Fishing Reports

Very consistent fishing throughout, regardless of what species you elect to target. From inshore along the beaches out to the deep seamounts and everywhere in between – something is happening to please all comers. Weather has been kind as well – could this be the “Indian Summer” we’ve been waiting for?

Inshore

Some phenomenal snapper fishing, from Opotiki all the way past Matata to the west. All methods seem to be scoring well from long lines (is this sportfishing?) to anchoring, drifting, soft baiting, stray lining and bottom fishing. While there are many nice fish representing a strong average size, large ones are anything but common. Limits are general and don’t take all that long to achieve most of the time. The odd fish over 5k’s are among the mainly 30-35cm fish. If that’s not enough for you then there’s plenty of terakihi and some decent (10k’s plus) kingis to test out anglers and tackle alike.

Offshore

Generally pleasing out here as well with White Island rewarding most visitors in some fashion. The big news is kingfish as they have really picked up their pace of a couple weeks ago. Not only are they biting well with a pleasing average (16-19k’s) but have reaffirmed their lost appetite for iron. Yes, after a couple months of shunning the jigs, they’ve come back to their aggressive nature and are accepting them with relish. Great to see. Live and dead baits are still doing the business as well.

The deep water is producing mainly bluenose, but not the size we are accustomed to at this time of year. Spawning time (should be in the midst of it now) should produce those big roe laden females but instead it’s the small males making up the bulk of the catch. May be a late season with the best yet to come. Plenty of lovely (5k’s plus) trevs near White with a favourite depth being 15 to 30 metres. Some good reef fishing also (a bit deeper) for those so inclined.

Ranfurly Bank

Good fishing, generally speaking. Most everything is cooperating right across the board although not a lot of quality. The odd large bass (Wayne Topelewski – 43k’s) spices up the otherwise dominated catch of 8-20 kilo fish. Again, trumpeter have staged a comeback and represent a larger proportion of the catch than they have in years. Why is anybodies guess but these succulent fish are more than welcome. Bluenose quite consistent if you ply the depths – prepare to fish over 300 metres of water. Kingis biting well but if you want a trophy fish you are better off at White – strange for this time of year. Many kings between 10-15kgs but few over 20. Water very patchy here as most everywhere else which leads us to …………..

Pelagics

Is the season in its death throes? Would almost appear so but don’t be fooled, there will still be some bursts and catches that will surprise and delight yet. Two places that have potential are vastly different and far apart – Waihau Bay and Whale Island. Waihau still has a decent fleet of boats out every day the weather allows with some reward most of the time. For over a week there was at least one blue marlin landed every day, occasionally two.

While most of the fleet went east and fished off Midway and Matakaora Point, others remained in the closer environs of the Cape, Orete and Ruakokore. The blues were all virtually out of the same mold – 180 to 190kgs. Few stripees accompanied them and most boats saw/caught nothing for their efforts. The occasional nice albacore was landed but no tuna whatsoever.

Back behind Whale Island by 5-7 miles, the water is beautiful – not so warm but purple. In fact it’s a bubble of good water that you can get out of in any direction (including north) if you go too far. In this bubble (70-90m of water) are plenty of skippies (in quantities not seen in nearly 2 months) and striped marlin! The skippies are a welcome condition for those keen to fill their bait freezers in preparation of incoming winter.

Catches off 30-50 striped demons are now common with a 3 kilo average. Dolphin watching boats were seeing 2 or 3 marlin in their travels each trip, twice or three times daily! Even meatballs of anchovies were seen – usually driven to the surface by dolphin (much to the delight of their passengers) but occasionally with two or three marlin in attendance. These stripees are not big (70-100k’s) but there would appear to be a fair few of them and all within 10-12 miles of downtown Whakatane!

Summary

As you can see, the season is far from over for anything that swims in our waters except yellowfin – and they were over before they started this season! Plenty of opportunity in the autumn months and you needn’t travel far if you don’t choose. Snapper fishing was legendary last fall right through June so everyone is hoping for a repeat, certainly nothing wrong with it at present. NIWA is predicting a warmer autumn than average with generally mild conditions. Sounds pretty good for some excellent fishing over the coming months.

As you read this, “PURSUIT” and her crew have relocated to the Far North as per normal. We’ll be up here over the next 2 ½ months and looking forward to joining in on the great stories coming out of this region the past month. Already had some good fishing coming into the area – the stage is set. As a consequence will leave the BOP forum behind but will try to put in regular (fortnightly) reports from up top during this time.

Till next time…………………..