Weather, weather, weather!  After a couple months of near perfect conditions it finally had to happen.  Between high winds, big swells, monsoonal rain and floods there hasn’t been a lot of serious fishing done the past week.  Indeed, the Whakatane 20k – 4Way tournament (once Tuna Tourney) was cancelled in its entirety.  Read on ……

Inshore

Few reports with little change noted from last week.

Offshore

Also little effort put in here with little change, thankfully.  Kingis, while not monsters, are still extremely consistent.  All manner of enticements work well on the ravenous fish are lean and in the 15-17 kilo category with a few noted over 20.  Trevally, picking up with some over 5kgs.  Deepwater bottomfishing has been resilient for those few tapping into this fishery with smallish bluenose (should change soon), gemfish and hapuka holding up well.  Beautiful warm water around here which leads us to.

Pelagics

Can’t remember a season that has promised so much and delivered so little – so far that is. Would have been good to see the results had the 20k/4way could have gone ahead.  Few boats trolling in the Eastern Bay with fewer (far) catches noted.  Waihou Bay has seen most stalwarts (by far) out trying on a daily basis, weather permitting, with meager results. 

A spearfish was landed near the Volkners, otherwise Waihou has produced the odd marlin and a handful of decent mahi mahi.  Sure hoping for some fish to come through soon, otherwise this season could be remembered as the biggest fizzer ever!  A couple months I never thought I’d be hoping for a late season with all the strong indicators we were seeing.  Now if we don’t get one of those we don’t get one at all!  Still plenty of time for something positive to happen – we live in hope.

Ranfurly Bank

Two completely different stories for visiting boats recently.  Boat one (Enchanter) was on a kingfish only expedition with a boat load of Ozzies – on Australia Day no less!  They found purple 22 degree water with spectacular action.  Again, all manner of enticements (jigs, poppers, and stickbaits) worked well in the shallows.  Heaviest fish was a whopping 41 kilo beauty but there were numerous fish in the mid 30’s landed as well.  Needless to say the group had a filed day. 

Boat two (“PURSUIT”) duly arrived a day later to a different ocean!  Green crud (17 degrees) full of logs, sticks and bull kelp abounded everywhere.  Kingis had truly shut off, leaving slow but steady bottomfishing on tap.  Sharks (both tope and spiny dogs) made life difficult with equal numbers of hapuka and trumpeter although nothing large emerged.  A handful of small to medium sized bass completed a ho hum sort of day prior to the wind ruling the day yet again!  Trolling was out of the question.

Summary

Let’s hope this season has plenty of surprises remaining – otherwise, as stated earlier, it’s a nonevent.  Till next week……….