BOP Spring 2014

The weather roller coasters we’ve been forced to ride don’t appear to be done with us yet! Although there have been plenty of wind to keep anglers inside the safe confines of their homes, there’s also been a few windows of opportunity which some savvy anglers have jumped on to good effect.

Inshore

Pretty steady for most, very good for some. This is a right across the board but, as per usual, focusing on the snapper population. The recently run “Fish Fever” Tournament was testament to this with lots (over 140 of them) happy anglers back at the weigh station. Showing their rewards, there were nice lines of four species coming off boats on a steady basis both days of last weekend. While the winning snapper wasn’t a world beater at 4.94 kilos, there were numbers there right in behind it – showing overall quality. Also, as evidenced last week, the snapper appear to be anywhere and in all depths. You’ve got a favourite spot? Better give it a try as chances are there will be a good number of fine fish there!

Snapper fishing not only going well for you – or you are limited out? Tarakihi are still filling main many anglers’ voids, often with the limits as well. Further evidence of how fickle our nearby and ever expanding mussel farm can be. One boat with 5 anglers came very close to full limits of the silversides in a relatively short period of time there recently. The following day 9 were landed in quick succession and things were looking for a repeat when the wheels fell off. After three fishless hours there, the decision was made to go home!

While there are plenty of gurnard in the shallows, there overall size has been disappointing, rarely exceeding 600g. Some, during the recent tournament, found some at, and even exceeding, a kilogram out in deepwater but still on the sandy environs. Fat, whitebait gorged kahawai round out what is a pretty vibrant inshore fishery that is pleasing the multitudes and likely to get even better.

Offshore

Interesting times out here but we will start with the worst of it – deepwater bottom fishing. Not sure what is going on here but it is not good and hasn’t been for many weeks now. Although not subject to much pressure, those diehards who have put in hours have been uniformly disappointed with the efforts. A handful of bluenose and gemfish, small at that, have been all that come up from the depths. While it will undoubtedly improve (only one way to go!) it’s certainly not worth the effort just now.

Back closer to the smoky island (and it is just that at the moment – staying overnight will take a toll on your bright work) things are somewhat more productive but no less frustrating. Tarakihi are cooperating but only in the initial stages of anchoring up or drifting an area. They bite well for 5 – 10 minutes, then don’t want a bar of you – time to move! If you are willing to keep moving then you’ll make a catch but pity the poor anchor hauler! In the same areas some nice trevally have shown up, averaging just on the 5kg mark.

Straylining in 15 – 20 m of water have yielded some fun for light tackle enthusiasts but a lot of losses as well. A rare convict bass of about 10 kg was an unusual bycatch recently as well. Kingfish? They are getting more frustrating and moody as time goes on. While we’ve had an early afternoon bite all season so far, now it’s a late afternoon bite. No sustained bite via any means over the weekend until after 6 p.m. – at a time most have gone home. A large part of this problem has been the prolific bait in the area – small squid.

Seems like kingis of all sizes are gorging themselves on the candy bait, shunning everything else. Match the hatch? You better try if you want any semblance of success. While the kingi’s thus far have been of are pleasing average (low 20s) we have struggled to eclipse the 30 kg mark. Auckland angler Mal Twiname scored a great catch not long before dark with his 40 ½ kg beauty. Although hooked out in 60 m of water, it knew where it had to go to try affecting its escape! After a rather brief but very intense battle, we finally sunk the gaff into the horse in a mere 9 m of water! Weird happening of the week? Finding three seabirds in the guts of a kingi! Just another long list of species for bird lovers to hate!

Ranfurly Bank

Quite a bit of pressure suddenly being felt down here after a winter and early spring of little. Some days has seen four, or even five, charterboats applying these well-known waters. Catches have been mixed and generally under expectations of late, both on the bottom and kingfish. Weather, read that our old mate wind, has been a large part of this.

Summary

As always, we take the good with the bad but improvement is what we strive for. Other than that inshore, it is a real mixed bag out there and not all good news. Water temps are abnormally cold (15 inshore, 16 at White – in the afternoons) so this may have something to do with this. Once we get rid of the westerlies we should see a positive change here. Hopefully this will filter right through the various fisheries to good effect. Till next week…………………..