Fishing Reports

 

Hope you all had a safe Easter and managed to get back to reality safely. A run down on the Easter action but first a joke to get to start the juices flowing. What do you call an Australian with a car on his head? Jack. The Tiri Passage was absolutely on fire for a few days over the break and 3 groups collectively took home over 200 snapper! The trip yesterday was always going to be a tough one due to the wind from the south west gusting up to around 50 knots. Only 30 or so reasonable snapper were landed and all were caught from the one spot. More about that later. The edges of the foul and in the shallows, has been where the majority of the action has been taking place. On a patch of broken shell out in the middle, also produced good snapper for Fridays' group and a big john dory. The kahawai were also pretty active in the deeper water and a few were secured, one being used a livebait for most of the day. Saturday produced good numbers of snapper again and we enjoyed fairly good weather, despite the ominous forecasts. The edges of the passage were again the preferred locations and produced fish for most of the day. Again the kahawai were present and a few were taken for smokers and the like. If my memory serves me correctly, I think we had a school of small kingfish taking baits off the snapper droppers on this trip. The kingies were only small rats or juveniles and were released to fight another day. It would have to be a pretty good sign of the state of the kingfish fishery, when there are so many around. Sunday was a pretty good day again, with a heap of good snapper taken from the foul ground around the passage. It was the deeper foul that produced the best fish, but in less numbers than the shallower areas. Trevally and john dory were also taken, along with a few line tangling kahawai. The weather was holding but it wasn't to last. When we left the marina yesterday morning, the wind was a gentle south westerly. About 2 hours later it was whistling through the rigging and I was running out of locations to fish. Let me rephrase that. I was running out of locations that were holding fish. The boys were patient, but I was starting to get a bit scratchy, when at 1 o'clock we had not a single fish, except the livies on board! It was bit like flogging a dead horse, especially when a patch of fish was found, in close, in fishable conditions, on the northern side of Whangaparaoa and the Navy put up the live firing flags and we had to move! Enough was enough and despite negative reports from a fellow operator, a move was made to the northern side of Tiri. In mad desperation a few fish were located on a patch of rubble in one of the bays. About 5 minutes later, we had the 5th- or 6th fish coming aboard and I had loosened the noose around my neck and was feeling a little better. We only had a few hours left and the conditions were getting rather boisterous so we hung in there till the end, securing a good feed for most and a limit for a few. My thanks to Peter G, Graham T, Tommy and his group and Shah for keeping on, keeping on. Needless to say, we got a kicking coming home. A lot of dates in April are booked but there is a few dates of interest. Sunday April 14 is a casuals day with space available and the weekend of 27th and 28th is available due to a cancellation. We also have plenty of opportunity to fish midweek with boat bookings available and also casual days in the offing. Just because Easter is over it doesn't mean the fishing is. This is the time of the year we get good catches, as the fish move out of the inner harbour and shallows and go into the deeper water of the Gulf and onto some of the deeper reefs, like Flat Rock. Speaking of the deeper foul, up around Kawau can really start to fire this time of year and a few trips are booked to get up that way over the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted on that if you aren't fortunate enough to be on one of those trips. So far as bait goes, it has been that good old favourite of ours, Lolago Squid and NZ pilchards, that has been doing the business for us over the last few trips. Strips of koheru are also fishing well and are good when the pickers start to invade. Also pretty good livies for the dory too. Give us a bell if you need to get a rod bent. Phone the boat on (025)2446346 or the office on (09)4260604. You can email us at deepsea@clear.net.nz. Until next time. Damian THE CHARTER CONNECTION

 

From A Charter Connection...

Report type: Saltwater

Report date: 02 April 02