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Post by Roderick on Jul 11, 2008 11:10:50 GMT 12
Fishing Reports Mid Winter Fishing at its best! www.fishing.net.nz/index.cfm/pageid/1/ViewPage/Home Hi All! The weather gods have thrown everything at us lately, but the fish don't seem to care! Its time to slip on the beanie, put on the thermals, fill the thermos and get stuck into some of the best fishing of the year. We've just recently three days with some visiting Australian anglers and despite some pretty average conditions we managed some great fishing. Check out a run down of the wild and wooly weekend's fishing here: www.fishing.net.nz/asp%5Fforums/forum_posts.asp?TID=30593Things don't seem to slow down at all in winter, there has been action everywhere. Sharks, seals, dolphins, gannets all in on the act..and then there's the fishing! Big fat winter kingi's, a procession of snapper on softbaits in the shallows, and when the wind dies down a bit, some primo hapuku for the table. There's also no shortage of tasty John Dory and some good sized trevs - both of these fish are at their best in winter as well. Working the coastline with softbaits has to be one of the most effective ways to target the tasties Johnies, with a good half a dozen falling to softies on our last trip. SNAPPER While there has been some talk around the traps that winter is time to go back to bait fishing, we've found exactly the opposite. The water has cooled another degree over the last week to 14 degrees, and while there is a good bite first thing on bait, fishing with softbaits has seen a consistently better quality of snapper, with plenty of snapper in the 4-6kg range on patterns like the Nuclear Chicken Pogy, Orange Tiger Shaky Shad and Jerk Shad Camo. A number of the snapper we've caught on softbait have been full up on all sorts of shellfish, but have struck out of instinct at the passing softbait when they might normally have shyed away from a bait. A good sea anchor is a must in the conditions we've had lately, allowing you to slow the drift right down and get your bait into the zone. KINGFISH The inshore kingis have thinned out leaving just the odd horse in close. When the weather abates there is some great jigging to be had out wide around the Aldermen Islands. There are plenty of fish in the 20kg - 23 kg plus range so if you're heading out make sure you go with some grunty jigging gear so it doesn't end in tears! Hot jigs that have been working for us include the Zest 300gm Curved Slider in Purple, the Katch1 jigs blue spear jigs from Sportsfishing NZ, and the Green and Gold Zest Hardy. We've had no shortage of kingis on all our jigging trips, but the large majority are released to fight another day. An average sized fish for the table for each angler, and the horses are put back to keep the fishery healthy. You can check out our most recent kingi report with a 23kg PB to angler Dave Perrow here. If you are keen to get out on one of our jigging trips soon send us an email to info@epicadventures.co.nz CRAYS! There's some great vis in close at the moment, couldn't be a better time for diving if you don't mind the bracing water! Stay clear of the females as they are all in berry but there are some good sized bucks around in the shallows. And...it ain't long til Scallop season opens in September. All the best Carl Muir Epic Adventures www.epicadventures.co.nz From Carl Muir Report type: Saltwater Report date: 08 July 08
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Post by Roderick on Aug 11, 2008 12:41:09 GMT 12
Saltwater \ Fishing reports Change Region All regions Northland Auckland Waikato Coromandel Rotorua Bay of Plenty Taupo East Cape Hawkes Bay Taranaki Wellington Manawatu Nelson/Marlborough Canterbury West Coast Otago Southland Fiordland --Tonga --Vanuatu --Borneo Fishing Reports Epic Winter Fishing! Fishing Report - Tairua and Aldermen Islands www.epicadventures.co.nzWell the weather hasn't been all that conducive to fishing has it! There haven't been that many boats out there doing it, but for those with some flexibility it has very much been a matter of finding the gaps in the weather and getting out there when the going is good. The snapper are in great condition at the moment and you'll find them on pretty much every reef out from Tairua. Try and work the current swept side of the reef and you are almost guaranteed some great fishing. The Aldermen Islands have been on fire, with plenty of snapper in the 10-18 pound range, in 10-20m of water. In this sort of depth we're almost solely using Pogy or Swimming Shad style softbaits, and they are working a treat by some of the photos you can see here! With the Pogys, use a very light jig head, get your cast as far away from the boat as possible (in the direction of the drift), and slowly mend your line on the drop. Use very fine twitches of the softbait, you don't need to work them as much as the Jerk Shad style baits. The inshore snapper went off the boil during the big week of rain that we had, but when the water finally cleared they came back in, and feed up in a big way. Last Sunday night we had every cast hammered by big snapper. The kingfish are in good condition as well, big and fat, and hard fighting. We've been trying out a new Jigging Master rod from the www.jigsdirect.co.nz website, the Powerspell 400 which has been knocking over the big kingis. These rods are perfectly designed for jigging, they are short, just