along for the ride, let's get into it. Oh, we might spill the coffee here. Aye, aye, aye, where did these waves come from? Oh, damn it, now I'm wet. Oh, that's not good. My poor coffee. Where the heck did these waves come from? That was wet and I just spilled my coffee. I just lost my coffee. I don't even know where it went. No, that's catastrophic. The biggest goal of this YouTube channel is not to spill the coffee and I just dropped the coffee overboard. That's almost catastrophic on this YouTube channel. The coffee is like one of the biggest priorities in the morning. I just spend all that time making it, all that ritual, and I've gifted it to Tangaroa. Now, I've got a little bit of a goal in mind for this trip and it's been a very, very long time since I've caught a big, big snapper out of shallow water. I say a long time, probably nine months since I caught a big one, so seeing as we're in the best possible place in the world to do that, to catch a big snapper out of shallow water from a kayak, I think that's what we're going to hunt around for today. There's a few little weed lines about seven or eight kilometers down the coast that I've been looking at on Google Earth from satellite imagery and I've never fished them before, but they look like they're going to hold some big fish, so we're going to sort of make the trek down that way, see if we can't connect with something. So I'm not even quite at the spot that I want to fish yet, but this rock here, it's just calling my name. There's just current running off the edge, there's white water. It looks too good to paddle past and not put a lure in front of it. I'm pretty confident there's going to be a big snapper just sitting there waiting, at least a snapper sitting there waiting. Now all of my knowledge about fishing tells me that clear water, clear sky, lots of light, I should probably go for a more natural color, but for whatever reason, I've just got a feeling that the pink might do me today. I'm not sure why, but I've just got a good feeling about the pink lure. Beautiful. Sort of just on the edge of the weed, good looking zone. Oh, there's bait fish getting chased in front of me. That's a good sign. I think there's a school of kawaii sitting there. Yep, on, first cast. It kind of feels big, like it hasn't woken up. Here it is, I'm not sure what it is. I think it's a kawaii actually. Yeah, it is a kawaii. I think it's quite a large school. Oh no, it's a trev. Oh, it's a big trev. Oh, that's sick. What? First cast. Oh, there's a huge school of them. Look at this, there's a massive school of trevally. That's ridiculous. That's out the gate. Well, I think just about any other day, this guy would be going straight in the fish bag. These guys are such good sashimi, but it's the first cast and the first fish of the day. And the tradition is always back to Tangaroa, so there's plenty of them down there. Not really what I was expecting on a massive softbait. Oh, what the, what? Something's grabbed. I didn't realize I was in free fall and something's grabbed it. I didn't realize I was letting line out then. Oh, geez, it's gone, whatever it was. Okay, there's some fish about. There's some fish about. We're in for a session. I'm going to get through the kawaii to the snapper. It's going to be the trick here. What? That didn't even add a second to hit the water and it's on. How many fish are sitting there? That might be a snapper too. What is, it is a snapper. It's on the surface. Just what, what on earth is happening? I'm going to have to paddle out. It's not a small fish either. Look at me straight into the rocks. What the heck is happening? Bro, look how much line it's taking. It's gone right around the rock too. I probably paddled in the wrong direction. I'm going to have to put some heat on this fish. It was no small fish. Its whole back came out the water. Oh, he's in the weeds. Bro, what the heck is happening? I probably, I've totally paddled in the wrong direction. I should have gone that way. I don't know why I went this way, but it might be nice. He might play nice and swim out to deep. He's kind of doing that now. He must have been sitting on the surface when he ate it because his whole back came out the water. It's seriously no small fish. Oh, he's going to go into the weeds again. That is no small fish. Very close to the rocks here, like a lot closer than I want to be. It looks pretty solid. He's very solid. Oh, we got a snapper. That thing is so fat. It's ridiculous. Hooked really well too. Man, if there's ever been a snapper that's given me the runaround, it was this one. He literally, like the lure, well, you would have seen it only just hit the water. He must have just been almost sitting there waiting to come up and smoke it. He's probably a good eight pounder, like he's no small fish. And to open the snapper account with that