Fishing Reports

FISHING HEATS UP IN THE BAY

While taking in the Paihia café scene the other day, I managed to excuse myself from family obligations to check out the boating/fish life on display at the jetty. A favourite and very informative past-time too I might add. So while the live fish aquarium in the beachfront Café was not exactly my destination, I was amazed to encounter Nick Fulton, youth-full skipper of charter vessel “Strayline” with a duckboard chocker with filleted snapper frames.

Apparently he’d had a crew of Auckland Russians who were dead keen to fill bins with fillets to feed hungry family with fish over the New Year. And they were not disappointed. Nick and his punters had struck gold by following the working birds about for several hours that previous morning. The fish on display were classic Bay of Island schoolies, generally 40-60cm with needle sharp teeth and in absolutely prime condition.

According to Nick, it was his hit of the season, with non-stop fishing and an enthusiastic but novice crew losing heaps of big fish by winding up their drags in an effort to slow the departure of classic Bay of Islands golden under-water freight-trains. So imagine for a moment, a 30-foot Bertram with half a dozen mad keen fishos filling the cockpit with simultaneous strikes of large stroppy snapper ripping off line in all directions. An exhilarating kind of absolute bedlam I can assure you.

And most fish were taken on ledger rigs, often the only way to fish under the circumstances. Apparently the bait school attended by snapper below and gannets from above drifted out from between Tapeka Point and Roberton Island to the Ninepin over a period of several hours.

And at another jetty location, I noticed Bob Ash, owner/skipper of charter boat Target filleting some very fair hapuku. So it wasn’t only the snapper that were feeding that morning. And I have it on good authority that others were filling up on fat tarakihi that same morning. Lighting strikes rarely for the local fishing fraternity and earlier that same morning while working on my mooring up the Waitangi River I’d encountered more than a few happy fishos returning to the ramp with big smiles and full bins. It had been a great day for fishing!

And, surprise, surprise, visiting relatives were so inspired that next morning we were following the working birds around the Bay. On this day, the grapevine had been at work and I counted at least 150 boats fishing. “It’s like Queen Street”, commented my Nephew, who’d just landed his best ever 6kg snapper.

Jetty-watch is not only informative but great fun at this time of the year. Witnessing launchings minus bungs and hulls dropped on the ramp while retrieving are only some of the pitfalls that accompany boating. And that’s not even on the water. On a very positive note, the numbers wearing lifejackets this summer has been very impressive. And for those with VHF radio, have you tried Coastguard’s new continuous weather reports on channel 21? “Safe boating for 2005”!