Bay of Islands spring update

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote waynorth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Bay of Islands spring update
    Posted: 07 Oct 2019 at 8:10pm
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Pretty slow day out there today, despite many large schools of pilchards being worked by gannets most of the day. Not many predators pushing them up - no sign of kahawai or kings, but a few 'cuda around. Released this nice 80cm snapper, and took a couple of smaller ones home, along with a pair of gurnard. 

Managed to catch my first ever pilchard on a softbait. OK it was a big pilchard but it reminded me of that old Nike ad - bite off more than you can chew, then chew it.

I had just been telling Dean about a recent video on FB showing a thresher repeatedly striking a trolled bait with its tail, when Dean hooked up - it was a thresher. First time I've seen one in the water - lit up like a marlin. I think it was the only critter that took real bait all day - the others were all on Zmans. 

15.5 degree water temp - both fish we filleted were females, and the larger 73cm fish was full of mature roe. With that much food available, the rest can't be far away.



treat fish like fish
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote strx7 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2019 at 11:21am
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Good to know,  I'm heading up to Russell On Saturday, till the following Sunday, hope to get out into some action.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Dukeas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2019 at 3:58pm
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Only one time I've ever hooked a thresher, on a pilchard, in a large school of pilchards, pilchards schools not seen any more sadly where I fish.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Bounty Hunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Oct 2019 at 8:30pm
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another quiet one today

all the sign was there on the 'middle ground' - sounder showing good stuff, birdies doing their thing - perhaps a dozen other boats milling around the general area - but we spent several hours scratching around for a couple of small snapper.

small tides might be to blame. sounder reporting 17.2degs
No disintegrations!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Bounty Hunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Oct 2019 at 2:06pm
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another essentially bust day for us - very quiet all over - plenty of boats and fishos - but everyone looked pretty bored and bit sleepy. even the gannets asleep on the job today - no predators under the bait to push it up i think

going to blame the small tides again
No disintegrations!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote johnybegood Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Oct 2019 at 9:04am
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Morning Bounty Hunter. We found it much the same. Spent the night on a mates launch Saturday night. Managed a dozen pannies, nothing too special. Pretty flat conditions and minimal current so as you say, likely a result of the small tides.
I just want to jig
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote waynorth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2019 at 6:18pm
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The pilchard schools and gannets seem to have moved on - didn't see a single gannet dive today. There's still some bait off the Black Rocks - one school we prospected produced some medium sized blue mackerel, and there are some large schools of big jack macks between the Centre foul & Red Head.

Fishing was slow in the morning - first few hours of the falling tide - with only a couple of snapper caught on softbaits. When the wind picked up mid morning we anchored in about 40m out from the Black Rocks & used fresh mackerel to get a dozen nice fish, along with a small puka, mostly from the last hour of the outgoing tide. 

Jono caught the first ever skate caught from my boat. Next cast, he caught the 2nd, and 3rd cast, he caught the 3rd. Bizarre. A bit later he and Dean were both playing nice fish for a few minutes, before they discovered a single 5kg snapper had eaten both their baits. Dean let Jono claim it - figured he had earned it after his 3 lengthy workouts on 10lb gear with the skates. 

All snapper were males, didn't get hassled by pickers (smallest fish hooked was 33cm), water temp just over 16 degrees

 
treat fish like fish
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote krow Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2019 at 8:00pm
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Great report Good eaters there.


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Bounty Hunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Oct 2019 at 12:31am
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fairly quiet for us too the last few days - not a lot of action on friday or saturday - but had an occasional large fish come through - the best being 11lb on friday and 16lb yesterday
No disintegrations!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote terrafish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Nov 2019 at 8:42pm
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Had a pretty hard day out yesterday, not a huge amount of sign anywhere but got half dozen pannies before heading around to twin lagoons for drinks and dinner, biffed a strayline out and ended up with a 22lber released after a few pics. Beer tasted even better after that.
Will try to get some photos up later
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote krow Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Nov 2019 at 8:17pm
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LOL Thats how it's done. Nice. 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (2) Likes(2)   Quote The cook Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Nov 2019 at 8:52am
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Been fairly erratic for the last month or so, not alot of fish, one day spent 14hrs for 1 snap & a kingi. Then got a good bite at change of light.
Fished Friday evening softbait only, Brampton to begin with, very slow 2 bites for 2 x 70cm snaps. Moved around a bit for only small fish.
Out to the 20m line inside middle foul, one long drift  & the fishing steadily improved. All 60-65cm fish, by the end every cast was getting nailed. Mate & I both hooked up with screaming reels, his last cast he hooked a monster that ended up biting through the clip swivel we use, never seen that before, part of the reason we use them is to give us a bit of extra protection as we only use 15lb trace.
With 8 fish in the bin we headed in, very hard to leave when the bite is just getting better.

