Fishing Reports

The first of the gannet work ups have started but they are few and far between and mostly, well the ones with any decent fish under them, are further out. There is a major lack of mammal life around compared to last year and we are just not seeing the big pods of dolphins, sei whales and brydes whales we did last year. These dolphins and whales hunt down the bait fish schools, round it up, push it to the surface so it can't get away and rip into it. The gannets of course come in from above and are our signposts. Not many sign posts to follow but when you find one out wide you are going to have a ball on some good snapper. Frost fish, 'couta and the odd kingi are still lurking with the bait schools too but it is mostly snapper under the work ups. Fish to 7kg from the last few trips.

The recent toxin "scare" had us shut down for about a week and we have been in contact with pretty much all of the authorities on this matter but have have had little or no feedback from them other than the media releases and the conversations we have had with ARPHS. We have been given the OK to go ahead and fish the Gulf but I would be a little more cautious if fishing in close along the beaches and coastline of the North Shore which seems to be the more toxic of the areas.

I find it a real shame that the public have been pretty much left out of this affair with little or no information other than a few suspected theories of toxic algea being eaten by sea slugs(don't see any of these being washed up) and poisonious puffer fish. In my opinion, and that's all it is, there is little or no eveidence of toxic algae, the puffer fish are a trawl-by catch, that because it has no worth, has been discarded at sea to wash up on the beach (and lets face it, we are not being invaded by puffer fish on every beach. There has only been a few washed up here and there and probably only because of the recent onshore conditions. We see them floating at sea as trawl by-catch pretty regularly!). There is also a lot of talk about the poison drop on the Gulf islands. Evidently, a very powerful poison that is extremely harmful to sea life but you can rest assured that if its a botch up by a government department like DoC then there will be little or no information forthcoming unless under extreme duress.

Anyway...the warnings to keep your pets and children off our fantastic beaches are still in place so be careful. I have noticed a lot of big changes in the Gulf over the past month. The distinct lack of mammals, the large schools of kahawai have gone when they were in plauge proprtions and there is alot of dead salps, both on the bottom and sinking though the water coloum. Have you noticed the jelly like creature with the dark dot in it coming up on your gear? Odd, to say the least,  that all these changes take place over a month or so when the fishing was pretty steady. The fishing too also slowed dramatically especially in close during this time.

Where did all the kahawai schools suddenly dissappear to?

Anyhooo, we have been fishing out deeper away from the toxic areas and heaven forbid the situation reaches Little Barrier and the other outer islands of the Gulf. In close around the kelp lines has been pretty good with snapper and good trevally coming from straylined baits and soft plastic drift fished down the egdes of the kelp beds. Big porae, often mistaken during the fight as a good snapper, terahiki, john dory and the odd rat kingi make up the rest of the catch up here.

We have had a few good shots at Horn Rock too both on plastics and baits, but mosly from the deeper foul around the rock. Its a huge area so spend a bit of time having a look around not like half the sheep that park up just off the rock. Jimmies is another spot that has been going OK too when the weather allows. We had a few fast drifts across the eastern side of it in some breeze a few trips back that produced pretty well. The fish were holding in spot and as we went over it time and time again we hooked a good fish. Back and forth we went, in fact so often I was tempted to put the pick down but the 'couta were around and I didn't want to do that to my crew.

Anchoring is a bit old school these days and when you have guys that want to fish rubber, plastic or jigs you are doing them no favours what so ever. Drift fishing is pretty much always more productive.

We have had a a few sharky days at Colville recently. They love a big bait drifted along in the current and can be a real pain in the butt.

The flip side is we have been getting some good snapper and other fish in here too. There is heaps of ground in the channel itself but out to the east of the channel in 60m is where the gannets have started showing up. Even blind drifting was getting us a few fish but when the gannets started it was all on!

The coast down towards Port Charles  has some good fishing at times too and doesn't get a hiding like some other places do. The 30-40m areas along here are worth a look early in the season.

Closer in from what i hear has been holding a few pannies for those wanting to put in some time and effort. Around Rakino (try in between the island and the hystack) has been getting the boys a feed on the plastics, mostly early in the morning or last thing during the day. The Noises (try in between here and the Davids and here and the Ahaahas) has been producing the odd  few here and there. The 30-40m line out from here too could be worth a look as well and keep your eyes out for the gannets over towards the top of Coromandel way as there is bit of bait fish showing up in here. Typically you would be seeing mammals in here too but sadly they seem to be elsewhere. Perhaps they too have heard of the state of things inshore!

I have posted the list of casual dates on the website so go have a look at that lot. More will come up as the season progresses. There is also some fishing videos to watch online there as well to show you what we get up to out there.You might even see yourself in the slide show.

It might pay to book your Xmas function or work do now as dates are filling fast. We will be running 2 boats this summer but even with them both you should book well in advance.

Damian (Damo) Clayton

www.charterconnection.co.nz - Where fishing is catching!©

deepsea@clear.net.nz