JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

As a young boy, James King of Rhode Island USA, used to dream of coming to New Zealand. While still a lad, he’d read stories about New Zealand in the National Geographic magazine, and five days ago, now as a young man, he arrived on our shores.

Today he went fishing with skipper Hamish Faire on the Blue Seas charter boat, Baska Voda. And tonight he took a dive off the Paihia wharf, the traditional initiation for those who’ve just caught their first marlin. A 94.6kg striped marlin it was, took about an hour and a half to subdue. Any day now and James will be off to Christchurch to enrol in the University of Canterbury. What an introduction to our fair land!

Also in the beakie catching business were the Pille family of Kerikeri, with twenty-year-old Jacob landing an 86.8 kg specimen while fellow angler Andrew Maxted, another lad out of the USA, tagged and released a stripey estimated to weigh about 60kg. Dad, Wil Pille, was the skipper on Labre.

The fish of the day, a 124kg stripey was landed by first time game fisherman, a Mr B Wistrand who when not clay shooting, is a digger driver from Dargaville. In this case, the vessel was Imperito skippered by Cam Paterson.

“So how’s the fishing?” you might well ask, and I couldn’t possibly comment. All in all, close on 50 billfish have been weighed in at the Bay of Islands Swordfish Club so far this season, with the tropical mahimahi sighted and landed well inside the Bay itself.

And for those whose budgets and aspirations are more modest, according to very reliable local information, there are still substantial schools of breeding snapper in close. With one of the more substantial schools of kahawai to be seen in recent years still ensconced in the Bay, general fishing prospects remain bright.

Further north, the Whangaroa game-fishing fraternity are also in a bullish mood, and who can blame them, with some of the best concentrations of game-fish seen for some time in residence off the Cavallis. With another fifty or so marlin weighed in at the Whangaroa Club, as usual, Primetime is setting the standard, accounting for 17 so far.

And not to be out-done, Mike Nola from the Kaipara reports that at least 20 beakies have been landed off the Kaipara so far this year, with local enthusiasts expecting one of the best seasons ever. With many boaties launching off the beach, the marlin are striking in relatively shallow water compared with the east coast. Most are taken over sand in water less than a 100m deep by good keen men on trailer boats.

On both coasts, the tuna populations seem in good shape, especially the skipjack and albacore, with yellowfin a regular catch on the east. Water-colour is a bit murky after the rain, and water temperatures remain a little on the low side, but the fish are here nevertheless. The prospects for a bumper season are looking good.