18.12.09

Bluenose

Bass


Matt and a 22kg Hapuka

The haul after 1 hour

The weather for Saturday was perfect, no wind no swell so at 4.30am, Matt, Murray and I head out from Tata to Baistows again. At the 100 metre mark we see small schools of bait fish being chased by fish, followed by a large splash, so we quickly put out a couple of lures and we are instantly rewarded with 3 albacore tuna. The first of the season, so with fresh bait we head to Baistows to start our first drift. one hour later we have 7 Hapuka, 2 bass and one bluenose on board. The bass both weigh 10kg each and the biggest puka weighs 22kg, with the boat full we head back home to have the boat cleaned and the fish filleted by 11 o'clock, not a bad days fishing.

13.12.09

The weekend forecast was for Saturday to be windy and Sunday to be calm, so we decided to stay at home Saturday and to head out deep Sunday. Wrong, Saturday blew strong nor west till 9 and then calmed off for the day, Sunday the same but the sea breeze arrived about 11.00 we headed out at 5am in a howling nor west 20 plus knots we went out to Morrison's 7kms out, it was pretty rough so we headed back in close for 3 hours to the winds calmed down, with the sea flattening out we headed out to Kells for a tarakihi fish (28 plus one pup puka) till midday and then headed home to clean up.
Hopefully this weekend will be good so we can get out deep?.

06.12.09 Here we go again

Saturday the 5th, the first day of the two day Ray White Real estate fishing contest the calm Friday turns into a howling easterly overnight, we get up at 4.30 am head out from Poverty Bay which is flat and calm, turn east past the island and run straight into the easterly, a quick look at each other and we turn for home just as the organisers call off day one.

Sunday I sleep in, get up at 5.15 the skies are clear and the wind has gone, I wake my son Matt and we are at the ramp with Murray by 5.40. We leave from Town and head to south rocks, we go to have a look at a mark we have and find good sign 400 metres before the mark, we don't muck round the pick is lowered and bait is in the water, it takes an hour to fill the bin with 28 Tarakihi and a small snapper. We decide to have a look out deep for Hapuka, by 9am the sea breeze is starting to get up with the left over swell of a metre the sea is starting to get a bit sloppy, we see a lot of birds showing a bit of interest over the shallows so we set some lures and troll to biastows, we do 3 drifts with the motor running into the wind and Murray picks up 2 hapukas and a small bass, by now the sea is getting quite rough, we head back to south rocks were Matt picks up a nice Kingfish and we head home . We manage a 3rd in the snapper, a 3rd in the Tarakihi and a 2nd in the Hapuka as well as picking up a couple of spot prizes, overall the sea conditions weren't good but not a bad days fishing