Fishing Reports

16C in the gulf is about the average water temp (on the surface) in the gulf at the moment. Local diver, Hayden McMullen tells me it was only about 14C at Tiri the other day as he plundered the scollie beds. Scollies were in good nick though and he pulled a few crays from a local rock to boot.

Here's what we've been up to....

Kawau to Tiri.
This area has been packed with bait fish and we (and the longliners) have had some great fishing in here up till about a week ago when it slowed down. Coincidently that was around the new moon.

Large schools of pilchards and anchovies are being rounded up by the kahawai who basically just rip right into the schools and scatter what they don't eat and the dolphins who more methodically pick away at the school and keep it intact, hence giving us topside more action too. Pilchard baits and softbaits have been a real winner in here with the Gulp! going really well. One other bait has been good in here too and that is the Squidgie grren with balck stripes ...looks like a small mackerel and was a clear winner the other day.

Middle Gulf.
Waste of time going to Anchorite and fishing the reef but it's worth a look around the fringes and a mile or so off the reef. Large schools of snapper have been in the Anchorite to Little Barrier line with a few big brutes showing up in it. Most of the fish are fat and healthy like this one Brownie has..

Again keep an eye open for the work ups and try drifting fresh bait. jigs or soft baits. a good one out here (if you can get them) is the ZMan swimmers on a cyclops rig. See softbaitcity.co.nz to see what they are. Paul runs this softbait site and actively fishes with a lot of product so knows whats going on.

Getting away from the reefs is the go and finding the school fish out on the sand. Places that are known for wormbeds, shellfish beds and areas that are generally known for the holding these school fish are the places to target along with these  work ups out in the Gulf.

Be prepared to follow the gannets. We tracked a patch of birds for 8 miles the other day but it paid off big time even though we were getting a bit anxious after about 5-6 miles and still seeing nothing. One minute there's a few gannets, the next there's 500 and the place was going off!

Out off the Noises has been ok too but with limited bird life and not as many dolphins. A few prospect drfits out here the other day produced 50 fat fish to about 10lb even though the birds had gome and the place was looking like a desert. The 40m area out here can really fire up as the fish move in as can the area north of Waiheke on the Ahaahas to Gannet line. Use the sounder to locate the fish on the bottom and again watch for the gannets.

We have just had our last Great Barrier trip for the year, well so far as charters go and the next time we will be there will be with the tribe for Xmas jigging kingis and hopefully, weather permitting, chasing those early tuna out wide. We knock off on the 23rd Dec and are back into the charters on Jan 2nd.

Our latest Barrier victim....

You should do it everytime you go fishing but now, in these warmer months, it is critical, to look after you catch correctly. We use a salt ice slurry which is amix of 1/2 saltwater flake ice and 1/2 sea water. This cools your fish quickly and evenly. We stood in horror the other day when a mate  who had been invited out on another charter boat came down to DIVERSITY to say gidday.

His fish had just been tossed into a bin with no ice or slurry, they weren't even ikied, had curled up making them difficult to fillet unless you bent them straight and tore the flesh and the bin had been sitting in the sun all day! You guessed it...when he opened his bin to show us the few small fish he had caught, the only ones who were impressed were the local seagull population who thought it was a rubbish dump judging by the smell! It was clear these fish were going off.

We replaced his rotting fish with a few of our properly ikied and slurried fish, packed them in ice and fed the rotting ones to the local stingrays. If a charter is scrimping on something as simple as ice then it is probably scrimping on other important things that make the difference between a good and bad experience. Choose carefully. Curled up rotting fish is a big waste of time, money and effort.

Hows this dodgy looking gurnard...got a bit of a tumour happening?

Some of the frostfish (we have caught more frostfish this year than Ic an have ever seen) have been up to 2m long. Although quite good eating, the snake like appearance and the uncanny way they nip off a $2 softbait can be a little dissapointing.

Baked in chunks in the oven, wrapped in tinfoil on the BBQ or even, after the tricky filleting job and panfried they come up pretty good.

We have been doing well on our "Softbait Only" trips with good catched to 8kg from the work upos. Gulp! has been the most consistent again and this seems par for the course. we did have some action on a Squidgie green with balck stripes the other day and infact this bait would have outfished most others. The Z Man Swimmers from softbaitcity.co.nz have been good too when used in conjunction with the "Cyclops Rig" have a look at Pauls' site for your soft bait needs. He is out fishing with SPs a lot and knows what is working best from the range he has. The Gulp tandorri chicken, curried chicken and the pink shine have also been really good.

The Gulf Harbour fishing competition is on again this weekend out of the Gulf Harbour Yacht Club. The ticket price has gone up to a whopping $75pp! and the prize pool has gone down to $40k.  This is alot to pay for only 2 days fishing in a limited area. They have lost favour with a lot of anglers as the prizes weren't that flash to start with other than the overseas trip and a few small outboards.

Conversely, our club (Warkworth Gamefish Club) has just finished the "Octoberfish" where you could fish where you wanted for the whole month of October and weigh in every day fro a multitude of prizes including an overseas trip. All this for only $60! I didn't compete as I could have weighed a fish nearly every day and that wouldn't be fair but we did enable some club members and entrants to weigh a few in. Some great prizes including a trip to the tropics and prize giving is in a week or so. I will also keep you posted as we go through the process of trying to get a club going at Gulf Harbour and no it wont be at the Yacht Club. Stay tuned.

A list of dates are posted on here for individual anglers. We will soon have dates posted for our jigging trips, more soft bait trips (some with prize packs), stayways and other cool adventures on the site too so keep an eye on it and get into the action.

You can get me on 021 2446346 or flick me an email to deepsea@clear.net.nz

Damian(Damo)Clayton

Charter Connection - Where fishing is catching!©

www.charterconnection.co.nz