over 5 foot, have a parabolic curve rather than a quick taper, allowing a great jigging action and maximum power without hurting the angler too much. Matched to it is an Ocea Jigger 4000p, loaded with 37kg Jig Star multi coloured braid. The multi coloured braid is another tool which helps with the jigging, allowing you to drop the jig to the same depth you have sighted fish on the sounder. Hot jigs have been the Zest curved slider in Purple and Katch1 spear jigs. All the big fish we have been catching, including a lot of the nice snapper, have been put back in the water to fight another day. We'd encourage you to do the same, to help ensure we have just as good a fishery in five years time as we do today. Take some good quality scales with you on the boat to get an estimate of the fishes weight, get a good photo and pop them back in the drink (after some careful handling!). A nice eating kingfish is around the 1m mark and that will go a long way, we think anything too much bigger than that is best left swimming in the ocean. We've released plenty of kings lately between 15 and 30kg's, included the two pics you can see in this report. So what else has been biting? Well, there have been plenty of other fish in on the action as well, Porae hitting softbaits, and trevally and snapper hitting 400gm jigs!! The John Dory were a bit scarce for a week over the big fresh but that are back in good numbers in the shallows - keep a jack mackeral down as a livebait or trail a softbait behind the boat for a tasty feed of Johnnies. So, all in all, the winer fishing is pretty good, and with spring and summer just around the corner it just gets better! I can't wait for the big Albies to start showing up soon, and to get back into some shallow water livebaiting when the kings move back in over Spring. Then there's the run of yellowfin in December..... If you're keen to get out and amongst it get in touch with us through our site www.epicadventures.co.nz All the best Carl Muir Epic Adventures, Tairua
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Post by Roderick on Oct 7, 2008 16:57:48 GMT 12
23kg kingfish on flyrod, imagine that!
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Post by Roderick on Dec 11, 2008 9:06:32 GMT 12
Saltwater \ Fishing reports Change Region All regions Northland Auckland Waikato Coromandel Rotorua Bay of Plenty Taupo East Cape Hawkes Bay Taranaki Wellington Manawatu Nelson/Marlborough Canterbury West Coast Otago Southland Fiordland --Tonga --Vanuatu --Borneo Fishing Reports Eastern Bay of Plenty That’s more like it – better and warmer weather, water and a general overall improvement with fishing – yeeha! Inshore is still strong but finally, at last, got some good support from further afield. Feeling more like summer all the while – read on ……………….
Inshore The consistent ways continue here with generally good success for most crews, regardless where they chose to fish or what they want to chase. Snapper feature heavily with most and for good reason – good results occurring in many different depths, bottom terrain and areas. Matata through to the Rurimas and onto Ohope Beach has all seen good fishing, whether you’re in 15 or 45 metres – just plain good. While the larger models are being extracted from the Raus, the numbers of good sized pannies (1-3kg) are prevelant throughout.
Plenty of terakihi to augment, or supplant, this catch if you deem it necessary. They seem to like the 30-40 metre mark with a few in even shallower. Expect them to move out into deeper environs soon. Limit fishing for gurnard on the sand most everywhere with 20 metres of water off Kohi Point as good (and certainly as handy) as anywhere. Kahawai (some over 3k’s) and smallish trevally complete a very healthy scene.
Offshore At long last, an improvement in this arena – and not a small or unnoticed one! The weekend showed the way to the road to recovery after three weeks of poor (and worsening) fishing – and right across the board. We’ll start with the kingis as that’s been the largest area of disappointment.
It has been a slow and modest comeback but a most welcome one after nil or near nil results for weeks at the smokey isle. Most every kingfish (other than rats) have come off more distant reefs at least three miles from White over the past fortnight. These deeper reef systems (160-190kg average), it’s been most welcome after such a dormant period.
Two exceptions were matching 30 kilo fish caught by “PURSUIT” youngster Joshua Mower and “Enchanter” angler Tim Smith – well done guys, hope there will be many more heavyweights to come. XOS (4 ½ - 6 kilo) trevally have also coincided in bite time with numerous landed on both the west and south sides of the island. Small jigs, soft baits and cubes of skippy did the damage there.
Further afield the deepwater has paid some big dividends as well with some boats reporting “Ranfurly style” fishing! Hapuka have been the prevalent species but followed closely by bluenose and some “stovepipe” gemfish. Even a few bass in the mix with most small but some approaching 30k’s. Typically the bluenose bite early or late with the rest at anytime you’re lucky enough to find them home.
Puka especially have shown in a number of areas, in depths from 140 to well over 200 metres. They should have spawned and despised a month ago but not so this year, Sizes range anywhere from pups to nearly 30k’s with most in the very respectable and delicious 10-15k range.
