BOP Spring 2014

My, what a difference a day can make in this outdoor game of ours! Literally overnight, our water temperature jumped a solid degree in what was beautifully a blue hue at White Island. Amazing what just one day without westerly winds can do. Since then the water out wide has maintained its status but for how long with more strong westerlies in the mix?

Inshore

Pretty rock solid here with strong catches for most anglers. Snapper dominate although there has been little wrong with effort put forward in the quest for tarakihi, gurnard or kahawai. Overall, in most regions, catches have been quite consistent with most anglers returning to shore pleased with the efforts with the rewards being tasty meals for their families.

Regardless of depth, bottom terrain or method employed the rewards have been there for all to enjoy. If there’s one place that hasn’t conformed to this edict it’s that XOS with mussel farm located off Opotiki. In typical form it is red hot one day, ice cold the next for no apparent reason.

Hit it on the right day and you’re in for limit fishing for both tarakihi and snapper. And on the wrong day – a waste of your time and fuel to get there! Water remains a cold 16° back clean green interspersed with blotches of “red tide” or dinoflagelite infestation in places.

Offshore

Most interesting out at the smoky Isle at the moment with a fair few changes afoot. Despite the cold temperatures right throughout spring it certainly feels like summer in a variety of ways. For starters the visuals surrounding one out wide screens summer, consider these recent sightings/development: suddenly flying fish are seemingly everywhere as they have moved into the area wholesale, a large turtle seen at Club Rocks, continual sightings of sunfish, mako appearing on a regular basis with squid showing up in large numbers.

While all this sounds inviting it hasn’t really translated to great catches of late, elusive in the mornings with skippers and crews spinning their wheels (and pulling hair) in vain efforts to put their anglers into fish in a.m. Try as they might and a wide variety of areas, depths and using a multiplicity of techniques the mornings have been between very difficult and hopeless.

The afternoons, however, have been a different story with the later ones fishes the better. Using every method available, some good catches are coming in for those prepared to work hard and stay late. Jigs, stick baits, live and dead baits have all taken their turn at producing the goods with a few great sized fish among them. Auckland angler Leon Patten easily eclipsed the several 30 – 40 kg fish with his 50+ kg monster! Bouncing on the scales in the sling in sloppy conditions the telltale needle meandered between 50 – 53 KG!

After a furious photo session and plantation of a tag this fish was called for 51 kg and re-consigned to the depths – well done to a deserving, conservation minded angler! Out in the depths there’s been some decent, if not inconsistent, catches. Bluenose had been pretty quiet although the ones landed have been of decent sized between 12 – 15 kg.

Lots of gemfish at the moment and a surprising number of small hapuka and bass. Back closer to the island, light tackle enthusiasts have done well on nice fat trevally and a wide variety of reef fish. Where to from here? It’s very hard to know at the moment!

Ranfurly Bank  

With a reasonable number of boats visiting the distant outpost, catches have remained constant. Kingi’s are the central attraction for most visiting anglers, especially overseas ones – and they haven’t gone away unfulfilled! The shallows continue to yield results although timing is a big issue. There at the wrong time and your wonder were tens of thousands of kingfish can hide so effectively!!

Arrive in appropriate time and the scene resembles a battlefield with birds, bait and fish everywhere on the surface in a feeding frenzy. As per usual, most of the fish are in the high teens/low 20s but enough over 30 to make it all rewarding. Recently a kingi in excess of 40kg has been landed. Bottom fishing continues to be on the challenging side but a decent catch is achievable via hard work and a little luck. Smallish hapuka and a sprinkling of bass and trumpeter are the main bill “o” Faire here. Water still cold (16) and green. Plenty of room for improvement.

Summary

As asked before – where to from here?!? Very hard to know as we’ve had such a bizarre spring with unusual conditions to match. NIWA is telling us to expect a continuation of wind now that summer is upon us – great! While things aren’t half bad in most areas, it would be so much more enjoyable to not have to battle to hold your position on a pitching boat let alone battle a rampaging game fish! Sure good things will come to those who wait – do we have any choice in the matter? Till next week…………………………