February 2010 - Part 3
Bay of Islands Fishing Report
17th February - It was the day before the effects of Tropical Cyclone Rene arrived. Usually before a storm, the fishing goes a bit ballistic. Unfortunately today wasn't one of those days. The very first Snapper we caught was around 4lbs but it was hard work getting that fish. We tried four spots in all and the last one gave a couple of Trevally (but one fell to the deck and wriggled it's way to freedom) and a few Snapper around the 30-32cm mark. Catch wise it was our most disappointing for a long time. My skipper heard from one of our competitors that they hadn't caught a decent fish for almost four days (and they are still doing two trips a day) so we've been doing well, even on our bad days.
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It doesn't look much, but if you look closely in the background you can see lines of breakers on the Brampton Reef. These huge rollers on the normally calm reef give locals a strong warning that there are very big seas out there
18th February - The 3 metre swells are here and look likely to remain for most of tomorrow too. We cancelled our trips today and tomorrow as the only decent fish are tending to be in the middle of the bay and the middle is going to be horrific today.
I was stunned to see my two major competitors heading out this morning. In my view this is a complete rort. The only place that they'll be able to fish is amongst the islands and the odds of getting anything there are close to zero. They know and I know it but I bet their customers don't. Obviously money is important, not customer service, for these guys or they would never have gone out today. The amazing thing is that these guys proudly display their "qualmark" rating and it's just further proof that this rating is something you buy not earn.
20th February - As predicted (oh migod the forecast was right!) the swells and wind had died to virtually nothing. We headed out into the middle to see what we could find. On the way out Terry spotted a large school of Kahawai but we were determined to only use these as a last resort. Our first stop looked like it had promise so we dropped anchor as we were almost full and would find it hard to drift without tangles.
It didn't take long before we got our first fish and it was a beauty, weighing in around 3-4lbs. Everyone got pretty keen then and it wasn't long before we were pulling in more Snapper around the same size. The fish weren't coming on board in huge numbers but frequently enough to keep everyone interested and of sufficient quality to make me very happy.
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Iwan's friend (on the left in the middle picture) was the most successful angler today. The majority of the fish in that photo was caught by him. Was it superior skill or the red flasher that he had on his hook? I suspect that a couple of people might be trying to source red flashers over the next couple of days.
22nd February - Another day of near perfect weather. We headed out to the usual place and were soon pulling in pretty good fish. The amazing thing was that we were the only boat there. Terry has been telling me that a major competitor has been calling him regularly to see if we know where the fish are as they have been catching "5/8's of Bugger All". We also heard that the owner has been giving presentations around the town where he's been saying how he's catching nothing but 20lb Snapper. Obviously someone is talking porkies (just check out the photo below to find out who that is.)
Anyway, we were fishing away quite happily when (surprise surprise) along came our faithful competitor who, obviously having caught so many 20lb fish in his spot, decided to use their new fish finder (Skipper Terry) to locate some more fish. Occasionally when we looked up, we saw that they were using their net to land fish that we'd been throwing back for the past hour - obviously they weren't used to fish that small and didn't know how to get them on board without losing them.
Rumour is that it's the most fish they've caught in the past two weeks. Thanks fish finder Terry!
It was another good day for us. Of the 15 people on board only two failed to get a really good Snapper. A shame but we had enough at the end of the day to share out between everyone. Plus I've got three Snapper to smoke tomorrow for those customers staying in our camp.
Here's a selection of the fish caught today. A fairly consistent size was caught by nearly everyone. It was a fun day with everyone interacting well (which always makes my job easier.) I hope I got everyone's names right.
Unfortunately our constant shadow turned up - no doubt he'll be trying this spot again tomorrow.
Unfortunately our constant shadow turned up - no doubt he'll be trying this spot again tomorrow.
23rd February - Terry performed the old magic "pull the rabbit out of the hat" trick today.
The weather was okay but the 1.5m swell was proving too much for most boats. We had a couple of people suffering from sea sickness and despite the additional burley they provided, the Snapper just were not biting.
