Arline Fishing Charters - Fishing Report (January 2010) for Bay of Islands, New Zealand

January 2010 - Part 3

Bay of Islands Fishing Report

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Ken had to beat his wife's fish so they came back again

Ken McCann got beaten by his wife two days ago, so he wanted a chance to come back and get a better fish. Needless to say, he succeeded with this 9lb Snapper. He also joined the exclusive club of "Those Who Caught a Bigger Fish than Skipper Terry".

Nice one, well done!!

15th January - We only had 3 customers today and the weather was fantastic so I was looking forward to a relaxing trip where I might actually have a chance to fish myself. It was one of those rare days where there was no wind at all and we were able to drift for most of the trip. There was very little tide so we hardly moved. Everyone hung in there waiting for the fish to come on the bite - we found that not a lot happened until a very slight sea breeze came in then . We had the odd hit by a reasonable Snapper. Skipper Terry caught a nice specimen around 4 lb but got trumped by Ken McCann when he pulled in a 9lb Snapper.

Funniest/Saddest sight of the day was watching one charter boat who seems to hate anchoring no matter what the conditions are. I was told by a client about one day where he was drifting at 8 knots in 30 knot winds and his customers had 15 seconds to drop their lines before they were off the fish then they would battle into the wind to do it all over again and again and again..... Anyway, today he obviously decided that there was not enough ground being covered due to the conditions. His motor was going continuously, so his customers would drop their lines over the side and within 5 minutes their lines were pulled up and he moved off to another spot. Another 5 minutes and they were off to another spot. Everytime we looked up they were sitting in another spot amongst all the other boats. We started to joke that if we were customers on that boat then we'd turn the motor off, take the keys and keep them until we were ready to leave a spot. "You want to move again? Are you 4 Reel?"

16th January - Today was another Stag Do. Unfortunately we discovered that some scumbag had stolen our dinghy (they had sawn through the tree branch that it was chained to) so we had to quickly run around and try to find some way of getting out to the Arline. Anyone know where we can find a replacement dinghy?

Anyway the guys arrived and were pretty keen to fish but they also had a few surprises for the "stag" organised so it was looking like an interesting trip. We headed out in the most amazing weather that you could ask for. The first thing that happened was a can of the worst beer in NZ was produced (Reineck) and placed in the sun to get as warm as possible. When the fishing began and the odd pilchard got rubbed around the edge of the can just to get a bit of taste going, I started to feel a bit sorry for Mark Robinson (the Stag.) The fishing started slowly but improved steadily with some pretty good fish coming on board. It wasn't long before we had enough fish so the guys grabbed a spot to eat and then the first challenge of the day was given to Mark.

Apparently Mark knew the them to "The Greatest American Hero" off by heart, so his challenge was to get dressed up in the Greatest American Hero's costume, jump into the water, rescue a ginger cat, get it back on board and give it mouth to mouth before the song reached it's conclusion. Despite being thrown back in the water once, Mark did pretty well performing the task within the allotted time. However he was doomed to wear the costume for the rest of the day but he got into the mood and posed for the dolphin boats as we passed. Quite a few dolphin watchers have now got photos of our Hero mixed in with their photos of dolphins. He was a bit of a hit methinks. The super warm Reineck was drunk and stayed down (which was pretty amazing). Mark had a few more tasks awaiting him when they got on dry land and judging by his gift of the gab and willingness to try anything I suspect they were going to have a very interesting day.

Have no fear the Greatest American Hero is here

Mark (Greatest American Hero) Robinson prepares to fly to the rescue of a little ginger pussy

Torben Ake with his biggest ever Snapper

Marcus Cameron, triumphant with his Snapper and the successful start to their Stag Do

Pictured here is:

Mark Robinson (aka Greatest American Hero) rushing to the rescue of a little ginger pussy cast adrift in the rough seas of the Bay of Islands

Torben Ake with his biggest ever Snapper

Marcus Cameron, organiser, best man, and friend (still?) of the groom-to-be with his best Snapper of the day (7lbs)

