Fishing Reports

Yet another Whakatane Tuna Tourney has come and gone – this one conducted in near perfect conditions throughout. The pristine weather only served to a) burn more fuel, b) create more sunburned bodies, c) necessitate the use of less seasick remedies, d) consume more alcoholic beverages and e) prove the BOP is tunaless! We were afraid of the result and our concerns unfortunately proved well founded. Aside from a distinct lack of thunnus, there were other things to celebrate. Overall fishing is pretty good throughout with most crews returning to port with plenty of war stories and good feeds.

Inshore

Very steady here, and has been for weeks now. Again, many depths and bottom structure producing the goods. The short story – there are plenty of fish to be had. Both snapper and terakihi continue to please with the former taken by all techniques. Soft baits producing well but no moreso than bait. Many nice fish in the 2-4 kilo bracket with even the well worn Whale Island kicking in some good bites.

Some nice trevally (3kgs plus – good by inshore standards) also showing in the catches most days between the Rurimas and Matata for a little spice. Some decent kingis being hooked but few coming to gaff – surprise, surprise!

Offshore

Kingis, everyone’s delight and general focus at White Island are showing signs of post spawning stress and an inordinate amount of pressure. They are still biting well – at times and only some (about every other) days. The consistent fishing we knew for over a month is gone, hopefully only temporarily. Still some hot sessions where everything works with some very nice fish available. Whopper of the week went to Aucklander Brad Burden with his near 30 kilo beaut.

Typically, if it was pre spawn the fish would have weighed 4-5 kilo heavier. Many fish are very slabby but this doesn’t keep them from giving a good representation of themselves! Most are in the 15-18k category however. Shallow water reef fishing must be termed ho hum with reasonable catches if you work hard and get a little lucky. Out deeper the results are much more predictable and remunerative. Bluenose, some over 20 kilos and many over 10.

They have a good, strong accompanying act in gemfish – some of these XOS at 10 kilos plus. The preferred depth starts around 320 metres at daylight and just tracks downward as the sun lights up the sky. Hapuka in shallower (anywhere from 140 to over 200m) are hit and miss with some good days, others very poor.

Ranfurly Bank

Water colour and temps well down here as well, with only the occasional albacore and well out (1000 plus metres). Up on the bank the bottomfishing remains excellent with predominantly hapuka taking the hooks – often two at a time. Bass, trumpeter and large kingi terakihi complete the catch and are in a decent supporting role. A nice bass (57 kilos) was boated by Auckland angler Dennis Smith with the next largest being in the mid 30’s – well done Dennis on the last drop of the day! Kingis are hot one day, surprisingly subdued the next – nothing like White Island. The kingis here are in much better condition however, seemingly still spawning but only a handful over 20 kilos in the mix.

Gamefishing

Since the Tuna Tournament showcased this aspect, it’s simple to discuss it at length – no surprises! With tuna a no show, most effort went to billfish. Shortbill spearfish were also absent but marlin were seen, and taken, in reasonable numbers. Nearly as many blues graced the weighstation as stripeys with their sizes relatively small. With well seasoned weighmasters, there’s little doubt about authenticity of their identification with a couple just over 100 kgs – a rarity for NZ.

Conversely, some of the stripeys were very healthy fish up to a whopping 154k’s. Albacore and skippies dominated the show; if your lures were sufficiently small enough you couldn’t move 200 metres! Two XOS albies turned up at 22 and an all tackle world record breaking 27!

Also, up to their tricks of old, makos were dining out on lures anywhere near the Motu River entrance with some boats having up to 5 strikes a day complete with damaged/missing lures. Otherwise trolling was very uninspiring, boring and costly. Waihou Bay has even suffered on the water quality stakes with inconsistent and poor fishing there as well.

Summary

Where we go with this season, in particular with game species, is anyone’s guess. After a better start than anyone had hoped for after such a cold and inclement spring, things have ground down to a near standstill now. Something needs to happen soon or there is the likelihood of cancellation of the remainder of summer due to lack of interest! Fortunately everything else is holding up well and sustaining most of the productive effort. We’ll keep our fingers crossed in the meantime and hope for the best.