Fishing Reports

 

Spoke with ten good keen men from Geelong tonight. They were in the Bay for a fish in hired boats from Gateway Boat-Hire in Waitangi. Reckon our fishing is absoloodle fantastic. On their first day out around 350m they managed to land a couple of mahimahi, a heap of big skippies and had sharks around the boat. “And we’re already booked in for next year” I was told. At the time of writing, Johnny Outrigger on Allure is hooked into something real big. Been dragging Allure around off the Brett for close on seven hours. Still unsighted. Might be a Broadbill. Keeps diving deep under the boat. Wonder what it is? Watch this paper.(editors note: the unsighted fish was lost after almost 10 hours). Graeme MacIntosh on Mako charters kept his punters happy again today. Another 25 kingfish caught off Rocky Point. Tagged and released 24. Been pretty much the same on Hansens for the last few weeks he reckons. Smaller than usual, but more plentiful than in recent years. Graeme’s proud of the Charter Boats Association voluntary restraint on kingfish: nothing under 75cm with a maximum keep of two per angler per day. Reckons the kingfish are also working around Cape Brett. Larger but not quite as plentiful. Following the very successful Bay Belles tournament last week when 3 blues were landed with 7 further beakies tagged and released, the recent Hopin tournament has been another great success. Features included a huge 45kg Yellowfin landed on Pac’A’Tac skippered by Shane Dixon and the tournament winning 266kg Blue landed on a wounded Primetime skippered by John Gregory. The team that caught the yellow-fin were from Fiordland, home of the even more remarkable blue fin tuna. Also had a good chat with a spokesman for the Bay Swordy Club today. Seems the great marlin fishing just keeps on keeping on. Right at this moment, vast schools of marlin are camped right on our door-step. According to our anonymous spokesman, there hasn’t been a season like it since the 1980’s and it shows no sign of letting up. Odds are that the marlin will fish well right into May. On the snapper front, nice fat Autumn snapper are starting to appear in the Bay. The Te Puna inlet, Albert Channel and Capstan Rock all feature in these reports. Finally we are seeing a new family of fish that have finished spawning, are lighter in colour and in great condition. From pan size up to a couple of kgs seems to be typical. Crossed the Hokianga Bar myself on Sunday. Heart in the mouth, especially on return as the boat wasn’t running too smoothly. But here I am, safe and sound and fishing partner, John Tana from Ohaeawai managed to snare a fantastic 10kg west coast snapper. Kawerua was the spot. Just out from the old hotel. Biggest fish in a bin-full of pannies, including a couple of huge kahawai, a good trevally and a couple of nice gurnard. Had the trev ’curried tonight in coconut cream with pineapple and kumara. Yum! Tight lines!

 

From Steven Radich

Report type: Saltwater

Report date: 19 March 01