Saltwater: The New Year has bought with it some fantastic catches for a few very fortunate anglers but the general impression is that the best of the game fishing is yet to come. The exception right now is Waihau Bay, where yellowfin tuna in the 25-30kg mark are consistently being caught. The billfish are there as well with blues having been taken up to 250kg, and shortbilled spearfish showing up, again out from Cape Runaway. The rest of the Bay of Plenty however has been really slow and skippers are hoping for water temperatures to pick back up and induce a good run of tuna soon. The 30lb plus snapper from East Cape have been an excellent consolation but most are still eagerly awaiting the serious meatball action. The really exciting news from the tip of the East Cape though is undoubtedly the sighting of giant bluefin tuna leaping clear of the water in their frenzied attacks on baitfish. By giants, I mean fish of over 1,000lbs! Big even by Nova Scotian standards. God, you’ve got to love this country! Anyone that has ever caught a 35kg yellowfin can attest to how hard they pull, so you can only imagine the power generated by a tuna over 15 times that size. These massive pelagic's were sighted (and some hooked) in NZ in the late 80’s around the same area, but have typically been the domain of anglers off the northeastern seaboard of the USA and Canada. The problem presented is that very few Kiwis are actually geared up to even come close to slowing these fish down. A kilometre of 24 or 37kg line will not cut the mustard and you can kiss it all goodbye if you’re lucky enough to hook one. If you want to get serious about these fish, make sure you have a well serviced 130 wide with at least 60kg main line and a lot of fuel. Notable catches in the Bay of Plenty so far include a 112kg bigeye tuna taken off the back of White Island by Auckland ambulance driver Dan Robertson. Also, Blair Robinson’s’ exceptional 70kg yellowfin, taken from the back of Whale Island. However, fish like this have been the exception as constant westerlies after Christmas pushed the blue water well out past White Island and caused a 3 degree drop in water temperature. Things can only improve. Up in the far north the action is still a bit slow, with only a handful of stripies landed so far. The blue water has been patchy and still needs to pick up from the current 19-20 degrees to get the marlin really fired up. The same applies for the tuna, which again have been sparse. A couple of catches worthy of note include a 269kg black marlin taken by a junior angler from the Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers club. This fish was taken from the shallow patch out of Houhora. A 245kg blue was recently taken from the Bay of Islands and just yesterday a 303kg black was landed by a couple of very happy anglers. This fish was hooked onboard a 540 Fyran just out from Cape Brett using a live skippy as bait. It took 9 hours to land on 37kg stand-up gear with the angler needing to switch over to another boat better equipped to fight the big fish well into the early hours of the morning. There are still plenty of big snapper in close around the Northland, Auckland and the Corromandel coastlines, with numerous reports of 20lb+ fish caught. The schooling snapper are being found closer to the surface so don’t be surprised to start hitting them on the drop. Kingfish action has also been slow in the usual northern hotspots, apart from the Coromandel, where packs of them can be found hunting in close to the rocks and providing plenty of action for landbased anglers. As the water temperature rises we should see increased activity from these predators. The West coast is shaping up for a good game fishing season with water temperatures already up over 20 degrees and plenty of surface activity being reported from Kawhia right through to Ninety Mile beach. The first marlin has already been taken out from Raglan and several billfish have been sighted around Gannet Island recently. A lot of big snapper are still being taken from off the sand between the 30 and 60 metre marks. By big I’m talking about numerous fish over 20lbs with the odd fish over 30. The snapper have now spread right down the west coast to Wellington where they are being taken consistently by surfcasters, who are also getting stuck into some great moki, trevally and kahawai action. The nor-westerly winds around Wellington since Christmas has shut the kingfish down, especially around the Bolder bank at Kapiti Island and Hunters Bank, out in the straight. However, there has been some excellent groper fishing off the lower west coast to compensate and bluenose have been common out in the Nicholson Trench. On the East coast there has been great bottom fishing for tarakihi, snapper and groper out wider, all the way down to Castlepoint. Some good yellowfin have been taken from Table Cape off Mahia, but the water is still to cold for these bigger fish to move any further south. At the top of the South Island there has been some fantastic snapper fishing for holidaymakers in the sounds. Plenty of 15-25lb fish have been reported from around the mussel beds and good schools of kingfish can be found around French Pass. These kings have moved as far south as Banks Peninsular this year with some excellent fish up to 50lb being caught by unsuspecting Canterbury anglers, who probably think they have hooked into the mother of all salmon! Excellent numbers of trumpeter averaging 10kg, elephant fish, blue cod and kahawai are being caught right up the east coast. Cod are even being caught by surfcasters targeting salmon off the Hurunui river mouth. The commercial fishermen right along the west coast are taking albacore in good numbers at present but the bluefin are yet to arrive off Fiordland. Freshwater: On the salmon front, the action is picking up with fish up to 30lb reported from the Rakaia, but the runs have been a bit slow in coming despite the fact that they should be a little later following the end of hatchery releases 5 years ago. Salmon are now being found throughout the Rangitata and Waimakariri rivers, particularly around McIntosh’s hole. Despite some early success, all indicators are that salmon anglers unfortunately may not be in for the bumper season they had hoped for. The trout fishing in the South Island this year is going to one talked about for some time. Huge trout are still being taken on a regular basis from the backcountry streams, within the beech forests where mice are thick. One angler from Christchurch has reportedly taken 21 double figure trout this season alone! I can’t think of anywhere in the world where you could get these sort of results. In the North Island we have reports of excellent dry fly fishing in the Waikato river tributaries where plenty of browns and rainbows are rising throughout the day when conditions are favourable. Rivers worth a look are Waipa and the Waihou. Lake Taupo is producing excellent results for trollers using downriggers and leadlines around Horomatangi reef in particular. Smelting activity is still going strong, especially around the western bay stream mouths and the southern end of the lake. Harling for the first couple of hours of the day is still producing excellent results. Fly fishers are getting some reasonable fishing at the river mouths at present. Some very big brown trout are being caught during the early morning and late evening period at the Waitahunui mouth and also at the mouth of the Whareroa stream. They should also be present in the lower end of the Tongariro, although very weary and difficult to catch. Lake Aniwhenua and the Rangitaiki river system is providing some excellent fly fishing, especially for browns cruising the edges. A couple of double figure browns have come out of the lake over the Christmas period and there are some very healthy looking 5-6lb rainbows to be caught as well. The Flaxy lakes and the Wheo canal are still turning on a great evening rise. The trolling on Lake Rotorua has been excellent and the stream mouths are starting to turn up some monster browns. The best I’ve heard of went over 13lb! Fishing with smelt flies off the main beach at Okataina is producing some great conditioned fish. The same methods are working well in Tarawera, especially around Rangiruru bay, White cliffs and Red beach. Good news has come through from the Wellington region with the lower end of the Ruamahunga producing good numbers of both browns and especially rainbows – evidence that the system has recovered well from the winter floods. The lower end of the Wainui river is also fishing extremely well with aggressive fish rising to dries throughout the afternoon. That’s all for the time being. See you in Waihau Bay. There’s a big bluefin down there my name on it.

 

From The Fishing Website

Report type: Saltwater and Freshwater

Report date: 17 January 01

Competition

Win this book

Enter Here

Photo Competition

42cm King Terakihi...

Enter here