Fishing Reports

 

When I started posting these fishing reports, I made a promise to myself and to you folks too I suppose, not to tell any lies. So here goes. The fishing this time of year is typically quite hard going with the limited number of fish in the Hauraki Gulf. It’s the time of year to target other species and fish in close when conditions allow, in order to target those moochers in the weed and foul ground. The deeper reefs hold good fish, but with the weather putting on a poor show, it can be difficult and often frustrating when you can’t get to where you know there are fish. Since our last report we have been quite busy and have had few very good trips with anglers getting some excellent table fish and the odd bigger one. The Tiri Channel has been very slow and on one occasion when we were weather bound, we had to try to pick up one or two fish around the edges of the channel and in the shallows. The result was not too flash. Behind Tiri, there is plenty of fish but you will have to return 90% of them. The evening trips give you a better chance out here, with a couple of groups getting up to 20 snapper. Not bad for groups of six. We have had a few shots out in the shipping lanes between Tiri and Rakino Islands, with one group getting about 10 snapper in the first hour and then nothing for the next 6. The southern side of Whangaparaoa has been deathly slow, with only the odd smaller snapper being landed from under the golf course and in the bays. We did land 3 good squid on a day trip and used them later in the day to catch a dozen snapper from the foul off the southeastern corner in the last hour of the trip. I was pretty happy with that as it was shaping up to be a disastrous day. Speaking of which there was a day trip last Sunday that produced no snapper! That’s why they call it fishing and not catching! The two recent overnight trips we have done were almost identical, with the evening firing and the next day being very slow. The foul around Kawau Island is still producing the goods for us, especially the southern end. A lot of fish are returned as they are a bit small, but anglers are getting about 5-6 good snapper for the afternoon. We are still getting tarahiki from around Flat Rock but the numbers are starting to dwindle a bit now. The snapper up here are around, but you can sometimes be lucky to find them as they don’t seem to be holding in any one particular location. There are plenty of smaller fish and reef species, but nothing really special has come from out of the reefs to the southeast. We normally pull a few good snapper from here at this time of year. On a more positive note, the dolphins are still around and are finding some good feed out in the open. When the gannets appear and join the party, the snapper, if they can keep up with the action, can be found under or behind the work up. We are seeing more and more of these work ups and would expect to start seeing kahawai and possibly kingfish turn up attendance. The area out behind Kawau Island in about 40-50m is a good place to start looking for the birds. On our last trip to Kawau there was stacks of action all the way up and we had 2 good strikes on the lures we were towing. One resulted in a major bust off and the other dropped the single hook. The first may have been a shark or large ‘couda, although they seem to have well and truly disappeared. The line came back minus the lure and chaffed and cut. Drift fishing through this area has been slow and on another occasion we opted for the foul off the top of Motuora Island. We were rewarded with a few john dory for tea. It wont be long now before the schools arrive. Last year this area was awesome early in the season. Drifting around lets you cover a fair bit of ground and often you can get onto patch of fish you may well have missed if you were not using berley. The spring newsletter is out now and we have thrown in a few excellent deals for you. I will not be including photos in the newsletters now, so they will be a lot quicker to download if your getting them by email. Alternatively we can mail it to you by the traditional method. To get a copy just send us an email or your postal address to deepsea@kiwinet.net.nz or give us call on 09 4260604 or 025 2446346. If you are not already a VIP member on this web site why not become one and get this report sent to you when it is posted. Tight lines! Damian Clayton THE CHARTER CONNECTION LTD

 

From A Charter Connection...

Report type: Saltwater

Report date: 13 September 01