On fire!

The Bay of Islands is simply on fire as the school fish have arrived and the weather has been great!

Happy to report that every time we’ve been out, some great fish have been caught. The bite times from fishing.net.nz have been spot on, we fished for three hours with little to show for it and them boom, at the predicted time all hell broke loose!

Interestingly, I haven’t come across a single workup in the last two weeks, but there this plenty of bait showing on the sounder. Finding the bait sign and drifting through it works for us. Last Sunday we were joined by Carl who had a cracker of a day on the slow jigs.

Not content with that, he went out himself the next day to the same spot and landed a thumper of a snapper, then brings it back to gloat and get a photo in front of the shop. I gotta stop giving out the intel!

The go-to for us has been between 40 and 50 meters out in the middle of the bay, however there are still some great fish being caught off the rocks. This bodes well for the Rockhoppers Tournament being fished this weekend. This competition has been limited to 100 anglers who all will be vying for the biggest fish and I expect we will see some crackers hit the scales.

I see the local charter operators continue to do well with some great personal best snapper and kingfish being posted on their social media sites. The water temp was 18.2 degrees a few days ago and the gamefish may not be that far away. I’ve been checking my game gear and respooling some topshots so that I’m ready to go once all the stars align.

Come into the shop to check out the latest in gear, get your bait, ice and berley, and most importantly, some genuine intel! We are now open six days a week (closed Tuesdays) but are always available to run down to the shop after hours. Just give me a call!

Garry Townley

Screaming Reels
(021)029 56596

www.screamingreels.co.nz