Back closer to the island the trevally have thrown away their muzzles and are biting rampantly as are terakihi, red snapper and some XOS porae. Water temps are in the 18’s and colour varies from day to day – clean green through to blue. The sea is seemingly alive with little albies (3-4k’s) with a hotspot two miles SE of White. A few skippies also persist but these are mainly outside White. All in all a buoyant picture that just got a lot better very recently.
Ranfurly Bank No recent reports but several boats will be there now as you read this. Expect a comprehensive report next week. Last visit turned trumps 10 days ago.
Summary Suddenly all is forgiven offshore after a very trying period, inexplicably so for this normally ultra productive time of year. Looking more summerish all the while but don’t start getting carried away and start thinking, let alone speaking, YFT! Till next week……………..
From Pursuit Report type: Saltwater Report date: 09 December 08 Email to a friend
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Post by Roderick on May 6, 2009 16:05:57 GMT 12
Tutorial Videos Website for tying all the different fishing knots. www.videofishingknots.com This site has 55 instruction videos so far and the collection is growing. Most anglers will find the instruction videos helpful and it is a great resource if you want to learn new fishing knots.
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Post by Roderick on May 6, 2009 16:08:04 GMT 12
ISSUE 63 - 19.04.09 Welcome to Issue 63 of Current Lines STOP the PRESS – The Largest Marlin Ever Captured in NZ I always wanted to say that! Last Thursday Houhora Club weighed in a 483.40kg Blue Marlin. The fish was caught by Whangarei angler, Ross Jameson and the team on the vessel Harlequin, skippered by John Douglas with deckie Chris Ash. The fish took a big pink skirted lure and it took an hour & twenty minutes to land and by all accounts put on a spectacular aerial display. The catch is not only a pending New Zealand record claim for a blue marlin on 37kg line, but also is the outright heaviest Gamefish ever recorded in NZ. Hookin' Bull notches another amazing ultra light capture and world record claim; Houhora was in the news again on Saturday night. Eryn Jacobsen who with husband Guy had also taken advantage of the good numbers of fish still on the coast, were on their way back from the Kings, when Eryn captured a Striped Marlin of 95kg on 2 kg line. The fishing up the top end still continues to produce the goods, with excellent catch rates around The Hook, Compass Rose and Tom Bowlings Bay. There has been a strong southerly current at present pushing the bait onto the coast. Whangaroa and the area to Flat Island is full of skippies, with Centrefold reporting one ignorant stripie shouldering a live bait aside, dead set on trying to nail the teasers they were using. Tutorial Videos Website for tying all the different fishing knots. www.videofishingknots.com This site has 55 instruction videos so far and the collection is growing. Most anglers will find the instruction videos helpful and it is a great resource if you want to learn new fishing knots. Nationals T Shirts and Cooler Bags, There are a number of Nationals shirts still available in the Large size only, and there are still available a limited number of the black cooler bags with this year’s logo on, contact Roz at roz@nzbgfc.org.nz Some Clubs Are Not Filing Your Catch Reports! The recently circulated list of firsts and heaviest for the season to date has highlighted that a lot of clubs are not forwarding their catch statistics to the NZBGFC. From our recently updated heaviest gamefish of the season list, the following are received as the heaviest to date. Blue Marlin - 289.0kg, Striped Marlin - 168.0kg, Broadbill - 75.30kg, Blue Fin Tuna - 223.0kg, Mahimahi - 10.30kg. We know that this list needs updating as the editor has personally weighed two heavier this season and knows of two others bigger. One was even caught during the Nationals. Feel free to put the acid on your club catch Recorder / Secretary to make sure that this important job is done! This list is also now on our Website - www.nzbgfc.org.nz so you can check it out there as well. Pacific Bluefin Tuna recognised for World Records. Following the impressive runs of Pacific Bluefin off the South Island's West Coast over the past several years, and with lobbying from the NZBGFC (Pete Saul), assisted by Perth based IGFA Representative, Neil Patrick and IGFA President Rob Kramer, from April 1, 2009 the IGFA has confirmed that it will be accepting Pacific Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus orientalis) for Line Class, Fly Rod and Junior Angler World Records. Because Pacific Bluefin may be difficult to distinguish from Southern Bluefin, IGFA will require that a genetic analysis accompany the application for any Pacific bluefin caught in the southern hemisphere that weighs less than the current southern bluefin All-Tackle record of 158Kg. Hiwi the Kiwi Goes Fishing – Coming to a School Near You! Development of this initiative to promote the sport of fishing and good practices to children throughout the Primary Schools of NZ is nearing completion. The Minstrel is starting his tour of the Schools June 20th. To date in excess of ninety schools have booked. The Council would like to thank the following sponsors whose substantial contributions have gotten this project off the ground…Davey Painters from Whakatane and The Guardians of The Sea Charitable Trust and Black Magic and their option4 gamefish lure range. Editor NZBGFC
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