Fishing Reports

Great to be back on the water after what seems like ages – barely three months really.  After putting “PURSUIT” through her annual maintenance and survey period, we’re raring to go.  With the absolutely atrocious weather we’ve been made to endure most of the past two months it’s good to also experience some improvement there as well – heaven knows we deserve it!  Been plenty of ying, now how about the yang?!?!

Very little effort on the water for obvious reasons so not a huge or comprehensive report this time around – but it’s a start.

Inshore

Very little happening here as everywhere else.  The few that have been out just recently have scratched up a feed and no more.  Some nice fat kahawai dining or whitebait morsels seem evenly spread throughout.  A few smallish snapper, terakihi and gurnard complete this sparse story.

Offshore

No deepwater fishing has been attempted for weeks by all accounts.  A couple trips to White Island yielded fairly pedestrian results in general.  Shallow water fishing was similar to that inshore – eking out a feed of terakihi with the off porae and trevally mixed in.  Kingis are biting pretty well with a couple major considerations. 

Most are quite small regardless of bait/lure choice.  Ten kilos is a big one with most very much in the rat or mouse category.  Next is condition with most very lean – needing a few good feeds to come up to scratch.  Would appear to have been a hard winter all around – don’t we know it!  Spawning would appear to be a long ways away now. 

Two fine fish did far surpass the rest, however.  Aucklander Brian Jones bested a beauty early season fish of nearly 33 kilos followed by Graham “Boulder” McKenzie at a kilo back.  Congratulations guys.  Water is relatively clean out there but very cold (around 14 degrees C).  In spite of that sunfish was seen fining nearby the island.

Ranfurly Bank

One good thing about the inclement weather we’ve had is the near marine reserve status it has imposed on places like this.  No one has wanted or been able to sample these waters for several months.  Predictably the first lines down found favour with average sized hapuka very keen to oblige.  In fact the mainly doubleheader fishing forced a quick rethink before the fish hold was prematurely overflowing. 

These puka were mainly between eight and 15 kilos and in relatively poor condition, having spawned merely weeks ago.  Ohope Beach angler Richard Boon proved top angler amongst his peers with a 32 kilo beaut, part of yet another doubleheader.  Aside from this action things were far less vibrant.  Sharks, mainly tope and spiny dogs, made life difficult.  If they didn’t nail baits initially, their numbers (and nuisance value) increased in further drifts. 

In several cases full grown (20 kilos plus) school sharks were following king terakihi all the way to the surface out of 150 metres of water!  Bass were thin on the ground and kingfish were found only in token numbers (not yet targeted).  Water colour was green throughout, even out in 1200 metres.  Back inshore near East Island the fishing was steady with plenty of snapper, terakihi and even a good sprinkling of pup hapuka.  Overall a good scene which should only improve.

Summary

Not a bad start to the upcoming season.  More time on the water in improved weather conditions will see a lot more information come to the fore.  Spring is always a time of expectation and anticipation – expect no different this time around.