Windy offshore conditions have kept most of the fleet tucked along the coast, but those making the opportunity to head wide for a yellowfin tuna have been rewarded.
The tuna have been just a few miles north/northwest of the top of the Hen (Marotere) Islands and off Ocean Beach in 80-100 metres of water. They have been taking both skirted and hard-bodies lures and judging from what I have heard and seen anything with green in it has been doing the business. It seems that in a mixed spread of lures, the deeper running ones get hit first, followed by the surface lures.
Boats that have downriggers have an advantage in running the gear sub-surface, although the latest Halco 210 deep divers will run at up to nine metres down at usual trolling speeds.
Something that creates a bit of commotion such as a single Boone Bird or squid daisy chain will help increase the hit rate. Mangawhai local Ben Francis swears by a flying fish imitation run at the head of his wind-on trace. And who can argue with a skipper who hasn’t missed so far this season, with both yellowfin and a marlin to his credit!
Fishing aboard the Ben Francis skippered Falcon, Clinton Rogers landed this nice yellowfin hooked a short distance out from the Chicks. Photo: Ben Francis.
The tuna run has been exceptional up and down the eastern seaboard with some big fish taken in the initial pre-Xmas action. While it is all very exciting it is easy to get carried away, I have heard of some double-figure smaller fish (5-10kg) catches being landed from trailerboats, few of which have the capabilities to chill down that number of tuna.
To my mind it would have been better to have kept less fish and looked after them well – iki, bleed, gut, and ice down – that take a bunch that ends up as deck cargo with nothing but a wet towel or sack to keep the sun off them.
It will be interesting to see this weekend if the tuna are still in the area. The forecast is for northerlies to kick in so keep an eye on the weather if venturing wide.
The beaches have not fished well over the last fortnight. Offshore winds made for clear, still conditions with snapper not coming in close until dark. Waipu’s Kadin Williams of The Reel Clinic was quite excited to see the change in the wind direction earlier this week – it was out of the eastern quarter with a bit of a swell to stir things up. A pre-work sorte to his favourite holes south of the Waipu rivermouth produced just one reasonable snapper as he did battle with the red weed which is back on this part of the beach.
Kadin reports that closer to the rivermouth anglers have been having fun on the kahawai and that there are kingfish on the prowl. He has been using a slide bait system which veteran surfcaster Chad Prentice has been helping him refine.
Diving lures such as Halco 210 and Rapala X-rap along with the Boone mini-birds and flying fish teasers have been doing the business on the local yellowfin tuna population.
Mangawhai-based charter operator Mike Leese on Fishmeister has been doing well for his clients using bait and berley around the reefs at the Hen and Chicks. He says there have been plenty of workups offshore of the sand dunes at various depths but mainly out towards 50 metres. He says there was a humpback whale amid one bust-up, and he recommends fishing the periphery of the action where the fallout from the bait ball attacks is trickling down through the water column.
At the northern end of the bay, One Tree Point’s Pete McGregor has produced some respectable snapper catches out from Bream Head when he has been able to get out there.
The Whangarei Harbour has been fishing well, especially for those fishing the channel edges at the change of light with bait and berley. While the red weed is an issue for lure fishers, the bait brigade seems to have less of a problem, especially when deploying unweighted baits in 2-3 metres of water. The entrance to Parua Bay/Manganese Point has been mentioned as one hot spot.
Tight lines!
- Grant Dixon
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