HOW’S THE FISHING BEEN?
Chatting with fishos around Northland, most Xmas fishing stories have a very familiar ring to them. The fishing right up to Boxing Day was hot, but since then it’s really gone off the boil. A number of factors have contributed to this falling off: the stage of moon and tide have become less favourable, the density of water traffic has driven most fish into seclusion and sea conditions on the east coast haven’t been exactly favourable. Prevailing easterly conditions have confined most east coast fishos to sheltered reaches, which coincidentally carries all the recreational and charter traffic. Apart from early morning or late afternoon and evening, the fishing has been pretty hard. Those with the stomach who have been able to persevere in the open have generally been well rewarded, although snapper fishing has usually been a matter of accumulation. Scallops remain the best news story for those so inclined. In the Bay of Islands, some great catches of trophy snapper have been reported from the Whale Rock-Red Head region, where I counted 55 boats the day after Boxing Day. Further north, the Cavallii Islands; normally tough fishing at this time of the year, have produced a few mega red surprises. The annual Wainui Bay fishing contest produced several prize-winning snapper in excess of 10kg. Reputedly they came from the Cavalliis. Similarly, the Matauri Bay Holiday Park contest produced some nice snapper from the same region, even though most reported the fishing to be very hard. Further north still, Berghan’s Point, the Fairway Reef and the outer islands of Cape Karikari have been producing some mega reds while the traditional snapper schooling grounds off Tokerau Beach have been disappointing. Probably the most consistent snapper and kingfish fishing has been Rangaunu Bay, with pan size school snapper being consistently taken in both the Awanui and Parengarenga Harbours. West coast fishing has been blessed by benign sea-conditions with bar crossings often possible even in kayaks. The many hours spent on the water have barely made up for the fact that west coast snapper fishing is always hard in summer with a plethora of sharks keeping the tackle companies in business. As the pressure of holiday boat traffic declines, expect the east coast in-shore fishing to improve with the schooling snapper likely to remain in shallow until well into February. However, the game fishing fraternity will have to wait for the water to warm up several degrees before the marlin fishing really starts to fire. A couple of early marlin have been taken, and the prevailing nor-easterly will bring the favoured warm blue waters ever closer. Shark fishing is the best game-fishing prospect at the moment with water temperatures also well suited to albacore. If my memory serves me well, last El Nino saw the some of best marlin fishing out west with memorable catches as far south as Taranaki. Tight lines!

 

From Steven Radich

Report type: Saltwater

Report date: 18 January 03

Competition

Win a pair of Blue_eye's

Enter Here