Spring 2014-15

Not a huge amount of effort over the past few weeks but the new season is upon us, we need to start somewhere. Meager beginnings often yield to great conclusions! By all accounts there’s been little fishing done over late winter/early spring. Trying to get stories out of normally regular anglers is difficult – they simply haven’t been out!

This has been a combination of inclement weather conditions, generally poor fishing and just plain apathy. Oh you can throw and the general election as it gets the blame for everything else! Anyway we digress as a new season is upon us now with the usual promise it exudes.

Inshore

Water is exceedingly cold at just 14°C! Always amazing to see the coldest water of the year half way through the spring – who said the seasons aren’t changing?!? As per normal most effort has gone towards tarakihi and snapper in the near shore arena. Regardless of which you are targeting (with natural bait) it seems you will get bycatch of the other.

Matata has been a popular place; because of reasonable fishing and to escape the brunt of the prevailing souwesterlies. Those big cliffs offer great protection in even a stiff SW with boats scooting along the beach to reach them with relative impunity. While there’s been effort in anywhere from 12 m of water (snapper) out to 45 (mainly tarakihi) the 20 – 25 bracket seems to always get the most attention. Back closer to shore there’s a swag of fact kahawai gorging themselves off the river mouths – both Thornton and Whakatane. Plenty of gurnard lying in wait off the sandy patches just off the Whakatane heads down Ohope as good as anywhere.

Offshore

If you thought inshore was receiving little attention then compared to further out wide it’s a hive of activity! Very few boats and crews have ventured forth – again adverse weather, hefty fuel prices and a “can’t be bothered” attitude the main culprits here. Of the few that had given White Island and surrounding waters a whirl there’s been mixed but mainly meager results.

Deepwater bottom fishing has been a complete bust of late with only the odd small bluenose and gemfish to reward anglers for their time and effort. Back closer to the island the shallower environs have been surprisingly identical! At a time when there should be plenty of fat, pre-spawning tarakihi about there are none! This will surely change but a pretty dry argument at present. The shining light has been kingfish but the light is not that bright, yet.

Several days of fishing for these normally reliable game fish yielded low results in the Green 15° water. Fishing the same places with the same enticements produced less all in the mornings but, by mid afternoon, someone flipped the switch! Pleasing to see most fish were in prime condition, bursting out of their skins as it were. Aside from quality the size wasn’t too bad either with as many over 20 kg as under. Whopper of the week (maybe all winter/spring) was a lovely 28 kg specimen landed by Auckland angler Chris Slack.

While no trolling has been done out wide in the central be BOP, Mayor Island recently kicked out four nice albacore from 16 to over 20 kg. These great fish will no doubt be inhabiting local waters as well as we’ve had a history of the big longfins here at this time in years past. So if you venture out wide and not in a hurry then lures in your wake is not a bad option.

Ranfurly Bank

As you can imagine, if there has been little effort expended in local waters then further afield would be zilch – almost. One boat last week was traveling past the bank and elected to see if they could get a feed. In a pleasant surprise the four anglers limited out on small (10 – 15 KG’s) hapuka in just four drifts. Very promising. Surely there will be increasingly more forays to the distant outpost as time advances, even next week. Good chance for XOS albies down there as well.