Fishing Reports

 

Yellowfin Tuna Update Things are happening quickly with most of it very positive. Species like snapper (all along the coast from Whakatane toTe Kaha) kingfish (White Island and the Volkner Rocks) and terakihi continue their winning ways. The big news at this time of year is the species we’ve been waiting for all winter and spring – yellowfin. While they are far from thick and fast at present, they are becoming more prevalent in a wider portion of the eastern Bay and they are huge. We haven’t seen such big fish for at least ten years, probably more. While all landed were over 50 kilos last week, this week it’s jumped another notch to 60 kilos and seemingly climbing. How much higher this size will grow is anyone’s guess. Possibly more significant than size is movement westwards. For some days if you weren’t east of Waikawa Point you weren’t fishing for tuna. Now, over the past five days (as at Jan 8) these jumbos have shown a penchant to inhabit all the water right up to Whale Island – certainly much to the liking of Whakatane anglers. There have been some real sluggers boated. Three at 69kgs highlighted the top end of the size range until today when a 73.6 kilo specimen was weighed at the Whakatane weighstation. This fish was landed onboard “Oscar” by owner Alan Wardlaw. This would appear to be the largest yellowfin to be weighed in for Whakatane on over 10 years and the largest for NZ in at least five. The Whakatane Sportfishing Clubs Junior Tournament tested a number of youngsters with several landing fish of a lifetime – for an adult that is! Where do we go from here? Hopefully more consistency and numbers, the size is fine. Could we see an 80k fish soon? The chances would seem good judging from what we’ve seen over the past week. Hang onto your hats – here we go!

 

From Pursuit

Report type: Saltwater

Report date: 09 January 03