Fishing Reports

Spring is always a season of revelation and change with this season being no different but with an added twist named the “Rena”! Overall the rollercoaster ride continues along most fronts with the exception of perhaps the inshore scene.  There were a couple of occurrences of note which basically negated each other.  First flying fish of the season was sighted at White recently which is surely an indicator of summer and warmer weather/water ahead.  Countering that was the recent capture of a nice kilo slender tuna, a rarity in the bay which usually resides further down toward chilly Otago!  Your guess which is more significant?!

Inshore

Steady – business as usual.  While the snapper action isn’t as torrid as the Hauraki Gulf, it’s pretty good with catches running ahead of the norm for this time of year.  A few nicer fish approaching seven kilos are among the average pan sized of a kilo or slightly more.  Whitebait stuffed kahawai seem everywhere to entertain anglers with their antics; condition factors correspondingly high.  Otherwise decent terakihi to be had near the foul with gurnard keen over the vast sandy areas.

Offshore

On again, off again – with no clear meaning as to why the fishing is what it is on the day.  Just the proverbial box of chocolates – one never knows!  Water is clean out by greens up not far inshore.  Trollers have been rewarded on a fairly regular basis with fat albacore 8-9kgs.  A nice bonus while traveling from A to B or for light tackle anglers targeting the “chooks of the sea”.  Deepwater has failed to draw any attention, hence no recent reports of action either way.  Kingis have proven to be either frustrating or quite exciting – you choose the day.

Among the average fish which has been smaller than normal (10-13kgs), some larger specimens are starting to appear.  Nelson’s Pete Henderson scored the jackpot with his Sunday capture of the largest kingfish of the young season at 32 kilos with several others in the same ilk lost after battles lasting from seconds to a couple minutes.  Other than rats, jigs again not in favour with bait far in preference. 

Shallow water reef fishing the same as kingis with terakihi along with a nice smattering of large porae and trevally hot one day, disappointing the next.  On another note, this island has been quite active of late, with copious amounts of steam, gas and some ash – breathing has been somewhat difficult.  Also, if you value your boats bright work, better avoid this destination for awhile.  Hell, with every chance of the exclusion zone being extended to the east, that decision could well be made for you!  Temps slowly on the increase.

Ranfurly Bank

In general, very good fishing.  In fact, the average fishing for hapuka has been so good that limits can be achieved in short order.  With doubleheaders the moon, fisholds fill fast with a predominately 8-12 kilo fish.  The odd nicer puka is appearing such as the 29 kilo specimen the Ozzie visitor Nick Grig landed – part of a good doubleheader no less. 

The odd quality bass that Ranfurly is known for is also creeping into the catches.  Without doubt Auckland arborist Luke Stanton easily took out the “Whopper of the Week” with his spectacular 56 kilo bass.  The fish had a large circle hook and partial trace in its gob so Luke beat the fish that beat another angler!  Aside from some great bottomfishing the kingis bit well.  Interesting to note the size ranges which included little/nothing between 15-30 kilos! 

Rats to 15 kilos bit well with no shortage on numbers on both jigs and bait.  Several larger (much!) fish were lost with two standing well clear of the rest.  Mike Main landed the “hog” at 34 kilos followed by Ozzie visitor Daniel Buckley at a kilo further back.  As a bonus some decent albacore are also present along the drop off in 5-700 metres of water with temps cool but colour good.  Fish range around eight to ten kilos and, once again, full of miniature squid.

Summary

While the fishing is progressing along nicely, the big concern now are the effects of “Rena” and her very much unwanted cargo.  So far only flotsam (timber, cardboard, foam, plastic) has invaded White Island water, no oil.  Inshore a couple containers have turned up but little else.  At this point we have dodged the bullet with oil spread projections set to miss us entirely at this point.  The exclusion zone ends at Matata, let’s hope it stays there.  Till next week ……….