Fishing Reports

OVERVIEW

Over a week of fresh easterlies changed everything here on the Marlin front, with lots more Stripys arriving.

We have now gone from a late start, to a March type situation, with warm blue water right into the inner islands, and all the billfishing in as close as it gets, for us.

INSHORE

Much the same, dawn and dusk for snapper, or get lucky during the day. Terakihi are on again, off again, often big schools are found , but problems getting them to come on the bite. Some snapper have done with spawning now and are starting to filter back out to other places-i.e. good numbers seen by spearfishermen, in last few days out at the Aldermans again.

Unfortunately we seem to have inherited Whakatane's problem now as well, with Bronze Whaler sharks showing up at most good inshore Kingfish spots. Some days they are so bad, you just have to give up.

Its just another sign of change, due to the destruction of the tuna fishery and the bait schools that they followed. The purse seiners were straight here as soon as our Skippies finally showed, and now we are struggling to get Skippies again.

DEEP REEFS

Kingfishing is still average offshore, with a lot having moved in, and the Barras still harrassing offshore jig fishermen.

Hapuka fishing is going well on the deep reefs when you get the right day."Stingray"ended up with a good bag of Pukas the other day for some happy Japanese anglers, mostly around 12-15 kilos.

GAMEFISHING

Whitianga experienced some of its very best fishing earlier this week, with a bite that got better and better over a few days,  and culminated in "Hot Monday" where 20 or so boats found a pocket of Stripees in 140-160m mid way between the Hook, and the Middle ground. Those 20 odd boats got approximately 35-40 shots, and ended up with around 14 marlin for the day, probably the best numbers I have ever seen here.

One boat, unusally named "Whatever!" reportedly had 3 triple strikes for the day, and tagged 4 marlin, again probably not done here before, ever, whilst 2 other boats ended up with 3 for the day each, and several scored two for the day-certainly as good as it gets here!

The next day it was back to reality with approx 50 boats rushing out to get into it, and 5-6 shots for 3 fish taking us back down to earth.!!

Good Fishing

Andy Kerr-Stingray Charters-Whitianga