After about an hour, we admitted defeat and headed for shelter amongst the islands. We weren't confident of any decent Snapper here but perhaps we might find some Kahawai and have some fun. Funnily enough we did manage to catch four Snapper (including one real nice one) but the Kahawai weren't biting even though they were all around us. We had an hour and a half left, so at Terry's suggestion, we took a huge gamble and tried our last plan. We'd checked this site out a few weeks ago, the tide was right and we had nothing to lose.
On the way we passed our faithful shadow who had followed us from out spot in the middle and then back into the islands. He must've been panicking because, 15mins after he is usually back at the wharf, he was still out there searching for fish (we heard later that he caught no keepers at all - absolute zero!) Damn shame :-)
We got to our last spot, dropped anchor and it was all on! We caught several good 3-4lb Snapper, then a spurt of large Kahawai, more Snapper and then even more Kahawai. We had 8 people on board and brought home 14 Kahawai and about the same number of Snapper.
Nice one Terry !! You can have the day off tomorrow !
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24th February - We didn't go out today. The water was too rough to try the middle again, the bays aren't working and our last spot yesterday was going to have the wrong tides. We didn't want to rip our customers off so we turned down all our bookings for today.
Yesterday Terry got a call from our favourite competitor. Terry only gets these calls when the going is tough and it's always a one way street as far as information goes. It's really amazing how this guy is telling everyone about all the 20lb fish his guys are catching and yet Terry gets called for clues as to where we're catching fish.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, Terry mentioned that we'd caught lots of fantastic Snapper at Mosquito Point.
Today, our spy on the hill said that their boat took off as fast as it could go and headed around Tapeka - towards Mosquito Point? Methinks that was a mistake on their part as Terry was well and truly pulling their string.
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The trip started off with nothing to photograph and then it was happening so fast that I didn't have time.
I did manage this short movie of Bob and the one still photo. Not a great movie but hopefully it gives a bit of a feel for the great fight these Kahawai give you when you catch them. Lots of fun.
I did manage this short movie of Bob and the one still photo. Not a great movie but hopefully it gives a bit of a feel for the great fight these Kahawai give you when you catch them. Lots of fun.
26th February - First day out after a couple of days off, so it was a bit of an exploratory trip. We only had three on board , so I had a chance to fish today as well. Our first spot produced a nice 4lb Snapper but shortly afterwards the wind changed to true South and that was it. We hung in for a while but it was a lost cause. The next spot was on the foul but it was Mao Mao heaven which was hell for us so we moved. Next spot produced a rat Kingfish, Terakihi, Kahawai and loads of tiny Snapper. When we moved from this spot we had an hour left so it was time for some fun. We headed for Kahawai Alley and that what we caught. Everyone had a workout on these huge fighting fish before we came home so all was good. Not a great haul today but better than nothing as we did get fish.
27th February - We had a Stag group again today. This time it was a bunch of lads from the British Isles and they've been living in Northland for a while. The best part of the Stag groups is that they all know each other and are ready to relax and have a good time which makes my job a lot easier.
Today, all we needed was some decent fish. We had a spot in mind but seeing as how the winds were light we headed further out in the bay. Sure enough, as soon as we committed ourselves the forecast SE winds became NE and were against the tide which made it a wee bit tricky. We tried three places with zero success so we headed for Kahawai Alley. We'd sounded out the guys to see what they thought of Kahawai and they declared that they all loved it and would take whatever we caught.
Ten minutes after we dropped anchor it was all on, the Kahawai were massive and put up huge fights. Plus there were lots of them. Everyone enjoyed the next hour and a half immensely and Terry and I were kept very busy indeed (no time for any photos.) As one of the wags put it "this is the best fun you can have outside the bedroom!" Enough said (apart from the fact that we also caught two rat Kingis, a very big gurnard and a few very average Snapper.)
28th February - We canceled our trip today because of the Tsunami Warning. However we noted that at least two Qualmarked fishing boats went out today regardless of the danger - further proof that Qualmark is something that you buy not earn. They got away with it this time but we decided that it wasn't worth the risk.