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He may be the epitome of a man’s man but get Bill Hohepa talking about how he met his wife Linda and the big man turns to mush. Despite years of media exposure as someone who can talk endlessly about fishing, four wheel drives and just about anything else, he admits that far from impressing his future wife with a stream of witty small talk, he fumbled for words and felt like an idiot. Then, when he reveals that making wedding videos is really what he enjoys most, Local Matters editor Jannette Thompson realises there’s another side to Snells Beach-based fishing guru Bill Hohepa …
Where did you learn to fish?
I was driving trucks for Prescotts, out of Tairua, when I was about 18 and boarding with a cray fisherman. Whenever I wasn’t out driving, I was on the boat helping him pull in the cray pots and learning to fish.
Did you fish as a child?
I was raised in Avondale by a step-father who was regularly drunk and abusive. If I didn’t get the shit beaten out of me at least once a week, I wondered what was wrong. I really enjoyed the times my uncle would take me netting on the Manukau. We’d catch piper, flounder and mullet, and it was one of the few escapes from the misery that was my life at that time. I would’ve loved to have finished my education but my mother hauled me out of school saying she couldn’t afford to keep me there anymore. It broke my heart – I wasn’t even 15.
Did you have much contact with your Maori heritage?
My father was Maori but we only met by accident in a pub when I was about 40. I had a very pakeha upbringing without any connection to Maoridom or its traditions. It’s only in later life that I’ve learned about these things, through people such as Ben Tawhiti. My iwi is Ngati Amaru, based on Port Waikato. I guess it was an upbringing of hard knocks. Funnily enough, my two aspirations at school were to be a fisherman or a filmmaker. As it turns out, I’ve ended by doing both.
What was your first job?
I started work for the Whakatane Board Mills as a timberworker. I was young but that didn’t earn me any special treatment. I remember having a brand new watch that I was particularly proud of. I’d taken it off to have a shower and it was gone when I got out. Later I saw it on the arm of this really big guy so I mentioned to him that he’d found my watch. “It’s not your watch,” he said, and that was the end of it! Years later, when I was working for the prison service, I ran across that guy again. He got quite a shock when I reminded him of our last meeting. I also had a number of driving jobs including three months with Ridgeways Circus which also involved looking after Leo the lion. We were winding our way through the East Cape once, when a car flagged us down to tell us we’d lost one of the trailers. “Shit, the lion” was the first thing that went through our minds. We went back and peered down a 600-foot ravine to see our bunk house, with all our gear onboard, smashed to pieces at the bottom. The lion was fine, thank goodness. I drove the Queen Street shuttle for awhile which was a great way to pick up girls. The conductor and I got invited to lots of parties and had a marvellous nine months. It’s how I met my first wife Robyn.
Were you with the prison service for long?
By 22, I was married with a baby on the way so it was time to get serious about making a living. It was 1968 and Paremoremo maximum security prison was about to open. They were offering cheap rent and we could see we could get a start. I was there for 14 years and only resigned when it looked like I might get stuck with a desk job. The job taught me patience in dealing with situations and people, and enabled me to carry on with my education which I really appreciated.
How did the column start?
A friend of mine, John Wilson, worked for the 8 O’Clock newspaper and was asked to write a fishing column. I didn’t know much about fishing but he thought I could write about what I was learning and embellish it a little. That was 1968 so I’ve been writing a weekly column for nearly 40 years now. When the 8 O’Clock folded, I moved to Truth. The column was the start of it all. Since then there’s been 37 videos, four books, hundreds of seminars and countless television shows. My Maori fishing calendar is used throughout NZ and a lot of my early ideas about fishing, things like the keeper hook and Billy Ho ‘line clippers’, have become mainstream in recreational fishing.
What was the genesis of Camp Hohepa?
The camps started in 1979 with a bunch of kids from Otara – some of them had never seen the sea before. The idea was to give them an adventure and an opportunity to spend some time with their Dads. It’s about giving boys time in the company of men, teaching them how to have an adventure and how to fish, and building their self-esteem. We fundraise to keep our gear up-to-date and cover the costs for any family that can’t afford the camp. The kids come from all different backgrounds but they all have a desire to learn to fish.
What keeps you motivated?
I’m passionate about what I do. I enjoy fishing and I enjoy being right. If I say the fish are here and they’re going to bite in 10 minutes, then I just love it when it happens. My aspiration is to make a film one day. I’ve already written the story, based on a kid who was once at Camp Hohepa. I’m also looking at doing a DVD of traditional Maori fishing methods. We’ll go right back to the beginning and try and use the tools and materials the Maori would have had at their disposal.
Do you get involved in the politics of fishing?
Not really, but I will say that the quota system is working. I’m probably out in the Hauraki Gulf as much as anyone and fish stocks out there have definitely recovered since the 1980s. What does annoy me is the high grading. I’ve come across acres of belly-up snapper that have been dumped. I know it’s hard to catch these guys but I’m sure with the sort of satellite technology we’ve got today, we should be able to do something to track them.
And what about these wedding videos?
We don’t do them very often but when we do I really enjoy them. We use all the tricks of the trade to set the mood – just the right music, a close-up of Grandma with a tear in her eye, soft lighting and just the right shots to create a really romantic video. Yeah … I am a bit of a romantic.
Note: The fish in the photo with Bill was caught in 4m of water close in to Kawau Island.
