FISHING
24 WATERLINE
It’s fabulous fishing Generally it must be said that the weather has been fantastic and the opportunities to get out plentiful and well worth it. By Bruce Weston, The Big Fish
15 NEwtON St, thE MOuNt. 575 9056
155 JEllicOE St, tE PukE. 573 4493
OPEN 7 DAYS
OPEN 6 DAYS
The Tauranga harbour continues to fish exceptionally well, catching good numbers of healthy snapper is almost a given, the kings and trevs also still there. The fishing along the beach has also been fantastic. Surfcasters catching limit bags of snapper in the Papamoa South and Matata area. The fish are hungry so are feeding on almost anything. Results for the long liners have been better, snapper more consistent with good numbers of gurnard as well. Hopefully as we creep through autumn and into winter, the gurnard numbers will pick up more. Fishing over the sand is still going well, the inner reefs holding tarakihi and snapper. The outer reefs worth a live bait for kingfish or marlin, stick baiting and jigging in full swing, although results are a bit patchy, fish generally around the 12 -15 kg mark with the odd 20kg fish. Not many reports from the outer reefs, most out in this region targeting game fish. Yellow fin still in very short supply, but there are plenty of skippies with some good sized albies amongst them. The local game fishing has been a bit slow, most boats heading further North towards the Aldermens and the Mercs where all the action has been recently. There has been plenty of sightings more locally and plenty of bait but the hook ups are a bit scarce and anglers are having issues with the strikes they are getting, making fish stick. A lot of blues being encountered in relatively shallow water. A small black caught from a tinny out from Whangamata and a couple of stripies being hooked and landed in water as shallow as 30m. A lot more action as normal further South down Waihau Bay way, a mix of stripies and blues with a few spear fish in the mix. The One Base was on recently, the weather was a challenge during the second half of the competition but a reasonable number of fish were recorded. These include 4 blue marlin weighed and 7 stripies with 14 marlin tagged. No sharks or yellow fin weighed, the kingfish were a bit thin in numbers, there were reasonable numbers caught but some struggled to meet the 1m qualifying mark. The heaviest snapper at 9.7kg, mahi mahi and short billed spearfish making up the balance of the catch card. Results very acceptable as 2 days were almost un-fishable for a lot of boats. The fishing north of Tauranga has been exceptional this year, there is still plenty of the season to go, not many have been live baiting around the usual haunts like Astrolabe, The Penguins and Schooner, there is plenty of bait there, the marlin must be there as well. There is something out there for everyone, the weather is fantastic, nice and hot, water temperature good, fishing great, long may it last.