Fishing Reports

 

Get rid of the westerly and they will come.  Both beautiful warm water and fish have arrived in the Eastern Bay after the Western Bay bathed in glory last week.  Whakatane Tuna Tournament organisers will be rubbing their hands with glee as it appears the timing of this arrival may be spot on for this prestigious event.  Other than the arrival of good water and attendant pelagics (is there anything else?) everything else is pretty much status quo with isn’t a bad thing.

Inshore

While the blue water doesn’t quite lap onto the beaches, its influence is felt a long ways in.  While the water is still green several miles offshore, it has cleaned up significantly – much to the liking of the cray divers around the Rurima Rocks.

Snapper are still being pursued with great favour with a mixed bag of success in just as many areas.  Early (particularly) and late are still the best bite times regardless of where you choose to try your luck.  Mostly pan sized fish arriving at the dinner table but the occasional fish to 7 kilos landed, mainly at the Rurimas.  Te Kaha has come of age just lately with some real beauts reported.  Of particular note was young Te Whaha  Morehu of Opotiki recently. With 10 minutes remaining during the weigh in for a local tournament and a 7 kilo fish winning, he sauntered up to the scales with an 11, 12 and 14.41kg snapper to wipe out the tourney in one fell swoop! 

Otherwise there’s no shortage of terakihi in a number of areas – they’re still biting well for this time of year.  The Norwest Reef has been particularly productive with a few hapuka as a bonus, some not just pups (up to 14 ½ k’s).

Offshore

White Island is still a focal point in many anglers’ aspirations. While most species are still co-operating well, nothing could be stamped with the title of “red hot”. Kingis have now all but spawned with a lot of “slabs” coming along boatside. While they still give an excellent representation of themselves, I’m not convinced many of them would be much value on the dinner plate – great for releasing. 

Deepwater fishing, mainly for bluenose at 300 plus metres is productive one day, disappointing the next.  Early morning shots are definitely the best times on the predominantly 5-8 kilo fish.  Shallows (30-60m) around White yield their normal conglomeration of reef fish led by nice sized terakihi.

Pelagics

With both Whitianga and Waihou Bay beginning to fire well, the centre of the Bay is languishing – at least at the moment.  This should change shortly with the tournament armada descending on the Bay from Wednesday through Saturday of this week.  It’s still not all bad news with two marlin landed (one T&R and the other weighed at 105k’s) and a handful of smallish YFT.  A nice blue came into the Mercury Bay Club so look for more to make their way to Waihou in the near future. 

In the meantime there have been stripees, tuna and spearfish to appease the gamefishers up that way with the “backbone” off the Cape doing the business thus far.  A decent sized surface longline fleet has been enjoying some good catches of bigeye tuna in the area so perhaps someone will get lucky and nail one on sporting tackle soon.  A few nice sized (11-16k’s) albacore compliment the scene nicely.

Ranfurly Bank

In spite of some big tidal movement around the full moon, there’s been reasonable fishing here on most species save trumpeter.  The “horn blower” usually gets hard during summer and they seem to have done their disappearing act.  True hapuka and a few bass are obliging on many spots with some bluenose biting on the “north face” at the very top of the bank. 

Some kingis are cooperating with anglers but few larger, more desirable sizes have succumbed yet.  Only a few in the 20’s thus far.  Warm water has flooded onto the bank now so watch for pelagics to show here soon as well.

Summary

If you think the stage is set for some fireworks here in the Bay, you’d be right. The results of the Tuna Tournament should tell all be residing the potential we are sitting on at the moment.  The next report should be alot more exciting to write and read both.  Watch this space!

 

From Pursuit

Report type: Saltwater

Report date: 16 January 06