Floundering in Tauranga harbour

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    Posted: 08 Aug 2020 at 3:19pm
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Anyone had experience floundering, either spearing or netting in the Tauranga harbour?

I'm thinking of getting a flounder light and spear, I just want to first make sure the flounder are there.



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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote taurangatroutmaster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2020 at 6:01pm
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Maketu is better. Tauranga habour around the city is hard work and mainly small flounder. Up towards Kati Kati is better
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m always amazed where they are. I look at a 2 foot deep estuary and think if I was a flounder...hmmm 

Had a sad session on the channel edges And quiet water to find 3 brutes (nailed and next seen hanging out with eggs in my pan) sitting in a inch of water at the car park under the lights! 


Happy hunting 😁
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BlueMarlin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2020 at 11:12pm
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Originally posted by taurangatroutmaster taurangatroutmaster wrote:

Maketu is better. Tauranga habour around the city is hard work and mainly small flounder. Up towards Kati Kati is better


That is depressing.  I was expecting massive amounts of flounder in TGA harbour because I assumed not many people go floundering there.


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BlueMarlin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2020 at 11:23pm
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Originally posted by Reel Deal Reel Deal wrote:

m always amazed where they are. I look at a 2 foot deep estuary and think if I was a flounder...hmmm 

Had a sad session on the channel edges And quiet water to find 3 brutes (nailed and next seen hanging out with eggs in my pan) sitting in a inch of water at the car park under the lights! 


Happy hunting 😁

In Ohiwa harbour we average 20-25 flounder per session set/drag netting. 
Why is floundering in TGA harbour so hard going?


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BlueMarlin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2020 at 11:39pm
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Originally posted by Reel Deal Reel Deal wrote:

m always amazed where they are. I look at a 2 foot deep estuary and think if I was a flounder...hmmm 

Had a sad session on the channel edges And quiet water to find 3 brutes (nailed and next seen hanging out with eggs in my pan) sitting in a inch of water at the car park under the lights! 


Happy hunting 😁


My favourite YouTube fishing channel, a local guy from my area (Whakatane/Ohope) does some flounder cooking starting at 13:50

He loves eggs with his flounder as well:)
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Reel Deal Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Aug 2020 at 10:29am
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blue Marlin you got me hooked on that YouTube channel. Haha. Great fishing off Whakatane mouth clip
The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men's lives the hours spent on fishing - Assyrian Proverb
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BlueMarlin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Aug 2020 at 11:24am
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Originally posted by Reel Deal Reel Deal wrote:

blue Marlin you got me hooked on that YouTube channel. Haha. Great fishing off Whakatane mouth clip


Yeah it's an entertaining channel.  That video of him fishing the Whakatane mouth and catching two snapper and a kahawai and losing what was probably another snapper was a good day at the mouth. 

It probably helped that he was fishing the Whakatane mouth during the weekday when there is less boat activity to scare the fish away. 

During the lock down when no boats were allowed out to sea there was snapper, trevally and kingfish coming into the Whakatane harbour which they don't do under normal conditions because of all the boat activity . 
Everyone was catching good bags of fish when we went from level 4 lock down to level 3 and land based fishing was allowed again.


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Wanda_Ra Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Aug 2020 at 12:28am
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They do a massive amount of commercial floundering in tauranga harbour, try towards omokoroa in the shallows or matakana island in the harbour shallows,some huge suckers from there.

If you think you are too small to make a difference,try sleeping with a mosquito in your tent.
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Originally posted by Wanda_Ra Wanda_Ra wrote:

They do a massive amount of commercial floundering in tauranga harbour, try towards omokoroa in the shallows or matakana island in the harbour shallows,some huge suckers from there.



I missed this post yesterday.  I only revisited this thread to look over old posts.

Commercial floundering eh? That will explain the lack of flounder in TGA harbour. I don't own a boat so Matakana island is not an option but Omokoroa sounds good.

ThanksSmile

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Uncle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Aug 2020 at 9:23am
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Originally posted by Wanda_Ra Wanda_Ra wrote:

They do a massive amount of commercial floundering in tauranga harbour, 

Not too sure about that Brian.
The commercial guys net for trevally, kahawai & piper but flounder catch would be pretty minimal.
I'll make some inquiries.
 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote kitno Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Aug 2020 at 10:34am
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I broke down not far from the Omokoroa ramp a while ago. While dragging the boat back by hand through the shallows I spotted a few. Managed to gaff a couple also
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BlueMarlin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Aug 2020 at 3:26pm
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Originally posted by Uncle Uncle wrote:

Originally posted by Wanda_Ra Wanda_Ra wrote:

They do a massive amount of commercial floundering in tauranga harbour, 

Not too sure about that Brian.
The commercial guys net for trevally, kahawai & piper but flounder catch would be pretty minimal.
I'll make some inquiries.
 


Could you let us know the outcome of your inquiries here please. I'm interested to know.

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BlueMarlin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Aug 2020 at 3:27pm
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Originally posted by taurangatroutmaster taurangatroutmaster wrote:

Maketu is better. Tauranga habour around the city is hard work and mainly small flounder. Up towards Kati Kati is better


Are you going at low tide?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BlueMarlin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Aug 2020 at 3:31pm
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Originally posted by kitno kitno wrote:

I broke down not far from the Omokoroa ramp a while ago. While dragging the boat back by hand through the shallows I spotted a few. Managed to gaff a couple also


Gaffing flounders, that's impressive!! 

I'm happy with just two flounder per floundering session.  It's more to do with getting out and about and finding outdoorish things to do.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote taurangatroutmaster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Aug 2020 at 3:43pm
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I'd usually go incoming tide at any stage if spearing. Netting would be more around low so you could put the net in the channels
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote BlueMarlin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Aug 2020 at 4:03pm
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Originally posted by taurangatroutmaster taurangatroutmaster wrote:

I'd usually go incoming tide at any stage if spearing. Netting would be more around low so you could put the net in the channels


I think our floundering styles differ. This is how we do it in Ohiwa Harbour...

For spearing we hit em at dead low because the flounder are more concentrated into a smaller area of water. As the tide comes in the flounder become more spread out due to an increasingly more expanded area of water.

For netting we set the net from a boat across relatively small channels on the second half of the out going and as the flounder come off the mud flats where they are feeding and back into the smaller channels to move out into the main harbour channel, we cut them off.  We average 15-20 flounder in single sets doing this, but we usually set it twice and on the second set we "splash chase them" into the net for an extra 5-10 flounder. 


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