You sound so lonely blackboat

I do a little bit of shore fishing and occassionly launch my kayak in the Keneperu. Rarely fish the Pelorus. I prefer the Queen Charlotte, Port Underwood, Croislles Habour or D'urville.

wats the story with crays around port underwood?

Do you guys catch Snapper around nilehead during the winter?

I have never fished north of Rangitoto Island. 

What sort of fish u usually chase there spraymate?Blackboat?Kings?Surely not cod?!!

Had a bit of sucess on the gurnad with SP's and a few kingis on the jigs over the last 12 months-but what a crap winter eh?Hardly had the boat out.Tryed the scollies out yet this season?

Just for more info, there is a handful of people on the spearfishing board from marlb/nelson.  There was also a bunch of surfcasters from Nelson who posted for a while in the walk-about section, have not seen much from any of them in a while.  

Huntfish who posts a bit in the jigging section is from Blenheim.

I also beleive there is a kayak fisher or two who sometimes look at the boards.  There is also a bunch of Kayakers from Cantubury which get up to Kaikoura and potentially marlb once in a while. 

Gurnard, Snapper kahawai, Kingfish, tarakihi and Perch. Lots of  options really.

I quite like catching flouder on rod/reel. Drag a small hook with prawn over a sandy bottom. Spotties are a pain. 

Has anyone heard of any snapper being caught in the Queen Charlotte this spring?

Thinking of doing a shore mission tomorow night, the tides look good. Probably should put the effort in and drive to the Kenepuru. 

Yeah, The sea is looking excellent on the weekend. On Friday/Saturday the forecast for Port Underwood, Cloudy/Clifford bay is almost flat and Kaikoura is looking good. While on Sunday Tasman bay is looking calm, swellmap.com is predicting half meter swell with little chop for western point.

So probably would chase Snapper friday night, then would head to either Marfells or Port Underwood for a kayak fish. Probably to early for the kingies in port underwood. If I have the energy maybe a evening snapper fish in the QC. Then up to the Bullert to hunt trout on Sunday. 

Nelson/Marlb offers a excellent diversity of fishing opportunities when the weather is fine.

I would probably blank this weekend. 

Last summer I caught Pannies, Blue cod, Couta, KY and Gurnard on Softbait. Mainly fishing the shallower bays towards picton and around port underwood.  Avoid Gulp in the sounds because it is a spottie magnet. If you are after numbers then real bait probably works better. 

Decided to check out Tara Bay. Got there a bit to late, tide was near peak. Berely attracted heaps of baitfish. Fished until 10pm, caught no snapper. Had one bite on KY fillet. Was very calm, and the moon gave heaps of light.

Should of stayed in or around Broughton Bay. Might do most of my landbased fishing in Mahau sounds from now on, less distance to drive. 

How does the tide in Kenepuru relate to the tide times at Havelock?

Thats the good thing about my kayak, once on the water it does not cost anything to run apart from a few muesli bars and cashew nuts. Although I can,t go on a day trip to niles head with it, the limit is about D'urville Peninsula when I launch from French pass.

Anyway, just gotten back from the Port, the sea was flat and visibility was about the best I have seen it for the area. Speared 8 butterfish, could of gotten more. Awesome diving conditions, lots of big paua around Found a few new cray holes but forgot my weight belt so could not get into them. .  

Fished French Pass and Durville over the weekend. Generally speaking the weather was POOP. Due to the weather we didn't make it out to Stephens Passage so most of the time we fished arond Durville. Caught some big gurnard, a few tarakihi, cod and a single snapper. Generally speaking the fishing was pretty slow.

I did something this weekend ummmm.

Surfcasting until late friday night at marfells. Caught nothing.

Recovered on Saturday, did check at the wairau bar but the wind was to strong.

Went fly fishing with the Marlb FF anglers club on Sunday. 

Went for a surfcast monday night at cloudy bay, only stayed a few hours and caught a small shark.

Blackboat. I didn't get a chance to see the fishing programme on Saturday. Any good tips?

Went for a lazy mid-day fish in Mahau sounds today. Paddled across to the far side and anchored up for a few hours, drifted whole squids, had a flasher rig with squid and a slow jig in the water. A few nibbles on the squid and a powerful strike on the slow jig. caught nothing. Wind got gusty and the sea choppy. Cold and wet at times.  Got back to the car just before 5pm.

Fished awatere coast Friday night, my prawn baits were untouched (again) but I took a third rod and  used piper for bait. Caught a constant stream of red cod and small school sharks. After dark landed a big doggie. Sea was calm, there was thick fog at times I could not see 200m down the beach. Between 8pm-9pm the fog turned to rain so I packed up. 

