Fishing Reports

 

Although the season should be drawing to a close, there are still plenty of marlin off the Northland Coast. Water temperatures are holding up around 20C.The 40 boats fishing in the Russell Fire Brigade Tournament at the weekend managed nearly 20 marlin between Cape Brett and the Cavallis, including a 228kg Blue on Major Tom II. A few yellowfin were also taken, but skippies and albacore were not as evident as normal at this time of year. North Cape is still giving consistent results, but the fish seem to have moved closer to the 100M line off the Surville Cliffs. Most boats will be moored up at the moment, waiting for the very strong easterlies to ease. Kingfish are still giving some great action, with our own charters catching fish up to 18kg, fishing deep on 71M Reef out from Cape Brett, and most other boats also reporting good fishing at Rocky Point, Taheke Reef, and off the western end of Stephensons Island. Snapper seem to be mooching around the sheltered water from Deep Water Cove to Oke Bay, with some good fish also falling to small live baits while kingfishing. Hapuka fishing continues to be plagued by school sharks and spiky dogs, with barracoutta also causing a problem, having moved out to the cooler water out deep. Guess we'd rather have them out there than bothering us with kingfishing. As always, drop us an email to MAJOR.TOM@xtra.co.nz if you have any queries, and I'll answer as we come back to home port.

 

From Major Tom II

Report type: Saltwater

Report date: 15 April 03