b'Feature flutter near the kelp. And you cant ignore the marauding barracouta, these opportunistic, vampiric looking fish are eager to smash a stray softbait or surface popper.Fishing here often feels like stepping back a century or two, with nonstop sport, sight fishing and rock-hopping in a place that still demands permission in spots and rewards you for the effort. Battling the scaley locals on light gear is addictive. The Chathams really are an exciting frontier for sport angling.That week contained only snippets of a larger adventure with pig hunting, bird watching and staring at the stars over the Southern Ocean. I havent even talked up the untapped kingfish fishery that some well-known fishos call the best untapped yellowtail fishery in the Southern Pacific, or the yarns from cray boat crews seeing hapuka thrashing on the surface alongside kahawai and kingies during workups.Theres always more marine folklore to savour on a wild ocean frontier and excuses for many a return. If you love hunting and fishing and think everything has been discovered, a trip to the Chatham Islands will prove you wrong. It really is Godzones last frontier and probably even the Crayfish is always on the menu at theSouth Pacifics and you should go Chathams and at Kp Bush Retreat. while the going is still this good.BUTTERFISH ON SOFTBAITS Kp Bush Retreat is a new, purpose built, The archipelago offers morefully off-grid home set on 1200 acres of adrenaline beyond shark duels withfarmland and native bush that overlooks rock hopping, exploring rugged,the main township of Waitangi.desolate shores and kelp forests that look like New Zealands coastline 500 years ago. Sharp rocks give way to dense bull kelp thick with lifesouthern striped wrasse, blue cod, kahawai and blue moki. I stalk cod and wrasse on saltwater fly and softbaits, enjoying the explosive action of fish up to eight pounds on light tackle. CHATHAM ISLANDS INFO: Kopi Bush Retreat, a luxury accommodation A quirky bycatch is the vegetarianon the Chatham Islands, New Zealand: www.kopiretreat.co.nzbutterfish, which will take an olivewww.airchathams.co.nzgrub coloured softbait if you let it 24FISHING IN GODZONE MAGAZINE'