Fishing Reports

Plenty of changes and most of them are far from complimentary.  After a week of northerlies and some lovely water being pushed into the Bay, the few days of westerlies nearly negates all the good work.  The only unlikely winner in this season seems to be the inshore juggernaught which just keeps rolling on to anglers delight.

Inshore
As we have been documenting for some time, the late arrival of warm water has meant a late spawn for many fish – and perhaps a poor recruitment year but this won’t be known for many years to come.  The 18 degree trigger, instead of arriving in November as per normal, really only came on the scene en masse earlier this month. 

Snapper fishing has predictably improved exponentially ever since but really seems to have hit its straps of late.  Some fabulous catches are being reported over a wide area, some by anglers that have not done much fishing and don’t even know the region at all!  Good to see the holidaymakers, as well as locals, strike pay dirt.  With so many places to choose from, it’s hard to go past the shallows (8-12 metres) anywhere around the foul laced Rurima Rocks.  Glowing reports of plenty of fish here, many nice sized fish and some monsters (to 28lbs) among them.  These snapper are so ravenous and their stomach contents prove as much. 

One decent sized fish was found to contain four whole pauas plus mixed shells just lately!  Anywhere south the Rocks plus the “goldfish Bowl” to the east have been particularly productive.  And, as if they need support, the snapper have plenty of it with terakihi, gurnard and some XOS kahawai.  While the water has gone back to a green colour and slipped a temperature notch it certainly hasn’t hurt this budding region at all.

Offshore
The main targets, kingis and bottomfish, have certainly slipped here of late.  Even though kingfish should be in the midst of their spawning time and biting like there is no tomorrow – they aren’t.  Fishing for these popular gamefish has been only fair at best with some decent, if not abbreviated, sessions. 

While they are predictably showing up in numerous spots, the “middle grounds” are a head and shoulders above the rest at the moment.  Most fish are in predictably prime condition, full of mature milt and roe.  Although no real “lunkers” have been taken of late, many of the fish are of a pleasing size between 18 and 25 kilos.  Will be interesting to see where we go from here with this popular species. 

Deepwater species, in particular bluenose, have effectively been spinning their wheels as well with only mediocre or even poor catches recently.  Despite early starts, late finishes and prospecting many spots anglers are only just scratching out a few fish although the size hasn’t been too bad.  Near shore reef fish have not been the “silver bullet” either with only fair catches. Terakihi, most anglers’ main target in 30-50m depths, continue to be disappointing.  Propping them up are some large pink mao mao, golden snapper and porae to name a few.  A few nice (4-6k) trevally are showing up in the catch but far from vintage fishing at present.  Sharks are not such a problem as they have been.

Ranfurly Bank
If you want change then this is the place for you!  Radical currents and highly mobile water has been the hallmarks here of late.  Water quality has been very volatile blue water approaching 21 degrees C being replaced with 17 degree horrid green stuff overnight!  Huge bubbles of green cold water now extend out well north of the 1000 metre mark!  Even the kingis and bottomfishing seemingly have responded to this radical change with great fishing one day (or trip), hard going the next. 

Some have blamed the stage of the moon, others the wind and others still the prevailing currents.  On the good days, however, it’s a pleasure to be there with some excellent fishing all around.  Hapuka, when they are found, bite very well even if size is lacking.  Most fish are in the common size range of 10-15 kilos with the odd one pushing 30.  Some bass and enclaves of trumpeter are also in the offing.  The trumpeter have responded to both bait and jigs with some real beauties (to 15 kilos) among them.  And speaking of jigs, they are literally out performing live bait in the shallows on kingfish. 

Still some great work ups near the high spot with showers of fleeting sauries being predated on by both kingfish and gannets – quite a show to behold.  Many rats in the surface layer with large specimens below.  300-400 gram knife jigs is the tool anglers are using to extract the quality.  Easily angler of the week was young Corey Pitt.  The Albany “Fish City” apprentice landed not only a fine 44 kilo bass one afternoon but a splendid 34kg kingi the next morning – well done Corey.  Finally Ranfurly’s first tuna was landed near the mouth of the “Canyon” and hapuka still in the shallows near East Cape.

Pelagic Gamefish
The much anticipated Whakatane Tuna Tournament has come and gone with disappointing results.  The popular belief was that 170 boats searching every point of the Eastern Bay over 4 days in near perfect weather would flush out the tuna.  They didn’t and it’s pretty obvious there’s no great numbers of the highly sought after gamefish here currently.  The silver lining was marlin with decent numbers (to 134 kilos) encountered, landed and tagged.  One day documented 40 marlin strikes with some boats experiencing strikes virtually every day of the tourney!  If there was a hotspot, and this is stretching this terminology a lot, it was 80-100 metres of water off the Motu River.  Where to from here? Well if we can extrapolate from the experience of further north we should see more (not hard) tuna landed soon with even more numbers of billfish to follow.  We’ll see.

Summary
If you want easy and relatively painless gratification then you won’t leave the inshore environs. This was always going to be a funny, read that difficult, season and we haven’t been disappointed thus far.  We’re still fervently hoping for a vibrant late season and this could be on the cards.  In the meantime it’s back to treading water and enjoying what’s available in this endless spring.