Fishing Reports

 The big bait schools that were providing the action in the Bay a couple of weeks ago seem to have moved back out to deep water and taken most of the larger snapper with them.

 Fishing inside the islands has produced plenty of small fish, but not many above pan size. The larger fish are starting to roe up, so it looks as though we will have the spawning schools back in  come mid October.

With fishing inside the islands a bit slow, and with better weather, many boats have been focussing on the 30 to 40M line outside the islands, from Hope Reef across to Oke Bay. These grounds are holding plenty of good sized terakihi, as well as a few good snapper. I prefer to fish the rock fringe along this line, and a live bait will often produce a good kingfish as a bonus.This area also provides very good cover when winds are any where between south and east.

 Live baits have been difficult, but there are plenty of good kingies at Rocky Point.

 With some beutiful 10 knot days there has been plenty of chance to fish out wide for hapuka. Compared to the last couple of years catches have been very good. Best of the fishing seems to be around the foul areas out at 200M. By catch has included a few school sharks and gemfish, but very few barracoutta which normally move in closer to shore at this time of year. Thankfully they have been a relative no show ,even in close, which should save a bit of tackle as we move into the snapper schooling run.

 We have trolled a few albacore lures, but only out as far as the 240M line while travelling between hapuka grounds. The coming couple of months should see some action from the smaller tunas for those looking at an early trip out wide.

 As always drop me an email to MAJOR.TOM@xtra.co.nz if you have any queries.