Fishing Reports

OVERVIEW

While we still have good offshore water temps, mornings are darker, the dew is heavier, and that can only mean one thing- Autumn!!

INSHORE

Every week gets better now for snapper fishing, as a lot of fish are coming on to the reef structures to put on condition, post spawn.They seem to be everywhere at present, sand, inshore reef , and deep offshore reef -even up to 100metres in places, on what would normally be called Hapuka ground. The better bet is still mid depth reefs in 20 -60 metres, unless you fish the sand in15 -40 metres.

There are still some terakihi around the sand /  rubble edges to be had as well., but they are hard to get on the bite.We spent 2 hrs working on them recently before the would fire up, but it was worth it- big fat "greenbacks" were the final reward.

DEEP REEFS

While "Stingray's" focus has been Big Game for weeks now, with some inshore thrown in, fishers are doing quite well on the offshore reefs- the Barracouta problem seems to have lessened, and long may that continue!! Hapuka are still being caught offshore, in 80-180 meters, with local boat MYTH taking some nice ones in the deeper end of that depth range the other day.

Kingfishof 12-20 kgs are being taken regularly on jigs when the razor gang will let you, with quite a bit of effort being put in on the Alderman Pins during the recent Nationals competion. I know I harp on about this but please try to minimise or eliminate handling of Kingfish that are going to be released-no point in releasing them if they have a death sentence !!! Sportfishing NZ's "King" jig is still our best producer, in Orange, but if you are having a bad Barra day, then use the Katch 420 spear or Kilwell Broken Arrow to to reduce the dent in your wallet.!!

GAMEFISHING

There were some quite good results in our Tournament "megafest" here- the eight day period where Whitianga hosts its two main Game tournaments , and all of this runs through the Nationals as well- a Gamefisher's  heaven really.

The most noteable catches were the Bigeye Tuna, several of which were caught well offshore out to the northeast of us on a seamount. The top fish was 127 kgs, going to local boat Na Mara, and two others which went about 117 and 87 kg respectively.  Either of these other fish would normally clean up any  tournament, but  who would have thought that someone would bring in a 127Kg monster ! The NZ records run around 125-133 kg  for these fish, so it's a fantastic effort.

Marlin fishing  during the comps was what could only be described as average, with few Blues being  landed,  and so- so Stripy numbers, which seemed to correspond with more being caught at Waihau Bay- a common thing here if the Blue Water moves out to the east.

The big issue now is "what happened ? ", -after the recent heavy rain and stormy weather. Our Game trips offshore since those weather events have resulted  in an oberservation that the good water has gone way out to the east- still green out past the 1000 m mark behind the Aldermans, and rubbish colour out to 750-800m behind Red Mercury.

To go with this  poor water, the bite had totally shut down last week, with the only 2 decent trolling days last week weather -wise , resulting in 1 strike for the whole fleet for the 2 days- GRIM!!

With the cold Southerlies forecast to sweep up country in the next few day, its probably the turning point for the season.

Time will tell...

Good Fishing

Andy Kerr-Stingray Fishing Charters-Whitianga..