Fishing Reports

 

Sitting at home today watching 2 metres of slop roll around the Gulf in between the rain squalls hasn’t really got me fired up and into heading out for a “play”. The forecast is improving for this weekend and I would imagine there will be plenty of fishing action with all the tucker that has been ripped from the reefs or uncovered by the swell on the beaches and in the normally swell less bays. It is a real shame the Forum Users contest will not go ahead this weekend due to lack of numbers. It would have been a great weekend getting to know fellow members and anglers. We will be there when it happens – no doubt about that. Since our last report the fishing has continued to be pretty good apart from one or two days which I am bound by our “NO LIES” policy to tell you about. The worst of the 2 days in question was not a good day for the whole country with the Black Boat having a few technical problems in her first race on Feb 15th. We had Grants’ group from a popular European car distributor on board for the day and after recent successes in about 50 metres of water I decided to head back out in what was at the time pretty reasonable conditions. To make a long story even longer, the weather packed in with 30 knots or more of cold Southwest and a call made to head back in behind Tiri with our 1 Snapper on board. The rest of the day was spent throwing back to hundreds of small fish we caught and trying to find places to fish that were not going to turn stomachs inside out. The outcome was not great and I have to again thank the guys for their patience. If there were anymore I could have done, I would have done it. 3 Snapper and a Trevally for the day. Bugger! The other day that springs to mind was in similar conditions. Windy with a bit of sea running and our options cut to shreds, saw us hunt around all day with a very poor result until the last hour when we bowled over about 20 Snapper right on home time. Phew! That saved our bacon! Some not bad fish too. Right then – where have they been feeding. A lot of our fish over the past few weeks have had shell and small crabs, shrimp and crayfish in their stomachs so naturally it is habitats that hold this type of Snapper tucker that we have been fishing. Shell banks and reef structures basically have been our target areas and apart from the 2 poor days the rest have been good. There have been a few days of limit bags from the Tiri Passage and the foul around its edges. It seems that a lot of the bigger fish have moved on from this area but we will still pick up a few good Snapper during a day in the Channel. The deeper foul behind Tiri is still holding fish but I am finding the smaller ones are in residence here than in other areas and it may take a few moves to get onto the better ones. You will of course need reasonable conditions to successfully fish this area as most of the best bits of foul are exposed to most wind directions and it can be pretty sloppy with the wind against the tide. The Kingfish should be around the reefs out here too and a spot to try live baiting would be the Black Buoy and Shearers Rock. To the North a little way is Shag Rock and I am sure that would be worth the effort also. People often ask if they can all catch a Kingi at the start of the trip, while they are standing on deck with 10 mates. As you could imagine, it takes time and a plan when targeting Kingfish. Quite often when one is hooked up, it is lost when it decides to wrap up every line on the boat and start swimming around in circles before finally engineering its freedom, taking with it a range of fishing tackle to drag around. If you want to target Kingfish then you will have to book the boat for a day and have a small group so we can manage the baits successfully. Give us a call. So far as the better Snapper go, we have been finding these in the deeper water close to or in good strong current. Some of the secret and not so secret structure in the Gulf has been fishing really well both for Snapper and Kingfish. You will first have to get to one of these areas and then once there, the hunting begins. Search the area with the sounder until you find fish holding and either drift or anchor. We have not been using any berely as we have found out here it brings in all the smaller more courageous fish and the bigger specimens don’t get a look in. The bigger fish are among the schools and we are finding that a cube bait on a ledger rig or a FLAT ROCK SPECIAL is best. The theory behind this is to get the fish to react to the bait by snatching what is only a bite size piece. The fish will snatch at the bait while the smaller ones will only pick at it. The bigger baits are catching fish too but not in numbers perhaps because they are getting marauded by 10 small fish rather than the big ones we are after. It is a party boat practice used for larger groups and different techniques are used when we have smaller groups on. There has been some really good by-catch caught out here in the deeper areas too. John Dory, Gurnard (one just under 500mm and a heap of smaller ones) and a few sharks. Some we have landed and released, some have gone home with the anglers and some, well, we just got monstered! There has been a few big Thresher sharks around, both in close and out in a few of the deeper spots. It is an awesome sight to see their huge tail wildly whipping a live bait to death and then feeling their awesome power as they power up and head away, often jumping on the trace and busting off. We have also tangled with a few fish we have not seen, some unmistakably Kingfish and others were big Rays or Sharks too. Californian Squid (Lolago) and NZ Pilchards have been our preferred baits this month but we have also noticed that the Snapper seem to be a bit more interested in other baits now too. Fresh is best and with so much bait fish around locally there is no shortage of Yellowtail, Piper and if your into netting your own bait, Mullet and small Kahawai. Cubes for in the deep and if we have a small group on, strip baits straylined down the current should see you right. The housekeeping must be kept up so here goes. The Tiri Marine Reserve submission closure date has been moved to March 31 2003 so if you haven’t made your submission yet you still have time to do it. Check out the Option 4 website. Daylight Saving finishes on March 16 and so do our evening trips, So if you want to book for one of these you had better be quick. We have mostly midweek spaces left. We have contracted another boat into the fleet and we will be offering some really good day trips and possibly some overnighters too. It is a big powercat with a huge cockpit and a ton of speed to get us out to such places as The Barrier, Horn Rock, Channel Island and one place I haven’t fished for ages - Cuvier Island. We are still working on the prices and the like but will have a list of dates and number of places available soon. These will be big days out with an early start and home on dark sort of deal. It is our aim to have these trips available for less than $100 pp bait supplied. Contact us if you are interested and watch this space. Email us at deepsea@clear.net.nz or call me on 09 4240607. On the boat, 025 2446346. Let us know if you’re interested in seeing some A Cup action too, as we space on one boat for selected days. Tight Lines
Damian – THE CHARTER CONNECTION

 

From A Charter Connection...

Report type: Saltwater

Report date: 28 February 03