Fishing Reports

 As we near the end of autumn the weather gods seem to be throwing everything at us!  The Friday of ANZAC day would have to be one of the nicest days on the water for a long time, with no wind, flat seas and plenty of boats out amongst it.  

There were lots of tales of great fishing from the weekend, and plenty of good fish hooked on what was a very hot morning bite.  A steady stream of good snapper around 6-9kg were pulled from the deeper reefs 80M plus around the Aldermen Islands and also down to the Dogger Bank out of Whangamata. The kings were biting hard at the top of the tide and lots of talk on the VHF from the few boats trying about marlin in the lures.  The Pauanui based, Diamond Tiger, even managed to bring home a 126kg striped marlin caught on the 1000m mark.

Contrast that with the last two weekends, where we had wind from every direction,  torrential rain and big swells - as  winter draws nearer you have to work a bit harder for the fish, but they are there!

We've recently finished a five day trip with guests from Australia, Simon and Alex, and with a pretty average forecast to contend with the guys did excpetionally well with the fishing.  

We fished a good selection of country on the Eastern Coro from the Aldermen Islands, to the Tairua coast and Whitianga and the Mercury Islands (thanks to a snotty Tairua bar!), and all produced great fish.  The snapper seem to be holding deep around the fringes of the reef is 25-35m.

The washes around the Aldermen Islands have produced some good fish as well, and the various GULP 5" baits in any neon, green or yellow colour seem to be the ticket around the washes.

The kings are still going strong on most of the structure around the Aldermen Islands, and we've caught some good fish in close along the coastline on slow trolled livebaits as well.

The NIWA SST's still looked promising last weekend with 20 degree water in close to the south of the Aldermen Islands, but this latest system has finally seen the water cool down a couple of degrees.  Mind you with plenty of bait around there may still be a billfish or two lurking out there....

If you're at the boat show over the next few days come and say gidday, I'll be in the FIshing Coast to Coast magazine area, along with Justin from Cathedral Cove Macadamias, make sure you grab some of their famous Macadamia Seafood Crumb while you are there to coat your next feed of fish with - it is just superb!!

All the best

Carl Muir

Epic Adventures

www.epicadventures.co.nz