Fishing Reports

This was the week most northern anglers and skippers would like to forget!  While the NE winds howled and rain came down horizontally the further north one went, places like the Bay of Plenty bathed in sun and calm seas.  Guess we were just lucky up here!  A small fleet spent several days making Twilight Beach home while waiting out the horrendous conditions.  Although the gale winds and high seas effectively put an end to what had been productive and promising fishing, the strong noreasterlies did no harm to water conditions.  On the contrary, some very beautiful and warm water was pushed right into the beach in some areas although as yet we haven’t seen much in the way of tangible benefits in the way of gamefish just yet – but its early days.

Doubtless Bay – Cape Karikari

Pretty disappointing lately, especially after the recent noreasterlies – even skippies are hard to come by.  Water is warm (20 degrees C) but not a great colour, in fact green anything inside 120 metres.  The recent Doubtless Bay Marlin Classic was fished in near perfect conditions the last two days aside from a decent swell.  Winning fish was a lovely 154 kilo stripee.  The only catch – it was a west coast fish taken off the bottom end of 90 mile beach!  Things will improve here especially in light of some decent fishing off nearby Whangaroa.

Great Exhibition Bay - North Cape

Nicer water here but only a little more life.  Plenty skippies which only intensify as you get closer to the Cape.  Relatively little pressure, more boats could easily turn over something here.

The Hook – Fingers – Compass Rose

Very changeable conditions here, seemingly changing with the tide.  One boat passes through and reports cold, lifeless water while the next gets a shot (or fish) in good looking conditions.  This area has real potential which will hopefully get trapped by passing boats.

Three Kings

The catching of live bait is still a real issue with virtually no koheru around.  Perhaps cold (16-17) water has something to do with this predicament but everyone is hoping (praying) for a turnaround.  Some good kingi action despite the cool waters with trolling lures and jigs doing the damage on the predominantly 15-20 kilo fish.

King Bank

Still the focus for visiting boats but that may change soon.  Again tides have a lot to do with water colour/temp here and again the recent blow didn’t do as much good as we would have hoped.  Specific bite times change daily to further compound the marlin situation with middle of the day cropping up just as much as either end.  A few marlin seemingly all over the bank but the top end is again the most productive.  Best catch just recently was made by “Libertas”.  Among the five shots he had a nice stripee and estimated 180 kilo black carried on life after a tag placement.  Bottom bouncing is productive with “Doc” Falson getting the largest bass of the week at 42 kilos.  Kingis also playing the game, again mainly on jigs.  Largest was a whopping 40.6 kilos taken off “Oracle”.  Water definitely gets warmer the further west one goes west which leads us to

Middlesex Bank

Still noone has made it this far recently although forays to the Goby Bank have shown no fish but lovely water over 21 degrees.  With this westerly trend of warm water a visit to Middlesex is overdue.

Summary

While the recent blow didn’t help things as we hoped, it is still very early days.  Avoiding a strong southerly or westerly is high on the agenda.  Plenty of boats with trips scheduled – the more the merrier to see just what is around.  Till next time………..