Its back, but is it Blue???

Anyone been out Kapiti this week?

Temp was down to 13 degree's last Friday!!

Hi Paul,

         Thanks again for posting the chart. Temps certainly look promising, but I notice a southerly change is forecast for this afternoon, getting up to 35 knots tomorrow. That'll probably push it all away again for the weekend dammit!  I guess it'll also disappoint everyone heading into Wellington for the Surfcasting and Boatfishing Nationals this weekend too.

I don't fish Kapiti, although I'd like to. The water always looks warmer. Any advise for someone launching a 14.5ft glass runabout up that way? (I don't own a tractor!)

I think I might have a look at Pukerua Bay on Sunday.

Cheers Mars

Ive got a 4.2 alloy pontoon boat (30 Hp) which is really easy to launch at Kapit, in fact Ive done it on my own a few times.

The catch is, you need to unhook the trailer and push it into the surf. When retrieving I beach the boat as hi up the beach as I can get it. Then whinch it onto the trailer and tow it out of the surf using a tow rope, so as not to get the car wet at all.

I have a 4wd but Ive seen others using normal cars the same way.

It takes about 10 Mins to get to the Island, longer if its rough.

With two people we are often able to push the boat/trailer clear of the surf without towing. It just depends how quickly you can winch the boat on. If you take two long the tyres start bogging down, then you have to tow. I reckon some big fat mag tyres would be sweet on the trailer and stop it sinking in the sand but as we don't have any prob's at the moment Ive got no plans to change.

Hope this helps.

Paul, 

Water beautiful out wide.  Expect some tuna soon.

Snapper fishing very very well and groper are coming along very nicely after a fairly quiet time of it (due to weather).  Late last week was very tidy.

Thursday night � less than 2 hours produced 21 snapper between 4 and 12 pound, about a dozen of which came home.

Friday night � 4 snapper for a couple of hours effort.

Saturday night � 3 snapper (4 to 8 pound), 8 groper (20 to 35 pound) and one nice terakihi (4 pound) � in 3 hours.  We could have caught groper until the boat sank, but really legal or in keeping with my mindset.  A bit of a slow trip and a hiding to get out wide, but it was worth it.

All the above fishing two guys from the boat.

Water temps highly variable.  19 in the channel dropping to 15.5 in places.  A fairly solid 18 out wide.  Vis near Kapiti was not good, out wide was great.

Launching at kapiti should be no issue.

I have been doing it a long while. 

Don�t wait around with the boat on the trailer, she will sink into sand, just bear this in mind and keep moving. 

Bars are an issue at dead low tide, but we deal with them fine in 17.5 footer, so 14.5 should be easy.

14.5 footer, you should just be able to push trailer out (boat unhooked), tilt the trailer and drop her off when you get deep enough to be able to man handle her (she doesn�t have to be floating- just pull your transducer up first).  Pull trailer in and go fishing.

Paul is right about coming in, pull her up as far you can and winch her on, then use your car.

Matt B

The viz on Sunday would have gone 10 Meters at West Point, down to 5 Meters at the Boulder bank. The vis was very changable with the changing of the tide.
I hope the southerly doesn't drag too much more of that cold water up our way.

Awsome report Matt,

Did you collect your snapper out wide also? or in the channel?.

Wouldn't it be sweet if we had a FAD out wide in that nice blue water.

Just heard a story from the good old days, two spearo's were drifting the bolder bank with vis particularly good when two massive blue fin tuna swam between them. Neither was game to have a shot.

Snapper in the Channel/aeroplane island area

Want to have a crack at some tuna this weekend out wide, weather and time prermitting.

Yes ...It is blue,

Out on Sunday around Kapiti, the water was deep dark cobolt blue, looked like vis would have gone 15-20 meters.

Lots of fishing boats out, not many spearo's. Unfortunaly we were not out for a dive. Should be a few fisho reports comming in.

Eric,

Didn't fish the competition, but got out on Sunday for a little while.

Tried to catch some snapper near aeroplane island.  No snapper would cooperate, but a small groper(10lb), a huge gurnand and some nice cod joined us for lunch.

First time I have caught groper in there, tasty too.  good scrap on snapper tackle.

Everything is full of small squid (5cm), so get out after those tuna if you get a chance, and make sure you run a cedar plug.  too bumpy on sunday. 

Matt

How deep was the grouper Matt?

Got out for a dive today at the north end.

Blue water was still in although there was a thermocline at about 15 meters and the water was a bit cloudier.

Probably 14 meters vis in some spots.

Lost a decent Kingi out of a school of 3 on the bolder bank and Jeff saw another at the cathedral.

Tip (Keep your spear tip sharp, shot this king today at about 4-5meters range, right in the sweet spot, but the spear bounced out off the spine, I knew it was damn blunt too )

Ended taking a couple of Terikihi for dinner, terikihi were all over the north end a nd in good size and numbers.

