Kandrew wrote: Yeah funny I have actually been thinking of down sizing my boat because on the few days where we have had a weather window my normal fishing mates have had something on. So I get a smaller easy to use boat and I’ll be able to chuck it in and go. Problem with a smaller boat though is the amount of usable weather windows get less, at least with a larger boat you can still go and take the chance if the wind gets up.

Kandrew wrote: shaneg wrote: Plenty room in most pontoons depending on set up. Can move around as a big fella without worrying about list and if seat is problem configure further back. Used to be guy on here with relatively small stabi called Tiny Cole, he had a 14 ft stabi… Tiny was a lot bigger than Kandrew. Tiny had few to no problems in that smaller boat and he was one of best fishermen I ever meet. Made awesome rods as well. Kandrew is a big guy though, having met him once… so something for him to consider. As we get we get older, we also do need to consider comfort while doing what we enjoy. Yes I am a big bugger and I would fit a small runabout. The weather has been a problem this year but other things have got in the way as well. One of the problems I forget about is I really only lure fish these days which counts a lot of my old fishing mates out who still bait fish. I might have to go back to the dark side and break out the pillies.

There is fantastic fishing to be had in any sheltered water close in at the moment. We were pulling in 50 and 60cm fish in 5m of water recently just tucked behind a headland,  a few hundred metres from the ramp,  while it was howling 35kn out at sea. I cant give out the exact location , but most sheltered shallows near deeper water with current flow will hold surprising numbers of good fish. 

 Yeah and the rougher it is out at sea,  the better those sheltered harbour spots fish.

Been using our little Takacat more and more these days. A lot of fun to fish from but defiantly got its limitations.

I'm with you on that one Bob, I've got a 6m and 12ft tinny and live at Mt Maunganui so have a harbour as well as outside fishing and am very grateful to have the harbour with this weather pattern, fishing the harbour in my dinghy keeps me sane and over summer and autumn it can be good.

There are public boat ramps at Parua Bay and Onerahi by Limestone Island. If you want the lower harbour, there is an easy beach launch at Little Munro Bay. Not sure how much longer the fish will hang around, so do it sooner rather later!