Fishing Reports

Magical Mokes, That was so true on 1-8-11 which was simply a beautiful winters day with no wind and no swell. We had planned to leave Mangawhai Heads at 6-30am with our party of 5 very excited guests.

We decided to do it all, Simpsons, Naivre Rocks, Burgess Island, Fanal island, Maori rocks, Groper island, and armed with some of the Burgess island light house keepers fishing spots … taken from his records when he lived on the island back in the 60`s we were off.

The brisk morning opened up to glorious sunshine for our trip to the Moks.

80 mins later we were drifting in and around Simpsons Rock from the 60 meter mark right up to the face and close foul (no swell, no wash, and just dead flat) and within minutes we were getting bites. The basking seals on the rocks looked on at the action.  Several drifts through and around Simpsons provided several small snapper 40cm and deep red in color, but nothing huge and no kingfish.

 We then motored a little towards Naivre Rocks,, where we started our drift hoping to drift through the large schools of kahawai that haunt that area all year round,, As we got a little closer, the hits came and it was all on. We landed several large snapper 6-8kg and some kingfish although all around 650-700cm, we watched the birds begin to dive on several large schools of kahawai, and the ocean came alive, and died all within 5-10mins -  the acres of kahawai were gone.

We then motored over to the huge 60-70m drop offs on the SE corner of Fanal where we hooked some more kingfish but nothing big, some Blue Moki, good size blue cod, and more snapper.  It was fantastic fishing. We had already caught and thrown back some very nice fish and still had fish in the huge fish tank. We were in fishing heaven,

The Mokes had welcomed us with open arms. It was me to stop for coffee, soup, and some food while we soaked up the atmosphere on the southern side of Fanal island and enjoyed the glorious sunshine. We drifted down to the large work ups in front of The Maori  Rocks, and Great Barrier looked so close and was so tempting.

Common sense prevailed and we had arrived in front of the Maori Rocks, where we enjoyed some big hits, big snapper, we kept a couple more and threw back heaps, Lures, slow jigs and bait all proved successful, although one side of the boat was better than the other, Isn’t that always the way.

The skipper had 3 drops for 3 fish!

We caught and released a number of snapper and trevally, before heading over to the northern side of Burgess for a little lunch in front of the canyon where we planned our assault on the deep bricks and drop offs over on Groper island,,

We arrived at Groper Island on a full tide with no wind, no current and couldn’t drift anywhere,, great?, out came the braid, jigs, bait, floaters, and burly,, and  it was quiet until the tide started to move a bit. As we drifted off the island a little the fish started to come on the bite and we were amongst fish again for at least ½ an hour before we had to bid farewell to this wonderfully remote fishing destination, heading home on a sea that was flatter and calmer than the morning if that was possible ,,

Back at Mangawhai boat Ramp and pontoon by 5-30pm, it was time to reflect on a boat trip to remember,and bid farewells to a great bunch of friends who planned a trip they will not forget.