Fishing Reports

A few significant changes which one would expect after a major blow.  And blow it did, for three days last weekend.  One negative is deterioration of water quality and temperature below North Cape and with this has come far better and warmer water beyond the Cape and with it more billfish opportunity.  Otherwise it’s much the same.

Doubtless Bay

Although water has drastically gone downhill due to recent rain and silt runoff, the snapper don’t seem to mind.  Still few of any size but not particularly difficult to garner a limit.  Plenty of good sized kahawai to go with the equation.

Cape Karikari – Great Exhibition Bay

Some excellent sessions on snapper throughout this expansive bit of water and they aren’t all small either – a number over four kilos and all they way the eight and nine.  One thing that seem to have disappeared has been skippies.  Boats traveling throughout this area are coming up completely empty despite trolling miniscule lures.  As a consequence don’t expect to get bait readily here.

Garden Patch

Not a lot of traffic but still worth a visit.  Water remains relatively warm (19) and blue, certainly a decent chance at a marlin remains.  Although few boats have persevered with the sword fishing since Easter, “Hook’n’Bull” is the exception with some results for the skilled teams efforts.  After a number of chances they finally had some “luck”, if that’s what you want to call it after an intense but brief battle of high speed and precise maneuvering, a large sword was boatside.  Easily the world record on the gear Guy Jacobsen was using, everything unfolded in strong winds and horizontal rain.  Long story shortened revealed a disqualified catch but, at 312kgs, what a catch!  Otherwise a mixture of deepwater denizens to satisfy anyone’s culinary aspirations.

North Cape – “The Shelf” – Compass Rose

Water quality continues good here, something we haven’t seen in weeks.  Although there’s bait stacks at the “Rose” with great potential, few boats are even passing through this water let alone working it.

Scott Point – Twighlight Bay – Cape Maria van Diemen

With such strong easterlies recently it gave some boats the chance to prospect this fish rich area with good results.  The usual tope were waiting to oblige but so were the snapper, and some beauties at that.  A team all scored 20 pounders with 28 being the largest.  A few trevs and kingis complimented a brilliant snapper haul.

Three kings – Princes Group

From an artificial standpoint (jigs & stickbaits) it’s been a total waste of time.  Maybe the chilly water (15) has a lot to do with this but livebait still does the trick at times.

King Bank

Just when we were glad to write this bank off in its entirety, it comes back on song – in its entirety!    The big blow may not have done any favours along the coast but it sure hasn’t done any harm to this bank – quite the contrary.  Not only have some stripees turned up but the bottomfish and kingis have also blossomed – at the moment it’s the package deal.  While there were a few lure strikes, most of the marlin were taken on live koheru.  While not thick and fast, there seems to be a concentration of fish here, particularly on the top end.  Water is nice (bluish) and warm (19+) so hopefully they will stick around a while. 

Bass, as per normal at this time of year, own this bank.  As they are leading up to spawning they seem to kick the longnose (hapuka) right off the bank.  A wide variety of sizes prevail now with anything between four and fifty kilos landed with most in the 10-25 kilo class.  Kingis biting well has been nothing new here but quality has been an issue for weeks.  Just lately these stakes have picked up markedly.  While no monsters were landed, many in the mid to high 20’s were and there’s nothing wrong with that.  Long may this scenario last.

Middlesex Bank

Still a vibrant situation sans the shark problem.  Instead of just going there for some great kingi and bottomfish (far more hapuka here for some reason) the marlin have also graced this area with their presence.  “Arenui” skippered by Geoff Lamond scored five stripeys over a two day period – best catch seen there for some time.  Great to have marlin potential in both banks plus all the other trappings.

Summary

As they say, better late than never.  While running very late, there may some excellent to finish the season with.  With only a few boats still plying the region, it may be too late to be shared by many but those lucky few …………