Fishing Reports

And worse things became yet again!!  What is happening at sea this “summer” is hard to fathom.  We keep thinking the situation must show signs of improvement but it just entrenches itself further.  Water temps remain at near mid-winter proportions while water quality is uniform (poor) right throughout the bay.  One can only imagine what can be going on with fish which are approaching or meant to be spawning now i.e. snapper and kingfish.  Talk about a poor recruitment year!!  We’re bound to “pay” for this year down the track.

Inshore

Just when the snapper (at least males) decided it was time to spawn and bite the sustained cold water seems to have shut them down again.  Good snapper fishing is now a memory of last week at things become difficult again.  Yes, a few nice fish (3 – 4k’s) are still coming in but nowhere as consistent.  Good terakihi fishing again saves the day along with what some experience anglers call the best gurnard fishing they’ve ever seen – and this less than one mile from Whakatane!  There are always some silver linings in the dark cloud formations. Water temps remain in the high 13’s to mid 14’s mark throughout the inshore scene with an influx of jellyfish now apparent.

Offshore

A retrenchment back into bottomfishing as the kingis balk.  Yellowtail still bit well at the beginning of this cold water segment but the sustained cold has apparently shut them down.  Over the past week one could observe the shutdown phase as fishing got progressively harder each day. Only live squid could save one day from being a kingi whitewash with subsequent days not so lucky.  Young Neil Harris got the largest kingi of the week with a credible 25 ½ k specimen – well done in tough conditions, Neil.  Another catch which surfaced has not been seen in these waters since 1980 – a black snoek or giant barracouta, all 25k’s of it!  Angler Marcus Callen has donated it to be mounted for the Auckland Museum.  The days at White Island have been saved by bottomfishing, both deep (bluenose/bass) and shallow (terakihi). Trolling has been out of the question – seemingly a complete waste of time.

The Minister of Conservation recently came out to White Island and the Volkner Rocks to survey the situation himself.  Soon he’ll be making his decision whether or not to put the Volkner Rocks Marine Reserve Proposal into being, alter or scrub it.  We’re hoping he will consider our points carefully in his deliberations.  Time will tell on this one.

Ranfurly Bank

Only the rare day, or portion thereof, where the Bank could be accessed recently. Local boat “Tongaroa” has made the occasional foray there but the inclement weather has kept larger craft away – cancellations to this area abound at present.

Summary

For once I have little to say.  This can only improve but the big question now is when and by what degree.  We’re obviously in “damage control” at the moment.  Not a bad time to enjoy the Christmas break and hope it will be a different ocean when we return.  All the best for the holiday period.