Fishing Reports

With cool sea temperatures continuing into late November few red hot fishing sessions have been reported by those fishing fly in the northern salt. Kahawai activity along the rocks has declined, trevally are hard to find, and snapper are yet to show in any real numbers. A few kingfish are being sighted and this hopefully bodes well for a good summer season chasing the yellowtailed hoods. When the water temperatures around those big beach corners warm up piper will move in and so will the kings. As I said though, temperatures just aren’t quite right at the moment.

Yours truly has hooked into a few medium sized kahawai on every evening trip off the rocks, and was successfully undone by a very uncooperative trevally; but mostly has found the going tough. This has mainly been thanks to a lack of northerly quarter winds. With southerly winds making conditions clear and cool around coastal rocks fishing has been hard. Any brisk wind from the north raises water temperatures and stirs the water up. Fishing invariable improves.

Much of the saltwater action has been well out wide, around the outer islands and peninsulas. Red Head has been fishing well with some large gannet work-ups continuing in the vicinity. There are big kahawai to be had here as well as barracouta and some good kings around the 15 kg mark. Keeping up with the schools seems to be the hardest part. The work-ups are fleeting in their duration and move rapidly.

Easier to get close to activity, has been going on out at Cape Brett. Here big schools of muttonbirds are working over large schools of big koheru. Kingfish and barracouta are close by but both are hard for flyfishers to connect with as they stay deep. A few rat kings are showing on the surface around Bird Rock. These make a great flyrod target but remember the size limit. Handle all fish to be released very carefully.

The large schools of koheru that the muttonbirds are feeding over sometimes come to the surface and make brilliant fly rod targets when they do. For those of you confused by this praise remember that I’m talking about the yellow and green backed ‘Decapterus koheru’ not the brown or grey backed jack mackerel (Trachurus species). The ‘true’ koheru (Decapterus) fights around ten times harder than the jack mackerel (which is also sometimes called a ‘koheru’), is much heavier for its size (chunkier), is delicious eating, and makes great bait. What’s more - there are millions of them in the Bay of Islands and they all grow to a respectable one or two kilos in size (absolute giants can be three or four kilos). The hard part is catching them. As a fast moving midwater planktivore they can be difficult to connect with. Small tinsel flies fished down berley trails near deepwater headlands usually do the trick.

Amongst the koheru have been some absolutely huge early season skipjack tuna. They have been erupting through the surface in great anchovy smashing work-ups. The fish involved have been between six and ten kilos. Possibly more. We have caught these fish in the Bay of Islands in other early seasons and have needed full blooded game gear to stop them. They fight like no other fish can. Unfortunately they are difficult to get a fly to. The bigger schools of smaller skippies in mid-summer and autumn are easier to get near but no-less fussy about what they will eat. A frustrating yet exciting sportfish.

Look for snapper activity to increase rapidly around the rocks as the weather warms and for some seriously large kingfish to start moving inshore.

Good trout fishing continues in all of Northland’s many trout streams and rivers. With only one significant period rain during Spring so far, the rivers have remained clear and cool. Conditions have been ideal for good trout growth. All fish caught so far have been surprisingly fat for such early season fish. Expectations are for a fish filled summer.

Activity in the lakes remains good, but expect this to drop off as the shallows warm. Many of the lake fish are already feeding exclusively on chironomids (midge larvae) and this is frustrating those unprepared to fish the appropriate imitations. Flyfishers who do are rewarded with good results; although surface weed will prove to be a problem if this dry weather continues.

With the increasing insect activity of a pending summer, dry fly fishing on the rivers is as good as I’ve seen it. On a recent visit to the Kerikeri River fish were found rising right through the kilometre of water fished. Many were small but it was lunchtime and most were feeding in shallow riffles where they could be easily cast to. Rolling out cast after cast onto the head of feeding fish was great fun. However this novice dry fly fisher only caught one fish (the first) and then missed the next twelve strikes. Slow reactions weren’t the problem. The fish were easy to see; consequently I was ripping the fly out of their mouths before they could eat it properly. By the time I missed number twelve I was a nervous wreck, yet thoroughly prepared for more. Dry fly fishing is great fun!! Once I learn to count to three on the strike I should have it sussed (maybe).

With the Kerikeri River turning on so much dry fly activity rivers further south in the Hikurangi area should be fair foaming with surface feeding trout. Summer is a great time to fish Northland rivers!