spring 2014-15 2

Steady as she goes – incremental improvement in most areas. Improved weather has helped along with many more rods in action. Great to see more anglers getting out whenever conditions allow. While this is, as per normal, predominantly on the inshore scene a few have ventured forth as well having mixed results.

Inshore

As mentioned, a lot more boats on the water offers information coming in. This has been a real mixed bag with reports of futile efforts all the way to pretty darn good results. Snapper have yet to start up in a big way but are producing some decent fishing, particularly using natural baits. Baby squid appear to be outperforming the rest by a country mile, followed distantly by skippies. While very few are over 3 kilos, they are plump prespawning fish – ideal for the dinner table. Tarakihi continue to be the mainstay with little rock clumps between the Rurimas and Matata in 35-40 metres of water being well worth a look. Smaller hooks and cubes of bait are the go for these succulent silversides with your sinker actually resting on the bottom, not suspended. Plump kahawai and gurnard make up the balance of the menu. Water temperature valiantly trying to get above 15 degrees C but failing thus far.

Offshore

Only subtle changes from last week but still worth mentioning.  Bottomfishing, both deep and shallow, remains pathetic! The deep is dominated by the occasional pup bluenose, gemfish and rubyfish while shallow is coughing up on the odd tarakihi. Only room for improvement – next subject!  Kingis remain an afternoon situation with mornings being hopeless. Despite a large amount of effort put forth in the AM, only token rewards or usually nothing. From 1pm on things liven up nicely and become well worth the wait. In general the fish are well conditioned and full of beans, ready to torture their would be captors! Jigs are working nearly as well as bait, especially in the hands of more experienced anglers. With many fine specimens in the low 20’s, the quality is good on average. “Whopper of the week” went to Hamilton anglerette Courtney Rowling at a plump 28 kilos. Water still struggling to get above 15 degrees but water colour has improved considerably out near White. Large albacore seen feeding on saury but none landed. How’s this for a table of contradiction: we’ve already documented the cold water so this is what we saw/experienced one day recently. We’re still seeing a lot of “winter birds” such as albatross and Cape Pigeons. Also saw our largest ever flying fish (no it didn’t appear to have a jersey on) followed by our first ever hail storm at White – go figure!

Ranfurly Bank

Finally, some boats were able to access the “distant outpost” without undue stress due to inclement weather – two in fact. In short, the fishing was quite productive on all fronts. Despite low water temps (14 in the mornings, 15 in the arvo) the kingis put on quite a show. Everyway that they can be caught, they were. Livebait, dead whole bait, strip bait, chunk bait, jigs, stick baits and poppers – all were effective. Despite the chilly water there was more exciting surface action featuring the same two players: surface marauding kingfish and hapless saury! While mainly small fish, the visuals were exciting and pleasing at the same time. The mind boggles as to what it will be like with a couple more degrees!! With every size imaginable it was good to see a good number over 20 kilos with the largest at a respectable 35kgs landed by Auckland angler Doug Laird. While all enticements worked well, jigs were incessantly hammered on the drop, the bounce and retrieve – they just got nailed! Bottomfishing was also good; steady if not outstanding at times. Averaged sized (8-15kgs) hapuka led the charge but were all well supported by trumpeter, tarakihi and bass. While most of the latter were small, there were some horses hooked and lost with the largest taken by Rotorua Hunting & Fishing employee Simon Ward at 36k’s. Plenty of nice eating fish came home in fishholds! Further diversity came from XOS king tarakihi, blue cod, snapper and even a rare slender tuna.

Summary

Things have certainly perked up – just get rid of that pesky wind and all kinds of good things are likely to happen!  And hopefully, this will just be the start of proceedings – half way through spring with summer in the crosshairs!

Until next week…………..