December 2009 - Part 3
Bay of Islands Fishing Report
27th December - Morning Trip - Beautiful weather, calm sea, heaps of boats and hardly any fish biting. It was a very hard trip but we managed to get enough fish for everyone for 2-3 meals. Unusual highlights were the Octopus, Conger Eel and 7 Gill Shark.
- Afternoon Trip - the wind had come up so we went over to the worm beds to see what was happening there. The first Snapper was a beauty (around 4-5lbs)but it was the only one, the rest of the Snapper were tiny so we moved to more sheltered waters as one of our customers was suffering from sea sickness. The result here was the same as before (tiny fish) so we headed for Centre Foul. When we got there we discovered about a dozen boats there already but there wasn't a lot going on. It was pretty calm and we were running out of time so we stayed. It was disappointedly quiet and we eventually called time. Sure enough one of the guys immediately caught a nice Snapper which was 20mm shorter than our very first one. Nice way to finish but a disappointing result all the same.
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This Octopus was so fascinating that I had to take a few photos. It wasn't until after that I thought of taking a video. Bugger!
28th December - After yesterday we were a bit concerned about what today was going to deal to us. The same beautiful calm conditions and at least 50 boats out there. The holiday makers have arrived with their boats and there is continuous movement and noise on the water which unfortunately spooks the fish so the hard fishing has now gone up a notch.
Good old Blue Seas was back on our spot for the third day in a row (must be waiting for us to give him another clue) so we moved 500m further out to get away from the traffic jam and find some quiet water.
We started drifting to check out a rock that Terry was checking out and immediately had a good hit. The wind was building up a little bit and the rock was so tiny that we went back and dropped anchor over it. The wind took us slightly off the rock but we stayed to see what was there but after twenty minutes of very little, we reset the anchor and nailed the rock just right. We got a few good Snapper but also caught good numbers of Golden Snapper. We also had a lot of close encounters with Barracuda, luckily some of the guys enjoyed eating them so we kept three.
Best hit of the day - our youngest angler Isla Cubitt pulled in this 14lb Snapper. She had a nice smooth rhythm going and was handling the fish well by herself so we all just sat back with the net and watched. Her grin for the next hour or so said it all - great fish.
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A great day for Barracuda. Here, Balan Gounden is displaying his best of the day. A bit expensive on sinkers but fun all the same.
At the beginning of the trip, I warned everyone on board that it is often the youngest or the one with the least experience that catches the best fish. Sure enough, young Isla Cubitt from Scotland cleaned up all competition with this 14lb monster Snapper. She had a big smile for the rest of the trip.
29th December - We had a full boat today and I was a bit nervous but in the end it worked out well. We tried a couple of places on the way out and they were hopeless, so once again we ended up in the same place as the previous trips. It appears that within the bay, there is only one place to try. I'm not saying it was crowded but we slotted into our space and started to fish. It didn't take too long before it was obvious that there were reasonable fish here (plus a few sinker stealing Barracuda). We started catching some very reasonable fish within the first hour and the quality improved all day. Once again, it was the young ones who did the best (although I do appreciate the mums deliberately not showing up their offspring by out fishing them). The youngest aboard got busted off on a monster Snapper or Barracuda early in the day. Whatever it was, it had the making of an epic struggle before the line busted. Brandon Douglas managed to upstage the adults with his fish (see the photos) - and did I mention that he joined that very exclusive club? The "I caught a bigger fish than Skipper Terry" Club. A pretty good day all in all, with some great Snapper caught.
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 with his 3lb Trevally.jpg "Brandon Douglas (Master Fisherman) with his 3lb Trevally")
It was a slow start but eventually we started to see results. Once again the younger anglers outperformed all the adults. Brandon Douglas, seen here with 3lb Trevally and 8.5lb Snapper, did the best. Chris Gilhome was close behind with his 6.5lb Snapper and then we have Gamillo Jang with 4.5lb of Snapper. Coming in last was Jim Wreaks with a 4lb fish. Jim was caught here claiming his consolation prize.
30th December - We started with 4 no-shows today. Apparently their car wouldn't start and they couldn't ring me because their phone wasn't working (but somehow they knew I'd called their phone). As the Tui advert goes "yeah right!". Anyway we headed out with 10 people and high hopes. The slight swell would have been okay today if our bow was pointed into it but unfortunately the wind and tide were opposing forces today so we were side on. It was uncomfortable and the fish weren't biting much so after 20 minutes of being tossed around we shot over to check out the worm beds which were in more sheltered waters. No luck there so we checked out Centre Foul with the same result. Our last spot produced the goods but the bite time was very short. A 14lb and 10lb Snapper within 10 mins of stopping, followed by a Terakihi, Trevally and some small Snapper. Not a great result but the best we could manage today.
31st December - We had a full boat today so it was lucky that yesterday's swell had disappeared. We started at yesterdays "last spot" but we were being hammered by bait stealers so it was back out to the Whale again. This time, however there was no sign of any of the large Snapper. Our final tally of fish included Snapper and Trevally. Although the number of fish kept were just right for our clients requirements, the biggest Snapper only measured around 34cm.
Here endth 2009
Happy New Year everyone