17th January - Many thanks to the team at Rent-a-Boat that are helping us get to and from our boat while we hunt for another dinghy. Full boat today, so I'm really glad the weather is perfect again. Keeping in mind that no two days are the same, we still had our fingers crossed that the fishing would be as good as yesterday. The first line in the water quickly produced a great Snapper around 4lbs so things were looking pretty good. A couple more good fish and we immediately set a minimum size limit around 3lbs. Although the fish weren't exactly leaping on board, we were getting enough good fish to keep people interested. We drifted over patches of fish with intervals in between producing nothing. Slack tide and a slowly strengthening sea breeze meant that we had to drop the anchor. From then on the fish size dropped with very few bigger fish taking an interest. We had to drop our minimum size to around 32cm to ensure we had enough fish for everyone in the end. By the time I'd filleted the fish, I was happy with the amount of fish we'd caught - not too little and not too much. Everyone seemed to enjoy their day so I was happiness filled.

I might even be able to report the stolen dinghy to the police tomorrow. Rumour is that the Police Station is open on Monday.

18th January - It's been pretty busy so I've fallen behind on my reports and I cannot remember what this day was like. I've got a horrible feeling that although the weather was good and the water calm - unfortunately the fishing was poor. If I remember rightly, we only got enough fish to give everyone a fillet each. Ouch.

19th January - Today was absolutely beautiful but for the very first time since Christmas Day I had no clients, so I took the day off. I went searching for a dinghy to replace the one stolen last week. Hell, it's over $2000 for a new one, so it looks like I'll be hanging out for a 2nd hand one for a while.

20th January - We were watching the weather closely as there was a patch of very bad weather coming and it was touch and go as to wether we could get a trip in before it arrived.
We waited for the morning forecast and thought that the chances were pretty good that we'd miss the bad weather. We did good, an hour after the trip finished the rain arrived. Phew!Anyway, there weren't a lot of boats out there. The wind was fairly brisk and the swell was starting to build but luckily - wind and tide were all in the same direction. As you can see from the photos below we did pretty well. I was really glad that we went out today. It was a great mix of people and more than half the people on board got a fish worth remembering. Lot of fun.

It was pretty good fishing today. Terry hooked up a few decent fish and gave them to people to pull in to give them confidence. Then we started to see people getting very good fish of their own. Here are a few examples to the left:
- Rachel Gargal with a very tasty Snapper
- Lauren Douglas got in on the act too but she wasn't keen on touching her fish.
- Ryan Brash was keen and got rewarded with a good fish as well.

22nd January - We had our storm and yesterday the swell was almost 2 metres so I took another day off to try and find a replacement dinghy. No luck yet though.

Today the forecast was for strong SW winds and shock horror they "guessed" right. Did I mention that weather forecasting is the only job in NZ that you can be totally incompetent at and still retain your employment? Today's forecast was for a metre swell but thank goodness they got that one wrong as the wind and tide were opposing each other. We tried out on the mud for awhile but the fishing was rubbish. We had our two main competitors nearby but there was nothing happening on any boats. Our anchor dragged so we moved, they stayed (don't know why.) We headed for the reef and more secure purchase for our anchor. It turned out to be a pretty good move. The fishing started slowly but after we'd pulled in a dozen or so fish around the 32-27cm mark, we started to get the bigger fish. We had a few good hits and the biggest fish weighed in at 10lb. Unfortunately, Ryan caught something really big - it was peeling line off his reel at a great rate - and he clamped down on his reel with his thumb. I heard the "crack" from the other end of the boat as his line broke. Bummer. Terry was ranting a bit about the big fish would be gone now and unfortunately for Ryan, he was right. The broken line spooked the fish and they took off. Ryan learnt a valuable lesson today and I don't think he'll forget it. Just as well he didn't have a banana :-)

Ryan Telford with the best fish that he landed

We started on the mud and the fishing was rubbish so we moved onto the reef. The move was good as the fishing immediately picked up and kept improving all the time.

In order of appearance:
- Jon Eyley took a while to get his first fish but then he didn't look back.
- Julie Cruise got the best of the day with this 10lb Snapper.
- Ryan Telford had to settle for this Snapper (unfortunately a wee mishap with his thumb stopped Ryan from getting the best fish of the day)