one. Frothing, frothing. Don't know how well I did filming that, but he's gone. I think the only way to explain that is a little bit out the gate. That was a little bit out the gate. I'm going to get another softbait on and we're going straight in there again. Let's switch it up. Let's try a big paddle tail. Got a little bit further over this way, but that fish came from there. We'll try one over here. I think it's probably going to get smoked immediately. Oh yeah, I looked away for one second. Yep, got him. It's kawaii. If I can keep him on, he's going in the live bait tank because he's a really good live bait. There we go. All right, he's going to sit in that live bait tank for safekeeping for now. And I'm sure there's going to come a point in the day where he's going to go out the back and definitely some areas around here that look like they're going to hold kingfish. I know they hold kingfish because I've seen and caught kingfish here in the past. There he is. Oh, it's a kawaii. Might be too many kawaii in this spot. That was enthusiastic. Jumped over the boat. I'm going to do one more cast here. If I get another kawaii, I might move on. Got one in the live bait tank now. I don't really need another. Interesting spot to hook a big fish in there. I think we might have done it. Dude, I think get to a valley or something because I keep pulling the hook. Oh, did I just set into the rock? Oh, really Matt? Really? Did you lose everything? You lost everything. Got it. Okay, we're throwing another FG and I think we're moving on. Not what I wanted to happen, but oh well. All right, moving on. Let's go to the next headland over. See if there's anything big waiting for me. All right, that is giving big snapper vibes. That's giving jumbo snapper vibes. And it looks like a good cast. It's a good cast in a good zone. I don't know, man. I don't know. Yep. Oh, he's straight in the reef. Oh, he's straight into the reef. Swim out of there, bro. Swim out of there. Yep, he's come out. Oh, no, he hasn't. He's back in there. Don't do that. Really, bro? Oh, did I just pull the hook? No, I haven't pulled the hook. Look, there's bait getting smashed up in there too. Oh, look at all these bait fish. Look at all these bait fish. Is it a kawaii? I reckon I dropped whatever I hooked initially, and now I've hooked a kawaii, because I did not hook a kawaii to start with. He's got a school of them with him. That was that first fish. Oh, he's gone. That first fish, there's no way in hell it was a kawaii. I don't know what the first one was, but it was way bigger than that. I think I could feel it. It kind of swam around a bit of seaweed, and then it must have shaken the hook. And that kawaii has just come in and grabbed the soft bait. Bruv, do you mind? Do you mind? You aggressive little, you aggressive little bugger. Really? Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Okay, well, we can't even have a lure in the water. Get the lure out of the water. All right, buddy. I feel like it's time we get a live bait in the water. I'm just gonna head in through the shoulder. It's a nine barrow gorilla live bait hook. 130 pound leader. I'm just gonna let him swim, you know, 20, 30 meters behind the kayak while we drift along this coastline, because there's a good chance we'll run over a kingfish. And typically the kingfish at this time of year, they're big. They're very big. So if he gets eaten, I'm gonna be in for a bit of a ride. I'll just let him sit there while we keep peppering it for a big snapper. It's coming back on that edge we fished this morning. Good feeling. Well, there is a shark trying to eat my baby kingfish. No, leave it alone, bro. No, go away, go away, go away. No, go away. Bruv, what was with that? What was the point of that, dude? Is the shark gone? I think the shark's gone. Bro, I hope the shark's gone. I don't know. It's just playing around with this baby kingfish. The next thing is the shark trying to eat it. That wasn't ideal. Cute little fish. Well, the conditions are not exactly in my favor right now. Wind is stronger than it was forecast to be and the fishing is just, I don't know, we're going into a bit of a lull. We're not catching much, put it that way. I feel like it's gonna turn on soon, but it's just a bit quiet at the moment. That shark and that baby kingfish are about the only action I've had in the past, I don't know, maybe hour, hour and a half. I'm hoping that my luck will change sooner or later. Dog, what the, bruv, what was up with that? The thing just came and hit my rudder. Oi, go away, you stupid little tope. The heck was up with that? I don't know if you guys saw that, I think I got that on film, but that tope just came and smacked my rudder blade. No rhyme or reason, just decided to give me a headbutt. Hello, hello, he's a good fish. There's a good fish, there's a snapper. We finally