Fishing Reports

Cold variable weather , with some strong winds and heavy seas, has halted the late season flurry of broadbill trips by the Bay of Islands gamefish fleet.

 Our attention has turned instead to kingfish. The focus over the last week has been the International Yellowtail Tournament, with 23 boats competing for most points using 6kg line.

 With several fish over 20kg caught on day one, we were obviously in for a good tournament, but the contest was turned on end during day two  when Matt Smith, fishing on Striker landed a 37.8kg monster, to set a new world record on 6kg.

Overall there were 106 kingfish landed or tagged over the four days, and many many more lost on the light line. Although a record catch for the tournament, the average size was smaller than recent years, but still reflects a huge improvement in the quality of the fishery.

 The rest of the fishery has slowed with the cooler weather. Plenty of kahawai and trevally are supplementing the snapper fishing when close in to the rocks, but fishing in the deeper waters is a bit frustrating with plenty of small snapper, but  of barely legal size. We would usually expect plenty of terakihi to be showing by the beginning of June, but their numbers have been down in the last couple of years, with this season looking likely to follow suit.

 Hapuka have been erratic. Some good fish have been caught as by catch when fishing live baits for kingis on the deeper reefs, but few of the usual hot spots on the 200M line have fired up. We have been subjected to more commercial activity  by hapuka longliners over the last two years, and they seem to be targetting the same reefs usually fished by the recreational fleet.

 Major Tom II has reverted to keeping the sounder on bottom zoom to find a few new spots, as even the smaller reefs will be holding fish, though the rocks will be more difficult to fish.

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