Fishing Reports

Pleased to report more improvement – always a nice feature! Weather remains a mixed bag whenever your in this part of the country but fishing prospects increasingly make up for the tough days at sea. The rewards are now there on a much more consistent basis. Temps, both water and air, are still uncharacteristically cool but what can one expect with incessant southerly and westerly winds?!? This will change but it doesn’t look to be soon.

Inshore

The big news here is some nice sized to XOS snapper showing up in catches right around the region. The monster was taken on a light soft bait rig at the Rurima Rocks, weighing over 14kgs or nearly 32 old fashioned pounds – great catch. Elsewhere, and in a very disparate area, some good numbers of 5-7 kilo fish are also to be found.

Out on the sand north of Ohiwa Harbour entrance onto Waiotahi some great fishing has been enjoyed by savvy and patient anglers. Anchoring up in anywhere between 30 and 60 metres of water, deploying a berley bomb (important component to this) and soaking baits while waiting. Seems like a simple formula but one many cannot employ. Why? Because they are impatient! Sometimes it’s taken one or even two hours before your first bite comes along – waaaay too long for many of us to endure! Those exceptional in the patience stakes excel in this area with some great catches of late.

While snapper is the primary target, it doesn’t end there. A few terakihi (nice ones), kahawai, gurnard, kingis (up to 20 kilos but most over 10), trevally and pup hapuka – a veritable league of nations! Some have reported quite a few pups, averaging 3-5kgs, amongst their catches. In some ways a shame to take them but wide ranging and ever so nice on the platter.

Back close to Kohi Point there’s also been some nice catches without the kingis and puka. Overall the inshore scene is pretty vibrant and very likely to get better. Water temp has improved slightly but still cooler than normal by a long shot. As soon as the temp improves, it could trigger this entire area exponentially!

Offshore

Probably the least happening here, possibly even gone backward a touch. Deepwater fishing has received little effort. Those who endure the rigors of deepwater fishing have been rewarded with small bluenose and little else. Kingis, a focal species just now, have gone sideways. While the fishing is quite good, the fish are all out of the same mould. Few rats, smaller ones on 15kgs and larger ones pushing 18 – that’s it with little else seemingly around.

This fishing is ideal for novice groups and provides great sport but not terribly challenging for those more experienced. And still jigs lag well behind bait. Perhaps an upward movement in water temps will spurn on their aggressive nature. Plenty of flying fish about and sunfish a daily observation. Back closer to White Island; the shallower water is surprisingly quiet. Terakihi, usually about in near plague proportions at this time of year, are conspicuous by their relative absence. Other reef species and trevally are not rallying about in support either. Take out the kingis of this equation and it’s a pretty sorry state overall.

Ranfurly Bank

Improved weather, some days, along with some nice catches to make it all worthwhile. Water still very cold (sub 15) but not a bad colour. Bottomfishing is steady not red hot nor difficult – somewhere in between, although there are a few beauties to be had, most are of a very average size. A good example was a catch the “Enchanter” had recently. Largest fish was a credible 47 kilo bass by Aucklander Paul Bayer. Among the rest of the catch the next largest was less than half as big with most in the 10-15 kilo category. Hapuka outnumber bass but there has been a pleasing development.

Joining these two mainstays has been a good number of king terakihi (XOS) and trumpeter (small to medium sized) in a welcoming support role. Prior to this bycatch situation it was a very “pure” fishery the past six weeks. In shallower water (30 down to 100 metres) the kingis are literally biting their heads off! Here they take all offerings with equal abandon with jigs working very well. Although few large fish have been taken just lately, the average is well above the ho hum size of White Island. Most are 20-24 kilos with a few larger like Kane Lipscombe’s 32 fatty. Overall great fishing here now with the likelihood of further improvement.

Summary

While a game season is not even worth a thought at present, the rest of it is most gratifying. A little less wind and warmer temps would be very welcome, otherwise don’t rock the ship. Till next week …………………..