Fishing Reports

People just keep telling me how hot the fishing in the Hauraki Gulf is, with some amazing fishing in the shallows, in particular the Motohuie and Rangi channels.

The snapper are a reasonable size and are fish well worth filleting for the pan. Plenty of people have been making the most of the long summer nights. Now they are back at work an evening excursion has reaped rewards for those who made the effort.

Water depth of 3 to 6 metres have rewarded anglers on light tackle with some fantastic fish. Best rig seems to be a small cut bait on a strayline rig with very very small weight (on mnay occasions none).

For big snapper, Anchorite rock has again been the place to be. A angler on a popular charter boat recently tussled with and landed a fabulous 11.3kg snapper on a Mustad long red flasher rig. The boys were having a great time landing big pannies when the big boy struck and a torrid battle resulted in this fine snapper.

They also tangled with several other fish of XXL proportions. These fish left the anglers licking their wounds, as they were taken to the cleaners.

Bill Cotton on JESSE JAMES had a turbulent day being harassed by a school of reasonable to large kingfish midweek at Anchorite Rock. The fish would not take any baits, lures of any sort, but were very happy to chase any of their catch as they were being wound to the boat. This made for a very frustrating time for all on board.

Off shore fishing has again gone ballistic. The western BOP area still struggles to have any fishing of substance, but the areas from Mayor island to North Cape are holding good numbers of striped and blue marlin, with reasonable numbers of football sized yellowfin.

Mercury bay continues to be one of NZ’s hottes fishing spots, with good numbers of striped marlin and some serioulsy big blues. Many anglers have tangled with these raging mad bill-waving fish lately. One mega blue was weighed at 360+ kilos.

Tutakaka has been firing well with the Nauti Girls contest showing a fairly reasonable catch. Most boats encountered 2 or 3 fish a day, but they must have all had butter on their hooks as few were landed! The Bay of islands from the middle of the bay to Bergins point has huge numbers of stripeys -- many boats are encountering 4 or 5 fish a day. And with the season so early the best is probably yet to come!

While I was speaking on the phone to Cpt John Gregory of PRIME TIME on Monday, he hooked and landed a blue marlin. Several other boats also had encounters with blues. It’s hard not to think that the northland fishing region is in for a humdinger of a season. Best lure colours seem to be lumo, aussie gold, black purple, and big O. These colours seem to getting the most action.

The west coast has slowed a little after its amazing start. But there are large schools of baitfish, in particular the area from Nth Kaipara to Sth Hokianga, with the odd fish starting to pop its head up again. This area has the potential to go off. I feel the best bet though is to get yourself to the Bay of islands Whangaroa area at the moment.

Till next time, tight lines and bent rods,

Terry Williams-King
“Helping you catch fish”
schooloffish@actrix.co.nz