Fishing Reports

Autumn finally arrives !!!

Gamefishing

Despite good areas of bait, and perfectly acceptable temps still, the Marlin have started their return to the north. Of course there are still some here, and in close I might add, with 2 having been spotted tailing on different days in 70-80 m between Castle Rock and the Aldermans in the last week or so.

What also happens at this time of year is the "self fufilling prophesy syndrome",whereas people stop trying out there because they think its over, so with less people fishing for gamefish, less fish get reported or hooked, confirming to those deliberating that its not worth theb effort. Catches plummet, bringing on the end regardless!!! 

Despite this, the odd keen guy slips out and can still have a startling day or two, like the boat "Aquila" at the end of last season, who kept going out and hooked fish day after day after day, when most of us had hung up the game gear !!

So if you're gonna give it a last lash, fish 70-150m (it's as far as you need to go) and work Castle / Sugarloaf, The pins etc, staying near the structures, as that's where the stragglers always show at the end.

Bad luck to my neighbour  "Grimmy", on his brand new Rayglass 2500, who after only a few trolling days ever, hooked a striped marlin and got it right to the boat, only to lose it by being cut off under the hull - it's a steep learning curve at the beginning mate !!! Gotta love that 5.5 Purple Zuker!!!

Bottom Offshore

Puka are still out there in 90-200m or more, on all the deep foul, although I have only heard of fish similar to our last trip out - around the 7-10 kilo mark - not big ,but top eaters!!

Kingfish are in all places at the moment still, being both inshore for a while yet, just waiting to bust you off on shallow foul or craypots, and fishing the deep for them is going well on any of the foul from 70m or deeper. Barracouta seem to be finally receding a bit now as waters cool a little - long may they bugger off!!!

We tried using various jigs simultaneously on our last trip, and the biggest  2 fish came from the Zest in the hands of Peter "9.2" Moore, an experienced and regular angler on "Stingray" followed by the Broken Arrow 500 grm, then Wiliamson Benthos 400grm.

Technique is just SO important with jigging. Just to prove  that point, the boat next to us for part of the day doing identical drifts side by side with 3 technically excellent jiggers on board (look for the glove on their right hands... you'll need it if you want to do this well for hours). They hooked 6 kingfish for every one we hooked, as we had all novices except "Mr 9.2", as mentioned above.!!

And we had more anglers !!! Nothing like that sort of show to ram home the point. Practice till you get the bounce / crank thing going right, and watch others when they hook up, and you don't.

Bottom Inshore

Snapper seem to be still mainly out on the sand in 30-40 still, this being confirmed by chats with commmercial snapper fishermen, but soon they will move onto the reefs more to feed up before they head off for winter to deeper  water.

If you must fish the reef , then fish the edges in 15-30m for now , and get onto the fish that are starting to come onto the foul. Spawning appears to be all done for this year, so their thoughts will turn to fattening up for the impending winter.

A series of spearfishing dives last  week for me confirmed that as yet, not many snapper on the reefs in shallow - i.e sub 10m,  and a reminder  for me of respecting mother nature as a 100kg plus Stingray decided that I was in his patch, and he wasnt going to tolerate that...

After 3 attacks on me, trying to completely cover over me each time, and a solid  poke with the speargun between the eyes, only working to deter him for 5 minutes or so, and with visions of  the late Steve Irwin in my mind, I retreated   tail between legs back to the boat.

30 plus years of diving both commercial and recreational, and I had never bothered about the large rays at all.....Respect........and never underestimate.

Good Fishing,

Andy Kerr-Stingray Charters -Whitianga