Fishing Reports

Happy New Year everyone. I must apologise for the delay in posting the first report for ’05. The great weather of late has provided little wind, calm seas and not a lot of office/home time. So here is a long overdue report and keep in mind it is a report and not a forecast. If I could see into the future, well……………………

We have a few changes in place so far this year and one of particular note is the addition of WAHU 2 to the fleet. She is a purpose built, 10-metre sportfisher with a cruise speed of 20 knots, carries up to 10 anglers, has great electronics, live bait tanks, large cockpit with plenty of rod storage and working room. The best feature is of course her speed which offers me more scope so far as locations go with places like Little Barrier and Cape Colville being only 1.5 hours away and Great Barrier only 2 hours away!

We will be offering trips from as little as $450 for evenings and half days, $750 for day trips around the Gulf including Little Barrier and the Colville area and Great Barrier for the day will be only $800. Al these prices are introductory rates and based on a group of 10 or less. We will gladly accept bookings from individuals of course and as you can see the price per head is very reasonable. The only exception to the above is we only take individuals/groups of up to 8 to Great Barrier. You could say we need the extra space to carry all the fish back!

Fire us through an mail to find out more info or join the ‘casuals list."

We have been doing well over the last couple of weeks and have only had a couple of slow days, which would rather be forgotten. The water temperature is coming up quickly now with a temp of 19C in the Gulf being the norm. The fish have moved in and can be found in schools out on the sand in around 20m-40m. A lot of the fish we are catching seem to be feeding on worms and other bottom dwelling morsels. It is a case of getting onto areas that have a food supply there or activity, like feeding birds, Kahawai and Dolphins that will produce scraps for the Snapper to feed on. A classic example of this was the other day out in 35m over the sand east of Tiri. 200 Gannets appear out of nowhere, (1 minute you couldn’t see 5 Gannets- the next there’s 200 thumping into the drink) and start working hard out on a large school of Whitebait. We up anchor and slide over for a drift through the action – Nada, Zip, Zilch! Ten minutes later it’s all go though as the scraps finally make it to the bottom and the Snapper move in to feed. We in turn removed a few very nice specimens up to 6 kg and went home with a full slurry. Other days it has been a matter of sitting it out and getting the trap set properly. Wind, sea and berley have to be going the same way or as close to the same way as you can get it. Not a lot of joy to be found fishing back up your anchor chain!

Other times have required a drift around first to find a few fish then set up in the area. Often, this time of year the fish will move around a lot and what worked yesterday may not always work today. You have to be willing to diversify and try other areas from time to time, using drift fishing, jigging, bottom fishing or straylining. Here’s what we’ve been up to.

Tiri - The channel would be the pick of the bunch if in this area at the moment. The tide flow over the last few days had been very strong and it can make things quite difficult if the wind and tide are opposing so timing is pretty important, as is location. The edges of the channel will have slightly less tide flow and there are a few places around the channel and the island that have eddies or structure that change the direction of tide flow slightly allowing the boat to lie with the wind more. The middle of the channel has got the tide ripping through and the fish will still be there but can be more difficult to catch as they hang in tight schools in the current. They don’t always want to break cover for a feed until the tide eases and they can feed without using so much energy. Ledger rigs with cube baits have been the pick in here as has the better quality flasher rigs like a Black Magic Snapper Snatcher or a Mac Flasher. The evening fishing has been patchy and I have been favouring another area for that time of day.

Behind Tiri and on the various reef systems I have been finding a lot of small Snapper, the odd good trevally and a few small Kingfish. Needles to say I will put a better effort into this area when the situation improves but for now will leave it be.

Kawau – Fishing’s pretty hard up here at the moment and the pick of it would be shot at dusk or dawn. Perhaps it’s the traffic as the place is inundated with boats at present. Try a nice quiet spot somewhere like on the reefs south east of Flat Rock. Berely up and strayline back into the structure with a freshly caught bait like a Mackerel or Kowhai.

