have to agree with you there anythings better than being at work, being out there in the piecefull and carm is A+. Just nice if you can bring a feed home as well to please the mrs

timboes wrote: found it a bit slow yesterday out around motiti so think ill take the advice aswell and head out to the further regions this next trip!  a bad days fishing beats a good day at work!

Thats good Hamish just getting into soft baiting nice time of the day and back at the ramp so early. Not tried around karewa as yet but may give it a go as not to far out. What size snaps did you get.

Hamish_S wrote: I went out by my self for a lowkey softbait down towards karewa the other morning, fishing by 7m, 8 fish, all snaps on board by just befor 9, tryed for 30 mins with no touches for the last fish, then pulled the pin!   Home, boat cleaned, fish filleted by just after 10, not a bad morning!!!!

Best of luck, let us know how you get on. Will have to do a night or late evening fish soon, tides should be good for tonight.

strx7 wrote: heading up the harbour tonight, burley, shallows, incoming tide, evening bite time. as long as the rain holds away.....

launched at 5:30, parked by the 1st marker you come to at the very end of the otumoetai channel out from fergusson park........ sat there for 50 mins for..........1 small eagle ray.  continued up harbour further, kahawai and terns crashing whitebait off the end of rangiwea, nailed 6 or 7, continued up towards te puna, into 5ft of water just off the te puna channel, burley over, out goes a pillie, enquiry straight away but didn't hook up.  had a couple more enquiries, went to check 1 of my rods, hello, we're hooked up.....  its 8:50. it would appear i'm hooked up to an express train. 7kg of drag is making alot more impression on me than the thing attached to the other end. after well over 100 metres of line had disappeared i made the descision to clear all the other rods, pull the anchor and follow the express train.  Some 20+ mins later the flying carpet at the other end called it quits and burried itsself into the te puna seabed.  I saw it at a distance.  and called it for a stingray not an eagle ray and probably 5ft across.  No matter how much pressure I applied i couldn't get the bugger to budge, and out boat hook was fractionally too short to reach the hua to give it an encouragement prod. in the end i locked the spool by hand and attempted to bust something, in the end my 40lb leader parted at the loop.  something to be said about offshore 6-10kg soft bait rod, shimano sonara 4000 reel and 14lb fireline.  I'd happily taken on anything within reason on that set up if there was nothing for it to bust me off on.  there was a few boats out and about up that way, didn't see anyone catching anything.

agreed with andy, much better than a night on the lounge haha, things can only get better on tha fishing front, and the ramps are slowly emptying out again !

Hi strx Im in Omokoroa plauged with rays Clip a heavy sinker on your line drop it down  usually gets them off the bottom I hate/kill them Cheers

Hi guys new to the forum was down at Tauranga over new years went out with my old man in the harbour softbaiting up and down by the Wharves we managed 10 snapper biggest 45cm all caught on nuclear chickens as the tide started running out. Also of note I caught a small blue cod by Matakana island as well which had a kingi following it.

bumkin wrote: Hi strx Im in Omokoroa plauged with rays Clip a heavy sinker on your line drop it down  usually gets them off the bottom I hate/kill them Cheers

PJay wrote: bumkin wrote: Hi strx Im in Omokoroa plauged with rays Clip a heavy sinker on your line drop it down  usually gets them off the bottom I hate/kill them Cheers   Why?

I hope you love eating them then bumkin.  

And again the debate with tauranga fishing starts.
3 points. TIME, TIDE, PLACE.
held off the boat fishing untill boxing day done a few land based missions up the coast and coro during december with mixed results, most sucsess was at houmanga bay fishing from low to high during early morning,
Boxing day i followed all others mistakes, out to motiti early and caught naff all, in to papamoa then kaituna, omanu, tay street and NAFF ALL,
Finaly decided to listen to the wife and went to her fav spot down matakana and guess what,

3pm sunny as, 6 nice panies,

havent botherd going out side since THEN.  70 liters of fuel and wife having bragging rights all for 6 fish ,(no thanks)

The harbour on the other hand has been going off, have had five trips since boxing day and have got our limit most times. most of our trips are from about 9-10pm through to daylight,

My tips for the harbour at the mo are
1. NIGHT TIME!!!!
2. OUT GOING TIDE DURING DARKNESS
3. TUATUAS and  fresh jack mac has been the baits of choice.
4. LONG TRACES(1.5-2 mtrs) OF 20 LB AND LIGHT BRAID main line ( i run 3 kg) and a 1 ounce sinker running on the main line.
5. Try the area around the small sail/triange marker in the centre bank area, the weed isnt to bad around there either
The fish arnt really feeding hard so feel for the mouthing and hit them.
The best sofar was a 6 lber not huge but dam fine eating.