November 2009 - Week 2
Bay of Islands Fishing Report
10th November - Another successful day that started off slowly but got better and better. While the wind, although very light, was coming from the SW the fish were just not interested in biting. We initially cursed the wind when it changed and came from the NE as it took us off the rock we were fishing over. However it only took 10 minutes to realise that the change had been enough to get the fish interested again. Suddenly we had fish coming on board in twos and threes. We upped the minimum size of our "keeper fish" steadily until we were throwing 1kg fish back into the water. Amongst our haul were a couple of Barracudas, another seven gill Shark (see the video) and a couple of large Snapper. Despite returning a lot of very good fish to the water, each of our anglers took home at least five Snapper.
I muffed these photos so I'm a bit disappointed as the exposure is all wrong. However the fishing was pretty good when it fired up. Congratulations everyone, you all got some nice fish.
12th November - This day was looking to be perfect, very light to non-existent winds, solid cloud cover and calm waters. The fishing? Well, it was very slow going. We were losing bait at a rate that was getting to be a worry and getting a poor return on fish coming on board. Our second spot produced a bit better and we ended up with a Hapuka pup, a couple of Gurnard and a couple of Snapper around the 34cm mark. Our third spot produced a couple more Snapper and the last spot just didn't produce anything to excite. Enough for our group of four to have a great meal tonight before they went home to Auckland tomorrow but there was no sign at all of the big schoolies.
Vivien joined that exclusive list of people who out-fished Skipper Terry. This baby Hapuka was our biggest fish today but that doesn't make it less tasty. These are very nice eating fish.
13th November (Friday the 13th) - What a day, beautifully calm, the promise of 19 degrees Celsius and we were going to cruise through the islands to get to a fantastic Terakihi ground. Well, we got there and the sun disappeared behind a solid cloud cover, the wind picked up and was very cold. Plus the fishing was rubbish. Friday the 13th? Superstitious? Not us (touch wood.) We tried three places but it wasn't happening so we relocated to a place that had been good to us over the past few weeks. We lined up the yellow buoy with the distance beach and we were smack on the mark. Dropped anchor, baited our hooks, held our breaths and waited. It took a few minutes but suddenly we were pulling in a steady stream of Snapper around the 30-34cm mark. Not great fish but we had to take what we could get. Suddenly Mike's rod almost bent double and his line screamed out. Mike thought that it had to be a Shark but Skipper Terry said that it just might be a good Snapper. Sure enough, after a five minute fight, Mike pulled in a lovely 10lb Snapper. This was the beginning of a few good fish coming in. See the photos for the best of the bunch. We hung around for an extra half hour to make the most of the bite time. It was worth it, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Success.
It took a while to get these fish but thank goodness we finally tracked them down. Everyone did really well, although Stacey couldn't look at the fish she caught (although she'll eat it no problems.)
14th November - The great weather continues. This is dream stuff, no wind, dead calm and so quiet that we could hear people talking on boats several hundred metres away. We started out drift fishing but although we could see fish on the sounder, the bites were few and far between. So after about an hour of watching boats moving all over the bay in an effort to find fish, we decided to drop anchor before someone else stumbled on our planned destination. Once anchored we again waited and waited. Nothing happened until just after midday, when we hooked into a two metre seven gilled Shark. It put up a great fight but finally it was bought close in to the side of the boat. A few photos were taken then we released it. This seemed to be the signal that the Snapper were waiting for. One rod suddenly bent over, then another and another and.... I looked around and we had seven of the nine rods in the water bent double. It was all on, for a solid 90 minutes we had fish coming on board with hardly a break. Most of the time it was two or three fish at a time. We were constantly upping the minimum size until we were throwing fish back that were weighing 1-2 kgs. It was a great day with more than 30 fish brought home and more than that released. Magic, absolute magic!!
Hi guys, great memories here. Hopefully I've managed to capture the action here. If you can supply me with everyones' names please then I'll update the details. Thanks.
Next Trip is the 15th November ..... The adventure continues
