Fishing Reports

After what seemed like an eternity, the normal run of big spring jacks(male Snapper) moved into the usual areas for a good ole feed up and look around the spawning grounds. We have had fish up to 21lb so far this season and earlier on it was not unusual to get a run of 5-7 kg fish during a session.

We have also caught our first Kingfish of the season and at 50lb put up a bit of a scrap for the angler using a Black Magic Snapper Snatcher.

This awesome fishing continued for a few weeks, hence the delay in posting another report. We have been flat out! The last week or so has seen a slowing down of the big runs of fish but a better moon phase will soon see that turn around I would suggest.

Best baits have been the fresh baits and by that I mean  Jack Mackeral, small Trevally, Kahawai and Maomao. Either filleted or cut into strips, used whole or even cubed for the flasher rigs is the go and often you will find the bigger fish of a trip will have been caught on these sorts of baits.

That doesn't mean leave the Pillies at home though as when things get a little quiet there is nothing like a half or whole Pillie to get a bit of attention. They are also very good cubed on the flashers too.

So where has it been happening? They are where you find them at the moment and by that I mean you have to check out the foul ground and out over the mud, sand and worm beds to locate a school. The next trick is to get them to feed. There is stacks of fish out there at the moment but they are not always going to feed . It may be the stage of the tide, moon, weather, time of day or whatever other excuse you can come up with but if they wont feed then they just wont feed! Secret - berley them into it!

Get a good quality berley going back towards the fish or structure you are going to fish and sit it out for a wee while. I normally give it a good hour or more to let the berley flow back into the reef or area where the expensive electronics told me there was fish. If after that time there is not much happening it could be time to move on to a fresh patch and do it again.

It is not unusual for us to burn out 4-6 berleys in a day. I also like to get the fishs' mouths working with a few chunks or cubes of bait getting thrown around the place every now and then. Cubes of Pilchards is normally pretty good as is small bits of any frames from filleted Jack Mackeral etc.

Spend a bit of time when you not fishing to make sure you gear is up to handling the odd big fish too as we have seen a few goood Snapper and possibly another goood Kingfish lost this week due to knot failure or gear failure. Really gets you down when you have put in all the effort to get a good fish on, only to lose it at the last link in the big fish hunting picture.

We have dates available especially evenings and mid week for trips on MATANGI and TEREHU so give us a call and lets go get a rod bent. If you wish to entertain staff or freinds on the water this Xmas we can cater for small groups all the way through to groups of up to thirty on THOMCAT. We can even organise a few boats out for even larger groups.

Don't forget we also cater for solo anglers who wish to join other solo anglers or join a group. If you wish to recieve a list of available dates by email then just email us your request and we will fire one down the line for you. If you would like to join our " casuals list" and be kept informed of any trips in the offering just call or email us at (09)4240607 - 025 2446364 or our email - >deepsea@clear.net.nz.

Cheers

Damian - The Charter Connection - where fishing is catching.