“Holy hell”, was what came to mind when Barry Bruning realised that what he thought was a stingray he had been fighting at Tāhuna’s back beach was actually a huge snapper.
Barry, a keen fisherman for much of his 80+ years, is a regular at the back beach, he likes to get down there once a month.
His wife Kathy says, she can’t keep him away from the water and a rod.
On Tuesday, 30 September, Barry headed down to Tāhunanui for a spot of fishing in the channel off the back beach.
It was two hours before low tide, on the outgoing when, feet in the sand, he hooked what he thought was a sting ray.
“It just took it and ran nicely, and I thought ‘ok, it’s a stingray’, so I just kept tightening the drag a wee bit, and it slowed down,” Barry recalls of the start of the fight.
“Then I could feel it start to nod, and thought ‘oh no, that’s not a sting ray, it’s got to be a rig’”
When it came into the shallows, he caught sight of a fin and then thought it must be a dog shark.
“Then I saw the colour and, holy hell, it was a snapper.”
He reckons it took him 10-15 minutes to reel in the 70cm beaut.
“But time disappears when you’re doing that, it might’ve been half an hour, it might have been five minutes.”
Barry took his catch and headed straight round to his son Cliff’s place to show off the goods.
“I opened the boot of the car and he goes ‘holy s**t’.”
Barry and Cliff filleted one side, which gave Cliff about four feeds. Barry took the rest home for dinner.
Barry has spent a lot of time fishing in the Marlborough Sounds, but says this snapper is the biggest he’s ever caught.
Last week, Barry headed to Rabbit Island to fish the high tides that the full moon brought.
While he didn’t bag a snapper, he was unfortunate to catch a spike in his finger from a spiny dogfish, but kept on fishing.
“I thought I should be right, but when my finger started turning blue I rang Kathy and said you better call the doctor but I haven’t quite caught my fish, and then I said, ‘hold on, don’t call them right yet, give me a minute’, and I reeled in a nice rig.”