found, finally found a snapper. Went up from a, from a quarter ounce to a half ounce, because I've just been stuck with kahawai on the surface, and first cast with the heavier jig head, we've got a snapper. That one, about as good as they come for an eating size, so we're going to give him the old brain and bleed and put him in the hatch. Oh, something's just eaten that live bait. Does it still eat, does it still got it? Yep, something's eaten the bait. This could get interesting. It doesn't feel like it's a kingfish though. I don't know, are we tight? Oh, we're in the weeds, that's what we are. We're deep in the, we're deep in the seaweed. Considering I just saw a shark, I would, would not be surprised if that's what this is. Don't know, he hasn't woken up yet. Whatever it is, hasn't woken up. Oh, it just cut me off. It was a shark. It was a shark, I assume. Oh no, no, we just pulled the bait out of its mouth. I don't know, I'd assume it was a shark, considering that we just saw two. Maybe it wasn't. Might as well deploy another live bait though. I don't think it's going to hurt to have another bait in the water. This is a sketchy zone. I'm not, I'm not comfortable here. I'm pretty on edge to be honest. Yeah, there's a shark back there. It's a freaking shark or something. Oh yeah, there's something chasing him. Something, I don't know, it looked like a bait, a baby Marco or maybe a thresher shark. Something weird's going on here. I saw some sort of shark swimming along back there, but it didn't look like the taupe shark that we just lost. I think I'm going to get head butted by something in a minute. Yep, it's just grabbed it, whatever it is. Yep, that is no longer a live bait. That is a shark of some description. I just want to know what it is, because it didn't really look like any sort of shark I've seen before. Oh, is there a second shark? That was a second shark. What's, there's two sharks. Okay, what the, oh, we just lost him. Just came off. They're fighting over it. Okay, I think it was a thresher shark, but I'm not, I'm actually not a hundred percent. Whatever it was, it wasn't, um, wasn't really what I wanted to be catching on the live bait. I'm at least somewhat convinced there's a big snapper in there. That was the goal, the big snapper. That's a better fish. Oh, that's a really good fish. That's what we came for. That is what we came for. That load up and just run. That is what I came for. Oh, that's a good fish. Yes, we found him. I knew there was going to be a bigger one in there. Kind of going towards the rocks. I don't love that. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is bigger than I thought initially. This is a lot bigger than I initially thought. Holy heck. That was one big, slow. Don't you dare break me off, bro. This is, this is much bigger than what I initially thought it was. Bigger by a significant margin. When it ate, I was like, oh yeah, I reckon 10 pound snapper. But going off that, that is something much bigger. That is something much, much, much bigger. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm in 10 meters and he's on the bottom. Like he's on the bottom. It's got big head shakes, eh? Like, I actually don't know what species this is going to be. It's just big and, oh, I actually got some color there. That almost looks like a snapper. God, if that's a snapper, it's huge. Whatever it is, it's big. Like there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This is a big fish. Is that a snapper? Bro, if that's a, I think it's a snapper. If it's a snapper, it's a freaking tank. Like it's a proper tank. What is it? Oh, it's a, it's a freaking tank of a snapper. Holy smokes, it's a big snapper. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That is a big snapper. That's a freaking huge snapper. Oh my, bro. That, that thing's enormous. Oh my word. Oh my freaking word, that is a big snapper. That is a freaking big snapper. Have I said that enough times? Far out. Yes, boy, that's a freaking donkey. Oh my word, that is. Oh, oh, okay, okay. Let's take this a bit more seriously. This has gone from a bit of a grueling morning to all of a sudden, that's a freaking huge fish. I wonder if I can get him a bit more straightened. Oh my god, it's got to be 25 pounds. It's got to be well over 20. What have we got? What's he sitting at? Oh yeah, just a PB, 85. Mate, when you talk about a heavy snapper, that is what you talk about. That is an 85 centimeter freaking tank of a fish. That is what I came up north for. That's what I got up out of bed this morning to come and catch was an 85 centimeter snapper. That's a PB. That's the personal best, biggest one I've ever caught in my entire life. It's been a grueling morning, but we got it done. That is the fish I came for. Holy smokes, I want to send him home. Look, he's an old fish too. He's got no front teeth. His front