March 2010 - Part 4
Bay of Islands Fishing Report
22nd March - We thought that the weather and tide was perfect so we went to our new spot but as they say "that's fishing". The only thing we can put it down to was that the tide was running very slowly and as a result the Snapper weren't biting that well. We did get one very good Snapper here (approx 5-6lbs) but it was the only one.
So we headed out to the Brampton where the water was a bit cleaner (not a great option when the sky is so blue) then after a while of no Snapper action we went to PF where the water is deeper. Here we started to get some decent Snapper. As you'll see from the photos the quality was okay for this time of year. We weren't overwhelmed by either Snapper or Kahawai but we were getting enough to keep everyone interested. We also caught the Seven Gilled Shark (see video) which gave everyone a bit of a thrill. All the Snapper caught today was fillet-able and we got a lot more than people realised so all in all it was a successful day.
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A day of perfect weather and super calm seas. The fish were pretty good and the fishing was happening at a rate that kept everyone on their toes.
Highlights (apart from the sense of humour and easy going attitude) were the excitement that left my ears ringing (yes Jen, I'm talking about you) and the huge shark caught by Alan.
Only regret of the day was that I didn't get a photo of all the hats on board today. Definitely a collection worth photographing.
We had a wee variation to our normal days fishing when Alan Field hooked into this monster. Terry estimated it was somewhere around 200lbs. All we knew was this was a very big Seven Gill Shark. Alan didn't want to pull the hook out (can't work out why) so we went to cut the leader close to the hook but (luckily) the hook broke off by itself.
23rd March - The day started with beautiful weather but the forecast promised that it would deteriorate during the day so we headed straight out to the spot that was so successful yesterday. If the weather did indeed go bad on us then we were going to head up the creek and seek shelter there. We had no worries at all because the fishing had been so reliable at all the spots over the past week.
So we got there and started fishing until the question had to be asked "where are they?" The Snapper and even Kahawai were scarce and the ones that were caught were midgets. We had noticed other charter boats in the distance that were moving around checking out different spots so it looked like the fish weren't biting anywhere else either.
We hung in until the wind built up and seeing as how the fishing by that time had died completely, we headed off to several places "up the creek".
The fishing here was no better. We caught one decent 2lb Snapper but the others were a lot smaller so we had to start accepting Snapper as small as 30cm. We had a last hit of Kahawai over the last half hour. Quite a few battles were going on all around the boat and I was kept busy making up new traces - we lost 6 in about 2 minutes. Everyone settled into a rhythm and got pretty good at helping their neighbour land their Kahawai. Finally we had half an hour to go so we headed home to process all the fish. Not a great day (snapper wise) but hopefully everyone enjoyed it.
24th March - We were hoping that the fishing was going to be an improvement on yesterday. The only thing we were worried about was a forecast of up to 35 knot winds. This morning the forecast had changed to predict the high winds to this afternoon instead. So we went.
The morning started out calm and was very pleasant indeed but the big fish were very noticeable by their absence. By midday, we had no "keepers" and the wind was starting to pick up. We'd tried three spots by that time so we headed for Kahawai Alley.
The second spot in the "Alley" produced lots of good sized Kahawai but no decent Snapper. It wasn't until our third spot that we found Snapper and no Kahawai. Unfortunately, only one was what we'd been looking for i.e. A decent one.
Hopefully tomorrow ...
25th March - We'd gone around all the traps yesterday without a lot of success so we decided to try 3i's which we hadn't tried for a while. The "fast boats" had screamed past and headed out somewhere a long long way away. I put it down to the lack of experience and local knowledge as it's really obvious that the fish are close in but fast boats will be fast boats. Zoom Zoom No Boom (and judging by the lack of sea birds following their boats on the way back, the fact that they came home an hour late and the deckies had nothing to do - there was definitely no boom.)
We settled in and it wasn't long before we realised that we were on the money. Zak pulled in a good 2-3lb Snapper and then as the day progressed we got better and better fish. Best of all was the variety - we got a Terakihi, quite a few Trevally, half a dozen Kahawai, a lot of Snapper with at least 6 in the 2-4lb range, a rat Kingi and a John Dory. A lot of fish was released but we had a very good assortment on board for everyone by the end of the trip.
Highlight was when we got hit by what must've been a good sized Kingfish. The line screamed out for about 10 seconds, but unfortunately there must've been a fault in the leader and it failed at the knot and the fish took the hook.
A trip that was so successful that it took 3/4hr to fillet all the fish.
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We had a great group out again today. Everyone was getting their hands dirty. The consistency and the variety of fish kept everyone's interest up. The two visits from the dolphins were interesting, especially when a dolphin boat screamed in amongst the pod at full throttle. The skipper slowed down at the last minute and might had got down to 10-12 knots but we all watched to see if he'd just created a huge burley trail made up of dolphin bits. Five seconds after he got through the pod he threw the throttles open and screamed off. Do the rules only apply when they have passengers on board? You have to wonder.
27th March - A very disappointing day. The fish just weren't biting. We tried so many places, the 3i's, Puka Foul and all the usual places up the creek but it wasn't a great haul by any stretch of the imagination. It made it so much harder remembering the last trip. Lots of humour having a boat load of Irish, Welsh and Pommie lads but it would've been great to catch some decent fish.
28th March - Luckily the majority of the people aboard today wanted Kahawai (and we caught heaps). Unfortunately the Snapper are still disappointing and we only caught a few but none of which were very big. Highlight was our first keeper - a John Dory.