Fishing Reports

 

Since our last report and when the weather has let us get to where we have wanted to go, we have landed some really good snapper and have also missed out a couple of times. The persistent easterly had us fishing inside Tiri last week, but I would have been happier fishing where there was a few more fish. Even large burleys would not get them going on one day! When it is really blowing from the east, there is little you can do when you’re stuck up inside the island. There is only about a kilometre of reasonable conditions to fish in and when you’ve exhausted that option you really have to scratch around just to get a feed. We did that and we got a feed on those slow days but it was nothing flash. How’s that for honesty? Now, onto a much better story. The Bays Club contest was held last weekend and it was a great success. Over 300 anglers battled away in pretty horrible conditions where the wind was over 40 knots at some stages. The Charter Connection Fishing Team left on Friday evening and we sat up current of a patch of foul to secure a few fish for dinner. Our location was off the top of Tiri in about 24m of water and to be quite honest it was pretty darn sloppy. The Team got into good snapper right away with most fish being over 35cm. Dinner in the bay off the wharf and straight back out to start fishing at 0600 on Saturday. It went off and we had secured close to a bag limit of snapper to around 3 kg before the tide changed and we opted for a big burley trail in close to the island. The idea here was to target a big snapper, but we kept having trouble with other anglers parking in our burley trail or driving around in circles in and out of our strike zone. What makes these guys do that we don’t know but they really do need some education. We ended up moving out to the worm beds and getting the rest of our limit bag on dusk. Sunday dawned just as grubby as the previous 2 days and we stuck to our game plan, going back to the area that had produced so well. We knew there was a big fish there and we would stick it out till the last minute to get it. The fish started to come aboard, getting bigger and bigger. We started throwing everything under 40cm back and then disaster struck. The Team Diawa fizz boat came idling up our burley trail and after driving around in circles for a few minutes and despite the protests and radio calls from us, anchored right in behind us and you guessed it, the fishing slowed right down. They were followed by a charter boat from Auckland who should have known better. Nice one guys! Some day there will be book published about fishing etiquette. I suggest you read it. We fished on, but things didn’t really get any better, Graham Truman landed our heaviest fish (as he so often does) and went home with a swag of prizes from the contest for his efforts. 10 prizes in all for the team. A lot of spot prizes due to the large amount of fish we weighed in to support the local Coast Guard unit at Browns Bay. The contest was well run and it is a great venue. It was good to see the late arrivals at the weigh in, not allowed to enter fish and recognition given to those that did well. Really good prizes from good sponsors have made sure we will compete next year. I would like to thank The Bait Station for the involvement they had both in the contest and with The Charter Connection Team. You may have seen the flag flying from the boat during the contest. The Bait Station, as you well know, supply the best bait for the best price. Try the baby blue mackerels next time you are there. They did the damage for us when straylined down they 100% bonito burley. Onto the housekeeping. Thursdays are now casuals day midweek for only $45 per person. Tuesdays will also be available. You don’t need to book a group and most of the time we sail with only a small group on so there is heaps of room. This weekend has some space too if you are interested and with a bit of luck the weather will break so we can enjoy better conditions. Upcoming dates. Saturday June 1 has some spaces left. Sunday June 2 is available for a group. Most weekends from now till late October are available or have some spaces left. It is only about 16-18 weeks till the spawning stock start to move into our northern waters and it seems like yesterday we were enjoying the warmer weather and better fish numbers. Don’t think just because it is winter that the fishing has to stop. It certainly doesn’t! The best fish are around the reefs and offshore foul this time of year and you need to be patient and stick to your game plan. Some days you’ll get them, others you won’t. But they are there. Are you? Places like Flat Rock and the deeper foul around it can produce mega reds in the next few months. Takatu Point, Challenger Island, the islands a bit to the south of Kawau, are all spots we fish over the winter months with pretty good success. We like to leave a bit earlier to soak up some of the steaming time when we get up that way and often return a bit later, so you get a decent shot at it. There is a few different species around up here over winter also and it is not unusual to land Terahiki and the odd Cod or Red Snapper. To find out more or to book a trip just give us a call on 09 4260604 or 025 2446346. You can email us at deepsea@clear.net.nz Till next time, keep you powder dry, your wheels oiled and your hand on your tram ticket. Damian THE CHARTER CONNECTION PS I’ll try to post some photos in the gallery showing our latest exploits

 

From A Charter Connection...

Report type: Saltwater

Report date: 21 May 02