Fishing Reports
First run over but here comes the next.....
After the intial "run" of the larger male snapper that move in early in the season along with a solid showing from the female fish we seem to be in the lull beofre the next wave move in. The northerly and easterly winds characteristally push the fish closer in and it wont be long before it's all go again.
Cooler water temps in the Gulf (16.5C at Anchorite the other day) and the recent full moon have slowed the bite but with a bit of patience and moving around to get onto the schools you can still do very well.
The moon has a major influence on the surface water of the earth and the fish that live in it and so by knowing a bit more about it can sure help in understanding the "bite times" and the short or long bites we get at various stages of the moon. There are many websites and published guides to help you try and decipher the quirky nature of the moons influence and after a bit of study and by keeping a diary you may get a better understanding of what goes on. Some even predict the weather fairly accurately by the moon too.
The Tiri Channel has been producing a feed for most who fish in the area. The gannets have been diving on the anchovie schools that are getting demolished by the kahawai just north of the island and there are snapper under these work ups along with some good size kahawai and a few john dory. Another species that normally turns up about now is the "slimey" or "english" mackerel. These torpedo like "macks" make excellent bait and we had a great day fishing the Motuora area using fresh fillets straylined down the burley trail. Snapper to 6kg came from this humble inshore island along with a bin full of nice eating fish in the 40-60cm range. The timing was right with the tide flowing, the wind in the same direction and just a hint of swell to add movement to the baits. Magic stuff!
Soft plastic fishing has been good too especially under the diving gannets. This is really "champagne fishing" where just about every thing you put on a hook gets bitten. We had a lot of fun a few trips back when we put chip packet, orange peel, a strip of towel and a cube of moro bar on the hooks and fired them into the action. Everything got hit and caught a fish. it was amazing to see that even a piece of ruber tube matting caught a fish too.
When the birds are not diving and the ocean looks barren most fishers tend to head for a reef and try there. Sound idea as reefs hold fish but often it is the edges of the reef or the sand around the edges that hold them more. There can be a lot of undesirables on the reefs this time of year especailly in the form of the "couda". It's not a lot of fun losing 3 - 4 rigs in as many drops. Hunting the edges is best and in one example...Anchorite Rock...the best fishing can be to the south off the main rock or to the north west, again off the main rock itself. Have a look next time your out there.
If you choose not to bother with the reefs you may be keen to try some prosepct drifting. Locate a bit of sign with the sounder or in some cases if you dont find anything to really help just start a drift. You will be suprised just what turns up. Soft plastics are great for this "prosect drifting" with the colour and movement of the baits often enough to get a bite happening. Getting back to those slimey mackerels we have found the Squidgies slimey soft bait to be getting us really good results at the moment..go figure huh..Although not scented they have a great tail action, the colour is exactly like a slimey and if you feel you need to scent the bait they come with the "magic sauce" in the packet. They are a good price too and are made from a tough but very soft rubber making them very durable. You need to keep the tails moving but the roll of the boat helps with that. The other day we kicked ourselves for running out as they had caught all but a few fish on the boat and the guys were having a blast hooking fish after fish on them.
Little Barrier is holding a few fish here and there but the deeper reefs seem to be in a morning bite mode until the coudas turn up and ruin it for you. Adding weight to the rigs will help in getting down past the couda to the waiting snapper but they are still a pain in the butt and I tend to move away from the toothy critters and find some other fish to catch. Kingfish are starting to show up though and we nailed a few on jigs to about 12kg with a pink/white Zest jig doing the damage. A Wiliamson in lumo colours with red dots down its side also produced a few good fish and bowled over a snapper of about 5kg too.
Kawau is still a bit patchy but school fish are hanging around south of the island and down that coast towards the Mahurangi. Kingfish have been showing up at Flat Rock with poppers and jigs attracting the attention. The evenings should be fishing quite well around Fairchilds Reef, Maori Rock and Flat Rock. We did have a bit of trouble from the coudas out here the other day but they were not as bad as it has been out deeper.
We are out filming with Shimano Television this week and we a pro angler from Japan along with the film crew, testing all the new jigs that have been designed to catch snapper, kingfish, dory and a huge range of species. It will be a great show loaded with hot fishing action filmed right here on our backdoor step. I'll keep you posted.
Cheers
Damian
A Charter Connection...Report type: Saltwater
Report date: 17 November 08
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