Fishing Reports

After such a beautiful, warm settled week we, got a cold snap just to shock us back to reality!  Indeed, last week was a little like “groundhog Day” with light northerlies and warm humid temps for eight days in a row. 

Fishing also followed suit giving those on the water some decent reward.  A few pleasant surprises, otherwise pretty much status quo with the week before.

Inshore

Snapper coming to closer to spawning as the temp climbs.  With nearly 18 degrees C the trigger will be pulled soon on this annual event.  Can’t really single out a hot depth or terrain – seems like there’s some (or a lot) snapper most everywhere.  A few decent fish are being apprehended amongst the hordes of pannies.  Shallow water straylining is a decent berley trail seems to be the winning formula for these quality fish. 

Also soft plastics have come to the fore in places at times but without the consistency this method enjoyed earlier in the season.  This fishery should only improve with more warmth.  With the current strong “La Nina” projections this could stand out as an excellent recruitment year with fishing to match.  Terakihi, when required, still hold a brilliant supporting role as well as gurnard.  While the latter prefers sandy environs, the silversides like the broken ground associated with low foul.  Water is a “clean green” with nearly six metre visibility for divers.

Offshore

Again, pretty vibrant throughout all the various fisheries available here.  Kingfish, most anglers target species at White Island, have not failed to deliver.  What was very much an afternoon bite has now broadened somewhat.  While afternoons are still decidedly better, at least the mornings are not a waste of time!  Still most all offerings, except jigs, are accepted well.  Not sure what the exact problem is with jigs but, whatever it is, it has been quite noticeable over the past two seasons at the smokey isle. 

All other manner of enticement has and it’s working a treat.  Average size is still quite pleasing with just under 20 kilo the norm.  “Whopper of the Week” on this apex species was a 29 kilo specimen taken by John Sommerville although he was followed closely by several anglers only a kilo or two back.  Some retained females are now exhibiting very ripe gonads and spawning is imminent although males have been ready to go for weeks now – typical for the gender!  Elsewhere the deepwater fishing has stepped up a couple notches with some good sessions had recently.  All of the species have collaborated to deliver some nice catches. 

Some of the deeper spots (300m plus) have predictably yielded mainly bluenose with the environs closer to 200m have coughed up diversified catches.  Some of the gemfish are horses of over 10 kilos while most bluenose average a pleasing 8-10k’s and up to 15.  A 20 kilo puka topped that species list while an “Enchanter” angler managed a whopping (for the area) 37 kilo bass near the Volkner Rocks (don’t worry – well outside the reserve!) All in all the deep has produced of late and well worth the effort.  Shallow water has also been worthwhile with terakihi, golden snapper and pink mao mao (larger versions) leading the change. 

Anywhere from 45 out to 80 metres is the preferred depth range.  Nice trevally, many over five kilos, are also playing ball in a variety of depths (15-70).  They too are ready to spawn and in the prime condition of their lives.  Water colour and temp continues to ramp up.  Although no significant catches have surfaced (aside from “coke” albies or skippies) it’s only a matter of time and effort.  Surface long liners fishing in local (30 nautical miles of White Island and Cape Runaway) are landing not only nice bigeye but also token numbers of yellowfin tuna. 

One thing you can put a ring around – once a gamefish has been landed, the gold rush will be on!  At present it seems everyone is hanging back to let the other guy go out and spend his full allowance!

Ranfurly Bank

Interesting times here with significant changes occurring by the day, tide and boat visit.  While there are still some great fish and the tempo of fishing one would expect from this distant outpost, there are also a fair few lean and frustrating times in between.  Kingis have certainly gone off the boil, if not in numbers then certainly in size.  Largest landed there this week was a mere 20 kilo job, a far cry from what happened previously.  More of a surprise since, with the recent new moon, the currents were raging torrents at times.

Although this can make bottomfishing a nightmare, it usually creates excellent kingfish opportunities.  Not this time.  Bottomfishing however, has been patchy to say the least.  Most fish landed have been of modest size with a few exceptions.  One such fish was landed by the 68 year old Bill Smally.  The “Enchanter” angler bested his 56 kilo bass with relative ease, well done Bill!  Another boats day must be related.  Getting a 3am start from Hick’s Bay, it was clear they were serious about getting in a full days fishing!  Despite their best efforts, their first 10 hours of effort yielded only little more than one fish (collectively) per hour. 

Then, with nearly everyone onboard ready to throw their hands up in disgust, all hell broke loose.  The heavens smiled, the floodgates opened and suddenly yielded five to eight fi8sh per drift with some beauties among them.  The lesson here – perseverance pays off and you can never say die!  Back inshore the normal snapper and terakihi are obliging in token amounts but bolstered well by more than usual numbers of small (4-7kgs) to medium (10-14k’s) sized hapuka.  Water here looks good over the shelf with a few 8-9 kilo albacore present.

Summary

Obviously, things are pretty vibrant on the bungy at the moment with the scope for improvement.  Many eyes and ears are on the gamefish scene which could easily produce a good fish at any time.  A fat tuna, either bigeye or yellowfin, should be the species but striped marlin can’t be too far behind.  With Christmas not far away, few are venturing too far afield at present.  Till next week ……