Would head down the coast for a morning fish, then maybe a evening paddle in the QC after snapper.

Spent morning Surfcaster down the east coast, got the normal suspects plus a large KY. They seem to be around in good numbers this year.

Spent evening Snapper fishing one of my spots in the QC, I used acombination of dragging a gulp crab behind my Kayak while fishing Slug-gos outfrount. Conditions were nice but no Snapper caught. Heap of spotty activity.

So far this year I have done 5 Snapper trips and blanked every time. Done double that number after Lemons on the coast for the same result. I must be a slow learner or just stubborn. 

Did not get near the sounds.

Just a troll in the lower Opawa sunday afternoon. Found the remains of the Sea Lion . Water is still very dirty, caught nothing.

Sunday evening I headed down to Marfells Bay with the Surf Rods and almost immediatly caught a Lemon/Rig. Also got a bunch of Red Cod.

Think I might wait until the school Snapper turn up before spending to much time in the Sounds. Saturday and Monday was to windy, wet, cold or something to go fishing.

Nice Snapper.

Spent around 5 hours fishing in the QC Sound, mainly used SP. A combination of drift fishing and trolling, basically only caught 3 small kahawai. Water temp is still around 13 so probably still a bit cold. 

What is the water temperature like in the Kenepuru at the moment? 

Should probably make the effort to get down to the Kenepuru but not on a work night.  

edit: Was tying rigs, and thought i was out of Swivels, so was busy searching for a pack of Mustard swivels I purchased a few months back... So I looked in my 60L tackle storage container (it is only half full) and found 5 packs of the swivels I like in it  . Although in my panic I did order another 5 packs  . Just proves that you can not have to much tackle . 

Looks like the fishing is warming up everywhere :) At this time of year it is hard to decide where to fish. 

Fished the Mahau sound for a few hours this morning (8-12pm), the gusts made it hard to fish from the kayak. No sign of Snapper but a few big schools of baitfish. 

Found a 50ft deep hole, surronded by 20ft deep water. Do you guys think it would be worth fishing, quite a few bait schools on the fish finder. 

Does anyone know if its possible to get land acess to the western point of Moetapu Bay?

Just wondering what would be a sensible size boat for heading out to Nile Head during the winter? Assuming that trips are planed around good forecasts but taking in account the unpredictability of the weather.

edit:

Also during the nor-west winds is the visibility better on one side of Port Underwood then the other. Until recently I only dived from the shore, and since getting my Kayak I only used it for diving twice. So is the North side any better for visibility?

True, I know how unpredictable the weather in outer Sounds can be. We use to frequently fish Port Gore in my parents 5.8m Naiad. One strange weather event was on a nice bright sunny day when low sea fog quickly engulfed the entire area. The trip back around Cape Jackson was a slow one. Port Gore is quite a dangerous place to fish because it can remain calm inside the port itself while the sea roughs up around Cape Jackson.  

I would be keen to go on a few trips out there with you, mainly to get a feel for the area. The nearest I been was on a charter boat which went to Rangototo Island. During the Summer I sometime paddle across to D'urville Peninsula from French pass but that side is a bit more sheltered.  Going to circumnavigate the whole island sooner rather then later. Just need a more capabel kayak. 

Great weather this weekend :)

Thinking of launching my Kayak at Okiwi Bay and going for a fish,  probably around Whangarae Bay but if its a nice day might head for the Islands. Any tips for fishing this area at this time of year?

Does anyone know whats going on with Hori Bay road?  Nelson Forest Ltd once allowed public access through there but it now seems to be closed indefinitely. 

Water temp ranged from 16.6 to 17.7 Celsius. How hot does it get in Tasman bay during the summer?

Got up at 4am this morning to fish dawn, spent 30 minutes driving, realised I did not pack my reels last night. Drove home and went back to bed, spent a few hours fly fishing spring creek in the afternoon.

edit: Spent a hour or so surfcasting in the Mahua sounds friday night. Sea was brown with heaps of pine needles and other crap washed down a nearby stream after the recent heavy rain. Just did not feel right so left early.

Nice work BLackboat sounds like you had a great day on the ater.

Fished French Pass on Saturday. My brother managed to catch all the snapper. One was 15lb. All the snapper were caught in the middle of the day in bright sunny conditions. The snapper were all caught within an hour of bitetime.

Conditions looked promising for Port Underwood today so headed out there for a Snorkle. There was a slight swell and a small chop developed. Sadly there was enough movement to distub the sediments so I doubt visbility was much more then 2m.

Only saw 1 butterfish big enough to shot but did not have time to shot, Saw a couple of Moki. Ended up harvesting 7 Paua before heading for home.