teeth were worn down from eating crustaceans and stuff. Let's see if we can get that hook out. That is a Berkeley Nitro. I think it's a five bar or half ounce jig head. And it is so locked in his jaw, it's not funny. Here we go. That's the plastic that did it. It's like a, I think it's a seven inch grub and like a new penny color. But that right there, that right there is a big snapper, a very big snapper. All right, mate. With these big fish, man, I absolutely love, I love to send them home. That is an absurdly large snapper. But with these big fish, these are the breeding fish. They're the ones that, you know, this fish produces as many eggs as probably 30 smaller fish. So he's the one that's going to look after the stocks. He keeps everything healthy. He's the one that I want to send home. He's gone. Powered off strong. Victory, baby. That is, that is the fish I came for. That is the fish that gets me out of bed in the morning. That frothing, I'm hyped. I'm absolutely amped up. That's such a cool fish. It's been a grueling morning, been like quite a slow morning. It's now, it's one o'clock. So like that fish hasn't come easy. I've been casting and battling with wind all day. It just goes to show you, man, if you put the work in and you just trust in the process. I'll be honest, I was losing a bit of faith there, but you just trust in the process. Eventually, the stars will align and you get rewarded. That was a very cool fish. I'm going to run straight back in on that line and fire some more softbaits right in that spot. See if we can't pluck out another big one. I'm frothing. Yes. 85, got an 85. All right. I wonder, oh, that was a fish. Yeah, there's a fish in there. What the, there is a fish in there. It's not a bad one either. Come on, come on. Out you come. Gotta love a sea cave. Can't say I was expecting to get a bite in there. God, it's funny how often you throw a lure into an absurd place and it gets pappered. I mean, it might only be a baby compared to the one we just caught, but he's almost just as cool because we caught him in a cave. I've done that a few times now in my fishing career. Just flicked the softbait straight at a cave and pulled out a nice snapper. He's gone. I wonder, there might be another fish around here, eh? Sort of a, it's a fishy looking area, but it's also a bit sort of not the place that you'd sort of initially start fishing. I'm not sure why I've got this softbait on. It's probably not the right color for these conditions, but it was the first one that came out of the tarp. Oh, they're obviously hitting it. Jeez. Oh, that's a better fish. That's not a, that's not a small fish. He's just run down the ledge. I didn't have much faith in this color, but now all of a sudden I do. Oh, don't, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't go in there. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, he's going to ping me. He's going to ping me. Ah, he's in the reef. Don't go on the reef. Ah, it pinged me. Ah, no, that was a good fish. What the heck just, that is, look how shallow it is. That is an absurd place to hook a big fish. I was expecting another little one, not a big one. That tells me it's time for another softbait. Might as well go the same, uh, neon orange. It's like the last color I would ever pick. I just chucked it on because it was the first one that came out the tub and it's getting smoked. Oh, that's a fish. Far out. That's a fish. I thought that was the bottom. Whoa, that's a big fish. Jesus louisus. Bro, it's one of those hookups where you're like, damn it, I've snagged the bottom and I've just set the hook really hard into the bottom and then the bottom suddenly turns into a screaming run. Just loosen that drag off. What are we in? We're in seven meters. Oh, that's got big, big snapper head nods, eh? Oh, don't go in that way. Don't you dare go in that way. There's reef in that way. Oh no, he's in the reef. He's in the reef. Don't go in there. Free spool him. Let him out. Come on, come out of the reef. Oh, he's going to ping me. He's going to ping me. Oh, I think I might have got him. Yeah, he's out. He's out. Oh, he's going back though. He's going back. Don't. