Fishing Reports

After a nasty spate of southerly winds we are now back to the same old we’ve known over the past three months.  Hot sticky weather with cooler nights for better sleeps.  While water inshore is a jumbled, distorted mess of warm but discoloured patches of water.  Further afield (outside and west of White Island/Waihou Bay) the cobalt stuff has returned with some bounty still there.

Inshore

Darn good fishing, despite tsunamis and all!  A lot of effort out into the near shore scene, partly due to two recent tournaments.  Some good to even excellent catches came aboard most boats with some particularly nice lines of snapper boated.  Significant numbers of three to six kilo fish spice catches with some large (over 10kgs). 

All depths, bottom terrain and methods are producing – it’s just good fishing all around.  Also some XOS kahawai crashing some parties with some well over the lofty three kilo barrier.  A few decent sized kingis also showing up with several in the mid to high teens landed.  Finishing up are some terakihi with miniscule trevally and even smaller gurnard completing the autumn cornucopia.

Offshore

The nicest thing anyone could say about White Island at the moment is about its inconsistency.  If you care to be uncharitable then you could say it’s downright lousy!  Most of the various fisheries there have certainly taken a downturn, that’s for sure.  Kingis have really gone off the boil, that’s if you could say it was hot anytime over the past month – not really.  About the only place that has produced recently has been the slice that’s exempt from the Volkner Rocks Marine Reserve.  Occasionally the fish bite well and are good sized – that’s the good news. 

Getting an intact fish to the boat is nigh on impossible compliments of the ravenous bronze whalers.  Well known writer Mark Kitteridge had a lovely kingfish in the low 30’s abbreviated at the last moment in a real heartbreak.  One notable exception was the brute Auckland banker Rolf Stadler landed.  At a whopping 42 ½ kilos, it’s the quality most anglers only dream of!  Well done Rolf, you may spend the rest of you angling career trying to top that one! 

Bait fishing has also become somewhere between difficult and impossible just too compound things.  Mackerel have all but disappeared over the past month and know their stand-in, koheru, have followed suit!  A few lonely flying fish is all that’s in the bin most nights come daylight.  Trevally, despite munching on krill on the surface, have become very difficult to temp otherwise. 

Bluenose is probably been the best of a bad deal along with terakihi, although even they are not the epitome of consistency.  Water at the island is a clean warm green but go a little further afield and it blues up nicely.  More about this aspect a little later.

Ranfurly Bank

Finally a general improvement in things here as well as some trophy fish, the first for some time.   Not only did the average drift improve on numbers but, as mentioned, quality as well.  “Enchanter” anglers accounted for not only the first kingfish over 30 kilos in many weeks but also the best bass in a similar length of time. 

While the average fish is still a hapuka of somewhere between eight and 15 kilos, “Johnno” of Auckland bested a 51kg bass to take honours there.  Although there is a reasonable bycatch of trumpeter and king terakihi, it’s really a hapuka show.  Up in the shallows, despite cool (19 degrees C) green water the kingis are biting well. 

Up until Doug Wilson’s 31kg beaut, there had not been one over 30 in many weeks.  Still vibrant fishing however with many 20 plus kilo fish to be had using any number of different techniques.  Boats looking for gamefish – good luck!  It has been one of, if not the worst, gamefishing seasons in this area in memory.  Despite a bubble of warm water straight of Gisborne and reaching up toward Tolaga Bay, it’s been one big non event anywhere between Lottin point and east of Ranfurly.  Since we’re into this aspect, let’s continue ……

Pelagics

Despite the easterly woes, the season is alive and, in most cases, limping along.  After hearing all the fantastic reports of up north virtually all season and feeling hard done by, we have finally got slow but steady action here where it has gone morgue like quiet up there!  Waihou Bay is still kicking out some billfish action although it remains poor reading if you care to divide the number of strikes (let alone catches) by participating boats. 

Back in the middle of the Bay things are somewhat livelier.  Stripees are seen, and have been caught, between Whale and White Islands.  Stripees feeding on saury are a common sight, sometimes six or seven at a time.  One boat had three shots resulting in one tagged fish.  Further behind while the water improves many fold, 22 degrees and cobalt.  While you will work for your rewards, there are some fish present well worth the effort. 

Pauline Rouse tagged a nice 175 kilo blue for her efforts which was followed up nicely with a couple good sessions on XOS mahi mahi.  Among the four NZ records broken, the most meritorious went to Anita Syben with her spectacular 16.2 kilo female on 4 kilo tackle.  The fish, hooked not long prior to darkness, took her nearly four hours to subdue with the gaff being deployed just after midnight!  Happy lady!

Summary

Still a lot of life left in this season.  In many ways its better now than it has been all season long.  Autumn is often a great settled time to be on the water and this year appears to be better than most.  Enjoy ………………