Fishing Reports

May has provided a real bonus to game fishos in the Bay of Islands with a late patch of marlin moving into the area from Cape Brett to the Poor Knights. Usual catches at this time of year are very fat and in good condition after feeding in coastal waters over late summer before moving north on the spawning run.

This latest patch of fish are long and skinny, with plenty of ectoparasites and  indicates they are recent arrivals, likely to remain for a couple of weeks yet, feeding up on the large schools of squid that have congregated off the coast.

 These large squid schools have also attracted good numbers of broadbill to the coastal zone. With good weather over the last couple of weeks many local boats have been out trying their luck, mostly trolling baited lures at night. There have been plenty of 'shots' but little catching until Te Ariki Nui landed a small fish on the Garden patch on their way through to the Kings.

 Brian Batson landed a 94kg broadbill hooked fishing the deep daytime drop method on Major Tom II at the 505 on Tuesday afternoon, and Pacific Monarch boated a 167kg fish at the Nine Pin Trench on Friday night.

 With other action reported at the Cavalli Canyons and the Knights Rise, we have plenty of evidence that after 3 lean years the broadbill have returned to the Northland Coast. The plentiful food supply suggests plenty of broadbill activity still to come, as they are unlikely to make their way north for spawning until late September.

Kingis are showing up in good numbers which will please all the anglers booked to fish the annual light tackle tournament in Russell in June, with the best action around 71M Reef. There are also prodigious numbers of kingis at Rocky Point, but a school of bronze whalers is also stalking them, making catching easy but landing difficult. Most charter boats are leaving the area alone, unwilling to provide kingis as easy targets to the seemingly ravenous bronzies.

 Snapper fishing is patchy. The good catches around the oyster farms have eased off, though the shallows around Parakura Bay and Rawhiti are still producing.

 Plenty of small and barely legal snapper are being caught inside the Islands, but the best catches are likely to come from straylining close to the rocks in exposed areas outside the Islands.

 As always drop me an email at MAJOR.TOM@xtra.co.nz if you have any queries.