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I got him out, but now he's trying to go back. Come on. It's a big fish. It's a big snapper. It's not as big as the first one, but he probably gave me more of a run around. Well, we got another one. He fought. He honestly fought like he was going to be a lot bigger. I think it was just the way that he took the bait sort of caught me by surprise. But man, they're in good condition. They're just fat winter snapper smacking the soft baits. I mean, I can't complain. It's a good fish. Oh, he's ready. Oy, there's a big shark there. Why is there a big shark there? He's ready to go, but he's probably going to get attacked by a shark. I'm going to make this quick, bro, because there's a rock there. We're about to end up on the rocks. Oh, that's really shallow. I don't know what sort of shark that was. Kind of looked like a bronze whaler or a bigger taupe shark, but it wasn't really what I wanted to see when I looked over. Come on, right back where we got the last one. That's a fish. That's a big fish. Bro, that was the bottom. I swear to God, that was the bottom. That did not feel like a fish when it grabbed it. Oh, dude, you're going to smoke me. You're going to smoke. Oh, he's in the reef. Ah, he's in the reef. He's in the weeds. Swim out, swim out. Please swim out. Swim out. Come on, swim out. Ah, damn it. That was a big fish. Again, just did that thing where grabbed it like he was the bottom and then just smoked drag right into the reef. Well, I have run completely out of jigheads. I brought out like 15 or 20, which I thought that'll be heaps. There's no way I'll go through 15 or 20 jigheads, but we've gone through every single last one of them. Just getting busted off and in the reef and snagged and seaweed. It's been a day and a half. I think it's Tangaroa sort of telling me that it's time to go and have some lunch. Call it a day well spent and cook up the one snapper that we've got in the hatch. Stoked to get an 85. That's a personal best and stoked to be out here. I mean, such a beautiful little spot. Very caught up in it. But it's three o'clock in the arvo, so we definitely worked for it today. Definitely hungry. Home sweet home. I'm keen on some dry clothes. Dry clothes. There is nothing better after a long day on the kayak. Actually, I take that back. There probably is something better and that is a hot meal. Definitely sort of getting to that point in the day where I'm getting hungry. So I guess we're gonna rip some fillets off the snapper and cook something for lunch. Job done. I think we will just save one of these fillets for a later date and just do one for lunch today. Pretty upper class when you're vacuum sealing your fish while living in a van. All right, so what do I need? I'm thinking some noodles. Here we go. A bit of ginger, shallot, a bit of garlic as well. Can't hurt. So I'm somewhat cheating today but I'm making a miso ramen snapper. Something I've kind of been craving coming into winter and I feel like something warming is going to be quite good. So I'm not normally the type to go too fancy when it comes to fresh fish. But today I feel like sort of something a little bit nicer. It's sort of not a bad idea. So a bit of ginger. I'm kind of going to slice up this fish and then almost marinate it or cut it as if I was going to eat it raw. And then basically rely on the heat of the broth to cook the fish. Ginger, garlic and I think it's only fair we go a little bit of chili oil. Just a little bit. Actually don't have much left. Anyway, a wee bit of sugar or a little bit of honey would actually go really well on this. But I do not have any on hand. All righty. Probably annoying someone right now. Probably feels absolutely sacrilege. But to me it looks delicious. Just a little bit more chili oil as well. Chili crisp or a lot more. Probably do really well with a little bit of green stuff on it. But to me that looks pretty good. Anyway, rather than just looking at it, I might as well enjoy it. Get a bit of a bite. Where should we sit? I suppose we just sit here. Seeing as we built a whole van, we might as well sit in it. Jeez, I tell you what, with the lighting like that and a backdrop like that, actually looks like some of my finer work on this channel. You guys know that I'm not much of a cook. But I do absolutely love ramen. So, man, it's actually really good. That is delicious. It sort of changes the texture from raw fish to sort of in between raw and cooked. But it's kind of unique. But it's really good. Well, I don't think there's many other places I'd rather be right now. I've currently got the entire campground to myself. I'm completely isolated. I'm enjoying the peace and quiet, the serenity, so to speak. And enjoying this meal. But all things go in a plan. I think that tomorrow, we might end up in a pretty cool little spot doing something that I've been wanting to do for a while. Chasing a little bit of redemption. We've got some unfinished business at a little section of offshore reef that I fished here over summer. So I'm not too sure what the weather's doing at this point. I need to go and walk down the beach, find some reception and check forecasts. But as for right now, I'm going to enjoy this food. And I hope that you guys are out there living your best life, doing whatever it is that makes you happy, not caring too, too much about what other people have to say. Thank you so, so much for tuning into the episodes. As long as you guys keep watching, you're going to keep coming. Till next time, tight lines.