Fishing Reports

Aside from Tuesday, last week saw pretty horrendous conditions.  The equinox (westerly) winds made life miserable, whipping up a very angry sea.  Finally, after enduring the week of Rubbish, we were gifted a perfect day on Sunday – probably the best we’ve seen in the Bay for three weeks.  Despite the wind, there has been a reasonable amount of activity on the water – read on.

Inshore

Unfortunately the Whakatane Sportfishing Club elected to postpone their keenly awaited Ham Tournament until next weekend, probably a good move considering Saturday’s windy conditions.  Most anglers are still scoring good feeds but again it’s more toward good catches of terakihi rather than snapper.  When the wind has angled more toward the souwest then Matata has been the area of choice (necessity).  When it reverted to the west it is no ones friend and we’ve had plenty of that to deal with. 

Still plenty of succulent gurnard on the sand with a nice sprinkling of snapper.  Looking more summerish all the while on everything but temperature.  “Red tide” or an influx of dinoflagelittes can be seen in extended waves a couple miles offshore.  Large meatballs of anchovies and pilchards have been observed nor east of Whale Island with Brydes whales aggressively feeding upon them.  Great to see but when one considers 16 degrees C water and no gamefish within a hundred miles or more, it’s all pretty meaningliness.

Offshore

Up until the past weekend you could have the entire situation free of charge!  Between strong adverse currents (always seemingly into the wind), cool water, gaseous emissions which stained metal and paint alike and inconsistency made skippers drink (more)!  Things were exceedingly difficult right up until the weekend when things changed for the better across the board, particularly on Sunday. 

Not only did the weather turn it on but so did the kingfish.  While few trophy fish in the 15-20 kilo category were landed.  “Whopper of the week” was a good but somewhat modest 27 kilos; sling weighed and released by Matamata farmer Greg “action” Ward.  While jigs were responsible for a few of these fish, the action was dominated by bait – both live and fresh dead. 

Deepwater fishing continues to reward the braid brigade with a mixture of puka, bluenose and gemfish.  Shallow water remains depressed for all species with terakihi leading the charge in slow fishing.  Water clean at and beyond White but green to the south.  A couple decent albacore were landed just NE of the island, 14 and 17 respectively, to show some quality. 

Ranfurly Bank

For the first time this season, three boats fished the bank at once with all experiencing good results across the board.  Both kingis and bottomfish were plentiful with some very nice fish among them.  Among the many fine kingfish landed over 25 kilos, one on a jig at 38k’s stood out.  While this near “holy grail” fish was a beaut (released after sling weighing by the way) it was only a handful of clicks above numerous other fine fish in the mid 30’s. 

Such is the quality of the fish inhabiting the bank at the moment.  All offerings are working with none better than another.  Up in the shallows, both stickbaits and poppers are eliciting some spectacular surface strikes.  At this point kingis are being taken in all depths between 180 metres and 20!  Read that as a large body of hungry fish over a huge water column covering many square miles!  On the bottom scene things are no less vibrant with pleasing amounts of puka, bass and trumpeter keen to please. 

While most are very average fish, a few decent bass over 35k’s stood out.  Leader of this pack was a 54 ½ kilo fish landed by David Howes of Auckland.  Hapuka, in particular, are also seemingly everywhere – a common bycatch while even in the shallows chasing kingis.  This place is currently the standout productive area above all but be warned.  Not only dies the great distance required to access the area come at a cost but the winds, currents and swells also can make this region among he most inhospitable anywhere in the world on the wrong day – and there’s been a few of these just lately!

Summary

Official summer arrive next week!!  Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get back to reality.  Things remain pretty good except for the volcanic beast which also has its moments and could (should) improve at any time.  Latest SST shows a massive body of 19 degree plus water east and north of North Cape.  Elsewhere, however, is a very constant 16 with little indication or chance of change soon.  Till next week …………..