Full blood moon casts contrasting spells

That big, full, blood moon worked its almost predictable magic, casting contrasting spells on much of the fishing fortunes over last weekend, with truths and expected variations from catching the common zilch fish, to snapper north of 15lb!

Workups, when amongst them, produced excellent fish, a variety of species with some solid snapper out in the deeper water (50m+) along SW Gt Barrier, Little Barrier with the epic sights, sounds, and not-so-epic smells of whales feasting.

Top of the Firth and out saw some good action too for those chasing the dragon. Large swathes of the Gulf experiencing the many boats and skis zipping around out on the mostly ultra-calm sea, many kayaks enjoying the calm, most enjoying the conditions, but also some peace and quiet, uninterrupted by sizeable fish with lots of ‘tiddlers on the roof’ comments.

Time of year and a few other factors mentioned in the previous Fishing Report yes, however the immediate future tidings are very promising, fingers crossed with the many signs of good things to come already starting, like the shorter daylight hours with that temperature drop of the air we’ve noticed in the last couple of days. The sea temperature drop will follow so there should be a solid flurry of productive fishing well before the winter general chill-out.

The inner areas closer to shorelines are still doing well.

Sounders are one of the most common pieces of high-tech devices we have yet some of the most misunderstood and underutilised ingredients for consistent fishing success. An eye-opener of discovery was held at Saturday’s class at The Fishing School tutorial by Simon Batey and Garmin whether a newbie, or not, there’s always something to learn, and the penny finally dropped on so much, gold! Saturday next week (March 29) is a bonus Fishing School class, on solo/shorthanded big game tips, making not only finding the fish, but controlling them nice ‘n easy, ski or boatside. It’s all in the right KISS setup. With plenty of big game fishing still to come this season, marlin, YFT, and big kings – get your game face on, and you’ll also be set for your future seasons of tackling the big boys. Listening to the VHF with YFT hookups just the other side of Gt Barrier while snapper fishing the middle ground of the Gulf, glorious stuff. 

The inner areas closer to shorelines are still doing well, hot spots often change as we know but the kingfish, trevally, and snapper being caught in the channels like Tiri this week and out from Narrow Neck have been rewarding using stealth, temporary habitat, and good appropriate gear, the thrills are ready-set-go. The various mussel farms around the place have been hot and cold, some hot with a few big mooching snapper, many juvenile kingfish testing light tackle, and even some big solid kahawai causing soft bait reels to protest long and loud, good times. Other times spooky calm, more for boating or towing the family on the ‘biscuit’ than fishing. Shark numbers are excellent, with the many half-fish being landed, taxing times.

The planets are aligned better now, there are some promising calmer winds forecast, the tidal current is on our side, and workups thumping – you may need to burn some gas when slaying the dragons amongst the real deals out wider, but also there’s the option of fishing in close, and not just for snapper. Prime time? Now.

Fishing Coach Pro not only runs The Fishing School, and one-on-one coaching for really stepping up your fishing results AND you can now get the gear ideal for you, where you fish and what you want to catch at the Fishing Coach Pro TACKLE SHOP, check it out, it's open now for you to enjoy from the comfort of home or office. Questions about what’s best for you? Just ask or simply reorder your favourites, delivered to your door.

Enjoy the change of season fishing upon us, the best of summer pelagic like YFT tuna, marlin, light game skipjack, kingfish as well as bigger snapper starting their pre-winter bulk up any day now!

Cheers!

Captain Espresso

http://www.fishingcoachpro.com/