Fishing Reports

Been back in home waters for over a fortnight now with finally something to write about!  While weather conditions have been a real mixed bag, there have been some decent windows of weather if you act quickly and get a little lucky after checking out all the relevant forecasts.  With little to no activity for days on end, the few nice patches have seen some bursts of effort put in over wide range of the Bay but none moreso than the ………..

Inshore

On the appropriate days the Whakatane coastguard has been quite busy with most boats well within 10 miles of port – and doing well on the whole.  Been vibrant fishing right throughout the various depths and terrain that this arena encompasses.  Snapper, in particular, have shined brightly with near or full limits commonplace.  While most are pannies, there have been a few beauts to and even over eight kilos.  As though it’s needed, terakihi are now kicking in as well.  Along with the omnipresent gurnard and kahawai.  Don’t need to go far to get a nice feed of fish for the family.

Offshore

Very few boats venturing here, even on nice days.  Water still quite warm and clean, unlike inshore.  The few forays into deep water produced fairly meager results with mainly small bluenose comprising the bulk of the small catch.  Around the island kingfish are still a main drawcard with near summer type fishing to be had. 

Many of the normal haunts are firing on mainly 15-20 kilo fish with the Volkner Rocks producing the very best of the lot.  Unfortunately the bronze whalers are also in attendance in summer proportions, ripping tethered kingis asunder.  Closer to the island the shallows (30-60 metes) are holding good numbers of trevally and reef fish – the latter dominated by terakihi of decent dimensions.

Ranfurly Bank

With very little effort over the past few months, this productive area was up to expectations in a recent visit.  Bottomfishing was excellent with pre spawning hapuka dominating the catch.  With doubleheaders commonplace, it doesn’t take too many drifts to see the fish hold bulge to capacity.  In no surprise, the catch saw mainly males among the 10-17 kilo fish.  A few decent bass also saw the light of day. 

Opotiki farmer Glen Thorne nailed the “Whopper of the week” with his personal best at 51 kilos followed by a few kilos back by Ngatea angler and skipper Drew Edwards.  Also no shortage of king terakihi and kingfish, even though the latter were not targeted.  Water ran the gamut of temperatures and colours, between green and blue from 14.6 degrees C to a most unseasonable 17.4!  Some breaks went nearly two degrees in just over a mile! 

According to surface longliners in the area there’s no shortage of XOS albacore with a near 20 kilo average with one tipping the scales at a whopping 38 kilos!  Hopefully these fish may move just a little closer.  To top off such of radiant fishery we find good numbers of prime snapper on either side of East Cape, some nudging 20lbs.

Summary

Things look and are good as we move well past the shortest day and into winter.  Temperatures, both above and below the surface, are also above normal and may have some influence on current affairs.  All we can say is long may it last!  Until next week ………