Fishing Reports

 

The awesome weather over the last week has seen anglers getting great results, both locally and further afield. The warmer water is helping the game fishing get off the ground, somewhat late but never the less it is starting to happen. A story from a colleague yesterday of a Marlin behind the Barrier basically playing cat and mouse with live baits and following lures for hundreds of metres but not striking, is enough to get the blood boiling again. The Fitzroy Contest over there only produced one Marlin but the conditions were less than perfect for a lot of boats and the Snapper fishing wasn’t too flash either. Well done Wayne Brown (Browny) in taking that section of the contest out with a 5kg fish. Locally the fishing is going well with heaps of fish around the channels and deeper foul. The size has dropped a little but the numbers are still there. A few of the other species have been showing their colours too. Pretty annoying when a good Kingi turns up behind the boat after swimming around the livies for ten minutes, only to wander off uninterested, despite all attempts to coax him aboard. The area of open ground between Tiri and Kawau has worked well for me on a patch of broken ground up there. It is a very low lying patch, about the size of 2-3 cars (for lack of a better comparison) and seems to fish best in slower tidal runs with a little bit of swell. I guess the swell shifts a bit of the tucker around making it easy for the fish to “graze” the reef. Ledger rigs and Flat Rock Specials have been doing the damage as has the running rigs we used with a smaller group the other day. Nothing of any real size has come off this spot just nice table fish to around 5lb or so. The Tiri Channel is still fishing well and I spent all day yesterday in the one spot! Most unusual for this time of year as we normally would have had to have moved a few times during the day, due to idiots anchoring in behind us or the fish going off the bite. Not yesterday though despite MATANGI being a magnet for the ignorant. All yesterdays’ fish were in good condition and our biggest was only around 5-6lb with a few Trevally thrown in for good measure. Some of the foul behind Tiri is also fishing well but I am finding it all to be holding a lot of small Snapper and that we throw back 3 to keep one. The Kingfish have not really featured out here as they have in previous seasons but it is early days yet and the water will get warmer as time goes by. Shearers Rock and the foul around The Black Buoy is holding fish but again the smaller reef species seem to take over after a while. To be honest I haven’t had the clientele that have had the patience to stick it out with a solid berley trail for a whole tide run. I feel this would produce a good fish but not 50 of them. There are small patches of broken ground out behind the Island in about 35m and these are also fishing well but again no big ones yet. These areas fish best when there is a fair bit of current and the selection of the right rig for the conditions is half of the recipe for success. I have watched anglers, whose ears are painted on, struggle all day with a rig not suited to the conditions, despite my constant advice and not do at all well while others have secured a bag limit or a decent fish or two. Don’t hunt elephants with a pea shooter. The area of ground between Whangaparaoa and Rangi is still holding a bit of fish but a good look around is the only way to find them. This area is a large one with a fair amount of tide pushing through it and the fish can be wide spread. Once you find a patch it is best to berley on or near the bottom to keep the fish interested. Make the most of this area before the A Cup starts on February 15th. The wreck out off Rakino is another spot to try, especially midweek when there isn’t 20 boats anchored on it. The channels down around Waiheke, Motuhie and Rangitoto are starting to fish a little better now, so they tell me, but you will seldom find us in that neck of the woods as the traffic drives me nuts but I’m sure others will report on the fishing in these areas. Try checking out the reports section in the Discussion Boards on this site. Flat Rock is about to get a good going over by us this week. Reports, rumors or lies, whatever you want to call them, have been flying around over the past few days, about big fish and lots of them. I’ll let you know how we get on. It is around this time of year it starts to fish well up this way and when it does the fishing is great. Not huge numbers of fish but certainly good size fish can come from this huge area of foul. The reef systems of Flat Rock have all the ingredients of good “moocher” country. Deep guts, shallow foul near strong current, food for all species and exposed enough not to get fished every day. It is surrounded by foul on all sides and can be an exciting place to fish. The spearos’ are saying there has been some good size Kingis sighted recently too. Hmmmmmmmm We are looking forward to the Fishing.net Forum Users Contest on March 1st this year. It will hosted at Pah Farm on Kawau Island and is sure to be a raging success. See the posts in the Discussion Board on this site for more info and to arrange accommodation for the night. At this stage I have no space available for this contest but will let you know if that changes. A proposal for a marine reserve in the Tiri area has been lodged by New Zealand Underwater. NZU would like to see a huge chunk of water, used annually by about a million people, taken up with marine reserve. This proposal is both selfish and under researched. There has been little public consultation and they have tried to sneak it in around a busy Christmas/ New year season, when a lot of the locals and others are away on holidays out of the area. There is already an Action Committee formed to try to ensure that we all get a say and that proper research can be undertaken. Local Iwi have also asked NZU to delay their proposal for a while for the parties involved to research the proposals further but this has been ignored. You can have your say by contacting NZU via their website or by signing an objection form at your local tackle shop or bait supplier. Objection forms will be available soon if they are not already. If you can’t find one, give me a call and I’ll get a few off to you or your group. We have trips going most days at the moment and have spaces available for casual anglers and groups. You can contact us at deepsea@clear.net.nz or on 09 4240607. The boat number is 025 2446346. To those that have tried to anchor in my cockpit this week- I refuse to have a battle of wits with the unarmed. WE FISH ON!

 

From A Charter Connection...

Report type: Saltwater

Report date: 03 February 03