Green Tide DVD
John Eichelscheim enjoys a taste of Kiwi swoffing.
Green Tide is New Zealand’s first salt-water fly fishing production. A high-quality 80-minute DVD from the Intrepid Angler team, it follows the fortunes of saltwater fly enthusiasts as they fish the remote, swell-washed rocks of New Zealand’s Far North, Northland’s estuarine rock ledges and wharves, wide surf beaches south of Whangarei, and Auckland’s mighty Manukau Harbour.
New Zealand is the spiritual home of the snapper. A favourite sport and table fish, they are plentiful and regularly exceed 10 kg in weight, but few people realise they can be taken on flies. Salt-fly pioneer and regular FlyLife contributor Craig Worthington has specialised in stalking big snapper off the rocks near his Northland home, and he demonstrates this in Green Tide.
While kahawai and snapper are the most common catches for the Kiwi swoffer, kingfish are the prize. Kingfish grow large in New Zealand—50 kg plus—but a kingfish of any size is a challenge on fly gear. In Green Tide, Worthington manages a school kingfish from a Northland wharf, but it’s the entertaining team of Peter Brown and John Fraser who boat more serious models from the Manukau Harbour near Auckland.
Fishing from an American flats skiff, they target the big kingfish that frequent the marker buoys in summer, landing fish in excess of 10 kg. The footage of large kingfish, some at least 20 kg, milling around is spectacular. To get the shots, cameraman and producer Kent Fraser climbed to the tops of the marker buoys, from where he was also able to film the fish and direct the anglers’ casts. When a group of big kingfish pursue and finally explode on the fly, it is easy to see why they’re such a challenge. And hooking them is just the beginning!
Green Tide offers plenty of exciting fly fishing, some great film work, including Intrepid Angler’s trademark underwater footage, along with enough useful advice and tackle information to get prospective swoffers started. It’s not ‘how-to’ as such; rather it is a highly entertaining Kiwi salt-fly taster, showcasing just some of the great saltwater fly fishing available to anglers in New Zealand.
Green Tide is available from selected fishing tackle retailers, book sellers and from intrepidangler.com. Price $39.95. Copies can be ordered from the FlyLife Shop.