Bay of Islands Fishing Report - 22/03/24

Variety is the spice of life

On one recent trip, the plan was to spend a couple of hours in the morning livebaiting so that visitor Nathan, from Scotland, could catch his first kingfish, then head out wide and snag a marlin! Like all great plans, the fish didn’t care! No kingfish were to be found so out wide we went with a couple of skippy lures out to catch some skippies for a livebait session. We found a few gannets diving at 130m off the Brett and “ploughed the paddock.” Suddenly, boom – a nice kingie engulfed a skippy lure. Not quite to plan but the objective was achieved!

Nathan and his kingfish.

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The following Saturday I took a group of friends out to the 70m mark and fished slow jigs. The catch was varied with trevally, tarakihi, snapper, kahawai, and a nice-sized porae gracing the dinner table that night! Heavy slider jigs with a small slice of Fishbites did the trick. The next plan to livebait some skippies went beautifully,as a feeding marlin was sighted and two feisty skippies were deployed. Unfortunately, a hungry bronze whaler shark ate both of them! Synchronised winding then followed until the monster appeared boatside (est. 200kg plus).

The Reel Ladies tournament was reportedly a great success! The first day's conditions were great but the Sunday proved a bit more challenging weather-wise. Results were:

• 1st T&R billfish – Lisa Noble aboard Moet

• Heaviest Billfish – Renee Clouston aboard No Mischif

• Angler most points – Danika Marshall.

• Team most points (taking out the major $20,000 cash prize) – G3

Other notable captures included a 7kg snapper caught aboard Voyager by Brittany Henwood, and a 73.5cm M&R snapper by angler Tracey Stanbridge aboard Mundurra. The longest kingfish M&R was Dana MacDonald aboard Bill Collector while the heaviest kingfish went to Julia Buchan aboard Target with a 14.7kg kingfish.

Team Orme with a couple of happy catches.

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 open from 9.00am to 5pm, everyday except Sunday close at 3pm. As always, if you urgently need some supplies after hours just give me a call.