Little Barrier – Haven’t spent too much time up here so far this year but by crikey we will be! There have been some really good reports from Lil’ B and some of the structures offshore from the island are holding good numbers of Snapper. There are also a few good Kingfish around the reefs too with the problem being stopping them! Friends did a recon trip up there the other day and witnessed pack attacks on small schools of baitfish by Kingfish estimated to be in the 20-30kg range. Horn Rock will be holding Kings as well as Snapper. Horn Rock can be a demanding place to fish especially in the shallower parts of this large reef making for some pretty tight battles once hooked up to a good fish. The Kingfish out here know the reef well and have taken many anglers to the cleaners in the bricks. Some big Snapper lurk around out here too.

Great Barrier – The fishing can be quite hard around the island during the holidays but once things settle down it should be all good. There has been the odd report of good fish from around the place but I believe water temperature is still down for the time of year and this will be having an effect. The Cape produced a few fish for friends over the holidays and apparently the Crays and Scallops were in good condition. There should be a few good Kingfish showing up in the bays and harbours but it would be around the Needles, Broken Islands and the Cape where you would expect to get onto a better size fish. We will be spending quite a bit more time over here now with faster boat being able to deliver anglers to the island in 2 hours from Gulf Harbour.

On the gamefishing front, we have heard a few positive reports about the Yellowfin off the top of the island. There are a few ‘Fins moving in with the warmer water and if you’re in the area keep you eyes peeled for fast moving work ups, towering and circling Gannets and pods of actively feeding Dolphins. There was also a Marlin of 96kg speared by a bloke not too far from Omaha and reports of 2 more sighted near the Mercury Islands. I suspect the locally caught Marlin was crook and in a state of near death or starvation. There was also a YellowFin taken off the back of the Mokes last week too. Could well be worth a prospect out wide.

The Auckland area- I think there are a few disheartened anglers around the big smoke at the moment. Reports of the dreaded Zilch have been coming in and the areas that normally fire up around now are only producing mediocre results. The Rangi Channel is still pretty patchy and a good berely trail is essential in getting the Snapper into feeding. Evenings would be better than the day shot I suspect. The Motuhie and other current ravaged channels around the inner Gulf have improved slightly but I have not heard of any real good stories yet. The ever popular hole off Matiatia Bay has produced a bit here and there but the best option would be the change of light again. The Bottom End of Waiheke is still fishing ok and the channels at the change of light should produce. I think I’ll stick to our end of the Gulf for now based on the less than average results coming from the inner Gulf.

Anchorite and the middle ground- It’s not really doing it out here this year so far. Heard of a 6kg Snapper coming from Anchorite the other day but not any other fish worth mentioning. No reports of schools of Kingfish either yet. The 40m area has been given a good scrape by the trawlers and if you want to go play with sharks then this is the spot. We had a Mako take a Snapper off a ledger rig only to get connected to the second dropper! At about 6 ft and just been pricked with a 6/0 VMC it turned nasty, gave the boat a good rub and tail walked 60-80 meters of 6 kg off the spool off the little Shimano in a couple of seconds. Must have rolled on the rig when it finally crashed back into the water and broke off! Ten minutes later a huge Bronze Whaler swam past the boat headed for Auckland. This shark was one of the biggest I have seen in the area for some time.

There are a few Snapper around the 50 m area and a slow drift can work well. It is certainly different fishing out here than in the harbour. You never what what’s going to turn up in a berley trail out here. Keep your eyes open for those Gannets too. We have also been pulling some nice Gurnard during the day and every now and then a Dory will appear and scoff a bait. Funny, as we have been livebaiting all day for a Dory only for it to take a cube of Pilchard on a ledger rig. Doesn’t matter how you catch them I suppose.

We are really looking forward to "lifting the game" and being able to get out wider, quicker and be able to get around locally a lot quicker. If you would like to find out more or join the "Casuals List" then just give us a call on 09 4240607, Damian on 021 2446346 or email us deepsea@clear.net.nz. If for some reason your email address has changed, please let us know as we are getting a few returned emails from members on the list.

Come and have a YAHOO on WAHU!

Cheers – Damian

The Charter Connection – Where fishing is catching