Fishing Reports

I had an interesting conversation with one of the boys from Kelly Taltons the other day. These boys spend a lot of time on the water chasing fish for the tanks .  Up until the big blow a couple of weeks ago their temp gauges had a reading of 17c in the Gulf which is extremely warm for this time of year.

After the blow it had dropped to a chilly 14c and was only now just starting to rise- reaching nearly 16c by the end of this week. This may explain the early reports of some great snapper on the worm beds, and with it improving all the time and daylight savings here, the evening fishing in the gulf should really start to fire. Trips after work should result in lots of tasty snapps for the table or BBQ, as summer gets all the closer.

WORM BEDS (RANGI LIGHT)
Has been fishing fairly well all week, with good snapper coming on the bite not long after a burley bomb hits the water. My favorite spot (36 44 x 174 440), has had some great spring action on the snaps, with big strip baits of Skippy or whole squid my favorite baits at this time of year. The worm beds are starting to fire early and good for those who want to fish the evening now daylight savings has arrived. The fish are in good condition and will only improve as they lead up to spawning.
 
HOOKS BAY (BOTTOM END WAIHEKE)
Still producing the goods on the snapper front with plenty of good snapper to be caught on the edge of the drop of in the middle of the bay. Fishing seems to be best around the 14 to 18 mtr mark and most boats are reporting good catches of snapper and some really good fish amongst them. Best bait seems to be mullet cubes on a flasher rig with the fish a little hard to feel when straylining.
 
THE PINNACLES (OCEAN SIDE COROMANDEL)
Some big fish landed here during the week. A  land based trip by Harvey, Pete, Brent and the boys resulted in some great big snapper with several fish over 10lbs and 2 over the magic 20lb mark, (very jealous I can tell you). They fished the area hard for only one day as they were too tired to fish the Friday after the great fishing the day before. The big fish were taken on live jacks that had their tails trimmed to slow them down, big hooks and heavy leader resulted in some wonderful fishing. There was also plenty of pan sized fish as well. Kina Mussel burleys were the go and bought the fish straight on the bite, the only fish missing were the kings - conspicuous by there absence.
 
WHANGAPAROA BAY
The mud in the middle of the bay is starting to hold good pan sized snaps. Ledger rigs on the drift resulting in reasonable catches of 35 to 40cm snapper. The fishing has not been red hot but has been reliable to feed for the family. Drifting livies on the bottom often will result in a potential trophy fish in this area as the snaps move into the bay before spawning.
 
BEAN ROCK
Plenty of trevs here at the mo. We had another great session on them in the evening straylining. Using small bits of squid in the shallow reefs, we landed and released several nice fish up to and around 4lb and kept a couple for Sashimi later in the evening. Shellfish burley bought the trevs on the bite after 15mins with several big fish seen breaking the water and devouring our burley on the surface. The longer days give this spot potential for some light tackle action after work.
 
Till next week,
Tight lines & bent rods
 
Terry Williams King