Out again on Saturday morning with a different mate who wanted some fish for a party. After catching bait headed back to the same area, glassy morning & barley drifted.
Started slow with baits only attracting pickers, I stayed with the softabaits. 3rd cast & a 75cm fish, over the next hour got 2 more 60cm+ while mate got nothing. Picked up a 95cm kingi on the livie & then half an hour later mates bait got nailed, 60cm fish. From then on the softbaits went untouched but a bait only had to hit the bottom & it got nailed.
By 8.30am we had 7 snaps & 2 kingi's, called it a day with the fish hard on the bite.


Long story short, the school fish are in! Odd thing is the big gannet workups of previous years don't seem to be happening
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Speedy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Nov 2019 at 11:03am
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They’re some great looking fish Cook! 👍
Proud supporter of Ronald McDonald House & the team at Legasea

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Bounty Hunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Nov 2019 at 4:15pm
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your experience echos ours - very quiet for long spells and then one or a couple of good fish in the 15-20lb range
No disintegrations!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (2) Likes(2)   Quote The cook Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Nov 2019 at 1:29pm
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BOI continues to fish well, was out last Friday evening.
Got to the ramp & realised I had forgot my sounder, feel kind of blind without it.
As a result couldn't really find the bait so softbaits only. Dragged a big 1oz with a big worm tail around while casting my normal rig. The dragged bait got two hits but real quality 75cm & a 85cm that I released.
Apart from those two I got semi regular hits & came home with 5 fish, all 50-60cm.

Out again last night, this time I remembered the sounder & picked up a bit of bait.
Softbaits untouched, you could be forgiven for thinking nothing was there. Bait was another story, periodic hits & again good fish. Two just over 70cm & another 4 over 60cm.
Got smoked twice, although I'm fairly sure one was a hammerhead taking a hooked fish. I had seen a meter long one swimming about the boat and a fish that had been putting up an avr fight suddenly took off & then ping.
Drifted over one spot where the bait didn't hit the bottom before something big took it, on for 30-40sec without gaining any line & hooks pulled. Before I could do anything another similar fish hits it, this one last 10sec before hooks pull. Let the reel out of gear & 5 sec latter another fish hits it. This one stuck & I landed a 60cm fish which felt tiny compared to the other two.
Drifted the same spot a couple more times but never did find that little patch again.

So while not fast and furious, plenty of fish about.
Still not the big workups, but there are solid bait schools.
Fish not surprisingly are in the general vicinity of the workups.
I've been mostly fishing in close, 26m was the deepest & often ended up in less than 20m

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote waynorth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Nov 2019 at 2:01pm
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Interesting about the softbaits - we found the same thing on Tuesday. I got a few hits on softbaits, & caught one nice 66cm fish, but only caught a couple of others all day, though I did drop 3 good ones part way through the fight for reasons unknown. Bait caught the rest, but it was slow fishing unless we got a bit too close to the centre foul, when the small fish were hammering everything.

We were a bit deeper too - mostly 32-38 between centre foul & Motuarohia/Motorua. No workups seen all day - plenty of good sign on the bottom, and the odd big school, but no real bite time. Water just touching 18 degrees.

Out with my eldest & his mate Sat/Sun - sounds like we need to mix bait & artificials, & perhaps try a little closer in. Thumbs Up  


treat fish like fish
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Bounty Hunter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Nov 2019 at 2:27pm
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we had a good stint last friday morning on the 'you know where' spot.

plenty of fish in the 3-4kg bracket and kept perhaps a dozen of these - put back maybe the same number before the midmorning lowtide lull approached

no really big ones, but a far more consistent bite than we d been getting the previous weeks
No disintegrations!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote feeder Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Dec 2019 at 8:24pm
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Saturday started off catching livies, then out to the crowd thrashing the water with softies for 3 hrs for 1 undersize snap.

Anchored up and out came the west coast rigs, dirty old bait and a bit of stray lining.

Bingo, some nice snaps and a kingi, one of the best days I have spent on the water up north.

Cheers
The only bar to frequent is the Kawhia Bar
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote waynorth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Dec 2019 at 9:16pm
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x2 Feeder. Also out Saturday - 50 boats parked on top of the Centre Foul, great snapper sign all over, big schools of bait, 4-5 hours fishing with softbaits & fresh baits, one snapper.  Then the tide turned late morning - with an outgoing tide and building easterly, drifting became difficult so we anchored on some patchy sign in 40m & straylined with some of the fresh blue macs we had caught. Bingo all right. Mixture of 50-65cm males & females, all in roe/milt, 19 degree water.

We saw quite a few gannets diving, although not exactly workups, & I'm sure the macs we caught were too big for gannets, so there must be some pilchards or anchovies out there.

Good fishing, but patience required, & an outgoing tide has been the key the last couple of trips.
treat fish like fish
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Dukeas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Dec 2019 at 10:48pm
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Re Soft baits not so successful and bait was.
Same for a friend recently in Doubtless Bay, he's a through and through soft bait angler, I'd given him some fresh caught, but quickly frozen slimey and yellowtail macks, which his mate that day used, caught the best fish of the day, 8 kg Snapper, soft baits, just caught barely legal snapper.
That's why I go to the trouble of taking some of everything, worth the effort, to tempt fish taste buds.
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