Fishing Reports

I have been hearing and experiencing  good fishing for Hapuka and Bass in areas north of Great Barrier in waters 100M to 200M deep. There was a monster caught by Karp (Kim Pickard) which pulled the scales down to 75Kg. I was lucky enough to be onboard for this once in a lifetime catch. This fish was a huge bass  pulled from the deep clean water behind Great Barrier. It was caught on 37 Kg tackle, and boy did that braid sing as it was stripped through the guides. the 37kg bent butt rod had a serious bend in it to say the least. The fish took a whole squid rigged on a custom puka dropper rig tied by WS Lauries Tackle shop in Auckland.

Brett Rathe from Assasain Charters has been catching good numbers of these delectable table fish in the same area.

There is plenty of low lying foul north of the Needles, a good way to find it is to look around any squiggles along the 100 or 200M contour lines. Look for small rises and fish sign. The fish seem to bite best when the current slows down. We catch more fish in the last hour or so before slack water.

Its very pleasent out wide when the weather plays ball. Wait until there is at least 2 days of light winds and a swell less than 0.5M to make this form of fishing more enjoyable. We have been using the new style electric reels on the market, which really are a lot of fun. There were lots of ooohs and aahs from the crew onboard Karps boat as the 75 Kg Beast strained the electric reel and bent the rod like a noodle. If you can give electrics a try do it, I was sceptical of them at first but as soon as I tried one I really enjoyed it.

Congrats to Karp