Fishing Reports

The 'coutas are here in force. Most of the big reefs out in the Gulf have them in residence and they can be found nipping off the gear on the drop, on the lift, on the wind and generally anytime you have a bait in the water. I'm exagerating of course but they are around and if you get plauged by the toothy devil sit pays to move on. If soft bait fishing, use a large worm hook. The longer shank protects the trace from getting bitten through and you (most of the time) get to keep the hook and even the bait.

Here's what we have been up to:

Tiri and the local area is holding a few big fish. A few of the local hard cores have been doing alright around Tiri with a reported 9+kilo snapper coming from the shallows this week. Wellington Reef has also been producing a few bigger fish along with some healthy, hard fighting, pannies from this area too. It is quite a large reef system out here, a lot of it not shown on the chart. Have a bit of a drive around with the sounder going to see just how big the area is.

Kawau too has been fishing alright, not so much for numbers of fish but some bigger fish have come from the foul along the back of the island and Maori Rock. Head out of the end of takatu though and you're into couta country. Barracouta are savage and ferocious feeders and hang around normally pretty close to the coast, well thats where the vast majority of feed is for them in the form of bait fish and other fishes. We have got a few areas we fish over winter that don't seem to get too badly effected by them though and they are just starting to fish quite well.

Little Barrier is its usual hot and cold self. Put some time in up here and you'll do well both in close and on the deeper foul. We had stick it out till late in the day on a few trips just to get on the fish...welll actually for them to come on the bite but was coming up to the the recent full moon when it was a dawn and dusk bite time. 5 mile Reef still has a few rat kingis on it that will take jigs and livies but we haven't seen a good fish come off here for a while. Anchorite is the same too, a few small kingis still lurking around but nothing over 10kg for a while and pretty barren on the snapper front.

The Warkworth Game Fish Club 10kg contest was held in pretty good conditions. We took out the heaviest kingfish and got a few snapper prizes but overall the fish size was down on previous years with only a 7.6kg snapper taking away the $1000 cash. All the usual fun and games were the same if not better again this year and the outgoing president Wayne (Browndog) Brown put on a great show that went late into the evening.

It might be the recession but we have had to postpone one of our Great Barrier weekends due to lack of interest. These trips produce big fish both from stray lining in the shallows and from the deep water drift fishing we do. Check our website for more info and dates. Our last trip out there produced snapper to 8kg, kingfish to 16kg and a bin of tasty "others" The great thing about the Barrier is the way you can change from fishing right in close in the shallows and within 10 minutes be fishing in 100m of water for puka, big snapper and kingis. Plenty of sheltered, safe anchorages too. We do trips for 6 anglers stay-aboard or 10 stay ashore.

The work ups out in the middle Gulf seem to have fizzled out and other than the odd school of pilchards being harrassed by the dolphins, the schools of kahawai onn the surface and occasional gannet work up there is not really much happening out here. There are still a few schools of snapper round the place but getting them to bite can be the hard bit or at least was, as the moon came up to full last week.

The bottom end of Waiheke has been getting a good going over from some of the Aucklnad charter boats and even from up here at gulf harbour but I have found on the whole that the fish are small and you have to move around quite a bit to get amoungst it. On the other side of the Firth and around the Happy Jacks there have been a few good ones caught mostly in closer to the islands where there is still relatively deep water.

The Great Kiwi 'Couta Catch is coming up on August 2nd this year. A barracouta fishing contest run out of Neptunes Sport fishing Club on the Gulf Harbour Basin. The fishing starts at 0500 and you have to be at the weigh in by 1700. You can only weigh in 1 'couta and the heaviest 5 will take away the prizes. There will also be lucky angler draws. Tickets are only $20 and can be ordered by emailing me at deepsea@clear.net.nz You can fish where you like with what ever you like (no nets, long line or spears). Any enquiries ...call me on 021 2446346

We also have the Neptunes Fishing Comp this weekend. Fish all weekend for $30, again where you want and how you want and be at Neptunes to weigh in 1 of the following species, snapper, kingfish (must be over a metre) kahawai and trevally. Again call me for tickets or details. We have some good prizes including every junior ($15 per junior) getting a prize and certificate, Soft baits, soft bait rod, a large ice box, TopCatch vouchers and the ladies mystery prize. Should be a lot of fun.

Check out a slideshow from last winter here you may even see yourself and remember we run trips all year for both individuals and groups. Check the website for individuals and dates fro small groups. we put dates aside evey month for you. Group bookings?Just give us a call or flick an email through to get a list of available dates.

We also have our Big Day Out trips, the Friday Fish Fest, SP Only Days and all sorts coming up.

There's plenty happening so get into it!

Damian(Damo)Clayton

Charter Connection - Where fishing is catching!©