Saw Quentin out today and he reported 70 ft vis yesturday and managed a 15kg Kingi, like today the fish were pretty wary.

Cheers

Paul

Groper was in only 55m of water.  that is the shallowest I have ever caught one.  Probably just beyond (tantalisingly close) your reach.  Tide gets through this spot too (in the channel to the west of aeroplane island)

I had heard there were a lot of tarakihi up the north end.  were they mainly around tokahaki reef or along the boulder bank, how deep, how far off the botom (I usually find tatakihi up there hover some way off the bottom - whereas up Tauranaga way, where I also do a spot of fishing from time to time - they reckon you have to be hard on the papa (sandstone bottom) to catch them - to the point that fishos advocate a sinker at the top of a ledger rig and letting the rig lie on the bottom.  If you did that here, you would catch plenty of scarpies and blue cod, but no tarakihi.  I often put a long breakaway section on the bottom of my tarakihi rigs, this keeps the gear away from the bottom dwellers when you drop, as they often grab it before you can get it up off the bottom again.

Funny things fish.  Fishermen too.

Out wide near any action on the surface should show promise for tuna (albies, but who know what else is there among them - YFT?, the odd beakie?)  I reckon.

The Terikihi at Tokahaki were definatly up off the bottom. And on the bolder bank were probably 2-3 meters above it. In fact some of the larger ones were on the tops of the pinacles.

They tend to school up under the sea perch. Ive never seen as many or as big as Ive seen this year.

Speaking of Tuna etc, I was talking to some other spearo's and they were recounting a tale from the good old days when men were men and the sheep were scared!!

Apparently two spearo's were drifting the bolder bank on a particulary good day with exellant vis. They were under approx 10-15 meters when a pair of massive blue fin tuna swam between them. Neither was game to take a shot at one which sounds weired for the good old days when just about anything was worthy of getting a spear through it, but Ive heard the tale from another source also so who knows.

Hi Guys,

           I too got out on Sunday, but wasn't fishing the comp. Ended up at Pukerua Bay nice and early (still dark) and did reasonably well in 25 metres. We picked up 12  panny snapper between 2-4lb, 3 gurnard, the usual kahawai and a couta. Oh yeah, I almost forgot 2 blindies!

Back in by midday. I wanted to get out wider but it was a bit lumpy for me. I don't know about the Plimmerton comp, but I know the best boat caught snapper from the nationals was 7.4 kg from Pukerua Bay. The top shore caught snapper was 6kg from Western Lakes. Nice fish.

Regarding puka. About 29th December we got a pup groper in 35metres on the Wairaka Rise which surprised us. Smaller than Matt's but I'm sure it tasted just as good!!!

Mars

Sweet,

35 Meters is almost in range, but you would want them lining up ready when you got there

A Kapiti spearo shot one recently at the aldermans in 3 meters of water. It weighed 40Kg nearly the NZ record set 30 odd years ago.

It came into a snapper bait the spearo had set.

I believe 30 odd years ago it wasn't uncommon to be schooled by Puka pups in the shallows just like kingi's. That would have been sweet.

They can still be taken like this at the chatham Islands apparently.

I got out with my old man the other day on the makara coast, and he showed me where they regularly took 20-28 pound snapper while hunting for crays and paua. They used to leave on Friday after school and tramp down the coast and make a bivy to stay in. In the evenings they would swim set lines out with whole paua on them and pretty much always had a few 20#+ snapper in the morning. He also said the crays were so large you could only fit two or three in there old army packs.

We got a feed of butterfish paua and crays, that coast is still good but sounds like a shadow of its former self.

I told you not to go to the doctor

Basically he gets a free trip to the states every year for selling his quota of Anti-biotics and Otrivine.

And he will take your 50$ and tuck it into the garter of the best looking stripper at the club that they send him and his medical buddies to for "Product training"

Ive had so many ear infections this year that I would be broke if I had gone to the Doc for every one. They all came right after about 7 days (fancy that!)

Second thoughts it might be a whole lot simpler and cheaper to have your ears removed.

You don't really need them for diving and I can think of numerous other advantages to do with the wife and kids mate.

You will need a speacial pair of sunnys for out on the boat tho.

It was better than being at work

It was a nice day, flat oily water, up to 15 meters vis.

Unfortunatly the Kingfish were a bit scarce. water was quite cold down deep.

I was a bit gutted to lose the only Kingfish I got a chance at.

We dived solid from 2:45 to 6:00 with about 60 mins bottom time so we were working quite hard. Just thought we would see a few more you know. Tides were very small with vary little current. Maybe that was why.

No, the tides are currently at there smallest for the month, less than half a meter I think!

Probably another reason for the great vis, can't win sometimes aye!!