Fishing Reports

What glorious weather we’ve finally had for the long weekend just gone – easily the nicest stretch we’ve experienced on over a month. With the holiday came a lot of boat traffic as anglers hit the water with a vengeance. While the inshore region predictably got the most pressure, boats spread wide and far with the favorable conditions. Their fortunes varied widely, as much as the diversity of their craft.

Inshore

A real mixed bag of stories from the inshore armada. Generally fishing was pretty tough in the shallow water with better success as the depth increased. Gurnard was the one shining light that pleased most anglers if they specifically sought the sand dwellers out. Otherwise it was mainly tough going on snapper and terakihi in the usual haunts between Whale Island, the Rurimas and Matata.

Some decent catches were made in the depths (40 – 60+ metres) off Ohiwa Harbour with surprise visitors including pup hapuka and decent sized (to 19k’s) kingis. Sure the shallows will become more productive all the way around as the water temperature increases. At this point it’s a chilly 14-15 degrees C – only one way to go!

Offshore

Much harder out here. After some encouraging upward movement on kingfish earlier in the week, these fish become very aloof over the long weekend. Perhaps they moved enmasse off Ohiwa Harbour! Neither an exhaustive range of jigs and baits could tempt more than a handful among a small armada of boats fishing most every reef and depth (20 to nearly 200 metres) imaginable. “Whopper of the week” easily went to Whangamata angler Craig Matetaka with his well proportioned 31 kilo beauty.

After that there were a few in the 20’s and less – read that very few. A real mixture of condition factors with skinny slabs to well conditioned pre spawn specimens with some real girth. Again, increased water temps can only help raise metabolic rates and thus mobilize kingi appetites – hopefully sooner than later. Elsewhere the bottom species were a little more productive with some hapuka, bluenose and gemfish coming out of the depths and terakihi from the shallows.

Water quality is very poor with 15 degrees and green throughout. Albacore are seemingly out of the picture now. Flying fish however, have shown up on queue (new moon in October) despite the poor water quality. Plenty of room for improvement out here, perhaps some nor easterlies could remedy the current situation?

Ranfurly Bank

Mother Nature has again done what she does so well on a consistent basis here – protect the rich resource! Strong winds and good sized swells have prevented any visits this past week. Hopefully this will alter soon to allow keen crews access this highly regarded destination.

Waihou Bay

The local club has just experienced their most productive Labour Day tournament ever. With a record number of entrants (155, normally just over 100) they experienced pristine conditions with fishing to match. Kingis turned on at nearby Cape Runaway with jigs doing the damage on some very nice fish. Winning fish was just over 25 kilos but there were several others hard on its heels. Many fine snapper were boated in the five to eight kilo bracket with the winner just under nine k’s. Good catches of terakihi were common with also a pleasing sprinkling of pup (3-4 kg) hapuka in attendance. A good start to the long season ahead.

Summary

A real mixed bag of fortunes obviously borne out recently. A simple outlook of improved water temps and weather patterns would see a lot better and consistent spring fishing. With current temps, both air and sea, it’s hard to believe we are only a month away from the official start of summer. Can’t arrive too soon for all of us!