Fishing Reports

Inshore
Good bags of terakihi in the low foul of 80-110m for those who dont mind the grind, and some patches in 30-40 as usual, west of Gt Merc and between Stanley, Green and Korapuke.

Snapper are still spawning in batches, but now some of the earlier spawners are starting to move onto the reef and heavy kelp edges, in 8-20 m, around all the outer islands.

The rest are still balling up and getting ready to spawn, out on the sand north of Kuaotunu, try 20-40m and stay into the evening, as daytime is still very patchy. Angler Peter Moore from Auckland, who nailed the 9.2 kilo snapper a few weeks on Stingray, returned to do it again with an 8.4 kilo fish, and this time his Penn (previously reported as chinese-oops) reel didn't expire on the job, thankfully !!!

Offshore
Some Hapuka still there for the deep grind gang, and Kingfish in great numbers both inshore and out on offshore pins, but fussy about bite time as usual. Tipaki point and bumper holding plenty of medium size kingis, along with most prominent headlands and structures. Whale Island for a big one, if you have patience.

Big Game
There are some game fish out there, but the large improvement I had hoped for over the last few weeks hasn't really happened.

Despite good water temp and colour, and lots of bait that the purse seiners manged to miss somehow, catches have only improved a little.

The Mercury Bay Game fishing Club Classic Tournament has just finished, and 3 days of 40 boats per day (120 boat days total) only produced 14 striped marlin and 3 yellowfin, and sadly a winning blue of 200 kg was landed after the cutoff time, missing out. This meant winning angler Steve (Batman) Batt, fishing on the boat EACH WAY, took it out with a Stripy of 116 kg, and I am told total prizemoney incuding the Calcutta sweepstake, of $42,000 to be shared among the crew- Now thats serious money !!! - Who needs a real job Batman when you can do that.!! The fish was taken on a Pakula Smoking Joe  in special flourescing purple and clear, supplied by yours truly to one of the boat's anglers. (commision % now may apply Kevin.....)

The same team of Kevin Harvey and Batman were beside us earlier in the week out there and landed a 245kg Blue on Kevins 7m trailer boat JOKERMAN. Just goes to show you dont need a 60 foot Riviera to have a good time gamefishing.!!!Well done boys.

Lets hope the next wek or so sees some improvement in the Stripy numbers, as it sure is expensive out there this year with the price of fuel.

Good fishing

Andy Kerr-Stingray Charters-Whitianga