Fishing Reports

Happy New Year everyone!

We don't do things by halves and have kicked off a new year with a new boat. We recently purchased a 14.5m (48ft) powercat and have been working long and hard to have it ready for the summer - we did it and now offer a much more comfortable, roomy and faster vessel for the local fishing and the trips we run to Little Barrier, Great Barrier and the outer Gulf. She is called DIVERSITY and boasts some pretty cool features like a cruise speed of 15-16 knots, a huge fishing cockpit with good shelter and work area, unsurpassed stability both at sea or on the anchor and comfortable accomodation for 7 anglers plus skipper. One of DIVERSITYS' most noticable features is how wide she is - nearly 6 metres! Have a look at our website (www.charterconnection.co.nz) to see a few early photos and find out more.

So far as the fishing goes - well that is is all good news too. Good numbers of fish are coming aboard from just about all over the Gulf with the most noticable results coming from as close in as Tiri and Whangaparaoa Bay. The place is loaded with bait fish (slimey macks, jack macks, white bait and pilchards) which offers the snapper plenty of tucker. One thing we are noticing is the unwelcome return of the slime that is covering the bottom. Reports of beached schools of pilchards are turning up too.

Further out and around Little Barrier has been pretty good especially on the deeper reefs and drfiting around over the sand. There's plenty of small Kingfish around and so far we have had them up to about 18kg on long jigs and livebaits set deeper over the foul. Still a few 'couta showing up along with the usual reef fish. Not quite as much bird activity out here now though but reports of large schools of kahawai north of Little Barrier are encouraging indicating plenty of feed and rising water temps.

The "worm beds" are starting to fish alot better now and the boats have been enjoying good results from the vast area. Drifting or anchoring is the go once you find a patch of fish on the sounder. Fresh baits are working best. Out off the Noises in around 30 metres is also producing as the northern side of Waiheke and round into the Motutapu area. Plenty of traffic here though so the bite can be short and the fish easily spooked as yet another anchor gets dropped into the school.

Although a little later, it looks like we are in for an awesome summer of fishing and if the weather stays like it is right now the water temps will climb quickly.

Both the TYPEE and PARERA are doing daily trips with DIVERSITY too so give us a call to get out for some rod bend'n action - 021 2446346 - 09 4240607 or flick us an email for more info - deepsea@clear.net.nz

All the best for the new year and tight lines!

Damian (Damo) Clayton

Charter Connection - Where fishing is catching!