Fishing Reports

This season got off to a great start, and continues to be a good one. As we expected, the snapper spawning is over and they are now feeding ferociously. Catches are typically 3-7kg and the schools of snapper are often surrounded by huge schools of rat kingies. There's a few kahawai and trevally about and they are in good condition and up to 2.5 kg.

The easterlies have continued to drive the blue water in close. This made for excellent conditions for the Mangawhai Fishing Club Competition (6-2-11), which was won by yours truly with a good solid 6kg snapper.

Good numbers of fish around that size were also landed, and some even bigger, around the time of the competition. The birds are providing great clues to schools of kingies and kahawai and the snapper are in close attendance to those workups so worth keeping an eye out for any activity. On the game fish front there has been several marlin seen and caught not far past the chicks where the water temp is in excess of 24 degrees,

We've been fishing mainly on the sand as the easterly wave action has created good feeding conditions.

It's also a great time to be hunting extra large kingies, as they are holding well on the outer reefs. Best option is to fish with livebait once you have them in attendance but they will also take a jig and colour seems to be immaterial.

On the diving front we are consistently able to get great visibility up to 10-15 meters and the crayfish are still in reasonably shallow water. Wwe have managed crayfish each trip, and we are lucky enough to be able to dive in just about any sea conditions as the Hen & Chicks provide great shelter.

Remember a good chumming trail to bring the fish in close, and float a few large pillie/squid combo's floated down the trail for a large snapper.

Cheers Gordon.
0800 347 467
www.fishing-diving.co.nz
gordon@fishing-diving.co.nz