Fishing Reports

Last week was intense man. Not far-out, close in and intense. Whales, Dolphins, thousands of sea-birds filling the skies , Marlin reports from out wider all around the North Island coast and even one in the Hauraki Gulf, yes a Marlin was seen in the Gulf. So with a couple or three days of brilliant weather and calm seas, it was a classic scene for many fisho’s to head out and attempt a restock of the fridge with the finest and freshest of fish fillets.

 

Spawning pressure has been taking its toll on the overall condition of the fish out there, some big Reds have been aggressively chomping down hard on all manner of lures, baits, soft baits and livies looking for some fast weight gain. I assume this must be the case because many of the lengthier fish caught have been quite a lot lighter than expected on the scales. Calls of easy 15 to 20lb Snapper have been a good 3 or 4lb shy. While impressive and eye-catching coming up through the purple-blue and crystal clear water out there, in a word, skinny, and in need of a feed. This I’m sure has contributed to the aggressive feeding, many Snapper have been engulfing colourful temptations going down, no bottom in sight.

 

I had the pleasure of taking a couple of 9 yr old school boys out with their parents on Saturday for the annual Pinehurst School Fishing Comp, sponsored by Fish City in Albany. You couldn’t have written a better fairy tail story. Perfect weather, perfect sea conditions and some nice big fish of all sorts being presented at the weigh in. The fish were successfully auctioned back to the fishos for school fund raising. Our little boat got lucky with finding some healthy red specimens – just in the nick of time, arriving at weigh in with less that 6 minutes to spare!

Congratulations to Jules Aitken, Graeme McGregor, Trent McGregor, and Kit Bittle for winning 1^st and 2^nd prizes in the Adult and Junior Snapper division respectively aboard Espresso. With a gentlemen’s hour start and weigh in at 4pm, a bunch of happy and excited kids enjoyed a sunny afternoon’s picnic at Bayswater. 100% fantastic family entertainment.

 

And the Snapper are still keen to come and play – again with more hot sunny weather, flat seas and fresh fish , a visit by sizeable Stingrays and Mr Rod Holder even catching 7lb Snapper! Brilliant to be releasing excellent pannies while filleting just a few ready for Mid Week Madness all over again.

 

Make the most of it, daylight saving finishes soon, but every cloud has a silver lining – the lighter morning makes the early morning bite time easier to handle – maybe even easy enough to get a very quick fish in before work? You reckon?

 

Espresso