17-20.02.11 The Eastland Port Tuna Hunt

Day three.. Team White Pointer
Waiting

Still waiting and waiting

Day Four. And still waiting

And still waiting .. and the sea got ugly

still waiting and the sea got uglier

Day one ...... Work - bugger. I have jumped on to a 8 metre White Pointer Boat owned and built by Rex (owns the company that builds them). Because of work commitments I wasn't able to go out but the boys(the cricket team I play for) went out and managed to get a double strike and landed 2 nice Short billed Spearfish 31.50kg on 37kg line (club record) and 23.60Kg on 24kg line would have been a club record if Cod had been a member. So far only one Marlin has been landed 103.9kg stripey.

Day two ..... Work - bugger again. Should of been there... Gnome caught and landed a 117kg striped Marlin on 37kg line, put him into the lead

Day three .... Finally I'm out fishing, the weather is good and the sea is settling down. The two days I missed the conditions weren't good but were fish able. Well, we trolled and trolled and trolled and trolled ............. nothing - not even a touch, 12 hours and nothing (beautiful conditions). Tzer weighted in a 137kg Stripe Marlin so our day in the sun was over.

Day four .... We are up Early as it is a short day, we head out and the weather has gone to pieces, in fact as the morning went on it just got plain ugly. A lot of the big boats stuck their noses out of the bay an turned around and went back to port, few of us gave it ago, we managed to catch a small albacore and a small Marco shark (released). We came back to port at 1.00pm in the rain and low cloud in the end we should have stayed home. Gnome managed to come second with his Marlin and Rex won the Short Billed Spearfish.

13.02.11 they are back

Went out for a lazy fish at 9.30am. the day was fine and the easterly had gone, well all most. We left the ramp for a Skippy fish, found some just 3 km's out but we just couldn't get them to bite the lures. We decided to head out to Kells (12km off shore) for a Tarakihi fish for the family (they had put their order in "Tarakihi for tea") on the way out we hooked and dropped 2 Skippies. on arrival at Kells the sea breeze and swell were picking up but we managed to anchor over 12 metres of sign. After about 2 hours we had 40 Tarakihi in the bin. It is great to see that the fish are back.

05.02.11 Nauti Girls

Still flat as
The Tuna lures

4.00am Deb, Trish and Lianne and I are up for the Nauti girls contest, I'm a bit worried about the boat channel from the ramp as it is dead low tide and last year Murray and I had to push the boat down the channel cos we keep getting stuck. No problems this year but we managed to scrap the hull on the sand a couple of times. The morning was warm and calm, the fishing was slow but I managed to help the girls to catch Kahawai and Trevally over the day, and they weighted in 8 between them, no prizes for them but Debs sister Jan managed 2nd in the Kahawai section fishing off their boat Tidal light. The snapper fishing for us was a disaster, couldn't find one to save myself. The girls redeemed them selves by winning the morning fancy dress section, winning $250 to split between them selves.

01.02 - 05.02 Bowentown

Bowentown Bar flat as
Bowentown harbour - it doesn't get any better

My youngest son Jordan and I took the 4 hour drive up the coast to Bowentown Waihi. One road was still closed due to flooding and there were numerous slips on the way. The Tauranga Harbour was flat and calm but a wee bit dirty.
Tuesday Jordan and I had a fish in the harbour and managed to catch a couple of small legal snapper and a whole lot of stingrays, Jordan was happy fresh fish for tea.
Wednesday we went out over the bar which was flat calm, we dropped anchor in 20 metres of water and managed to catch Kahawai and Trevally all which were released, we then went out to the 40 metre mark and put the lures out and managed to catch 2 Skippie's and 4 albacore tuna (fresh bait for the Nauti girls contest on Saturday).
Thursday we hitched a ride on a brand new Rayglass 2800 for the day, a bit of luxury compared to Gazebo we went out to the 40 metre mark for a troll and landed 12 Albies and Skippie's for the bait freezer and dropped a long line a couple of times ending up with a dozen or so snapper, Gurnard and Trevally. we also caught a few Kahawai for the smoker. the sea was flat as all day a big change from fishing out of Gisborne.
Friday we took the day off from fishing and took Jordan for a sight see around the area.

28-30.01.11 Bay Bonanza

Bluenose (from last year)
Bass (from last year)

A 22kg Hapuka we caught last year

How times flies, the clubs big contest the Enterprise Nissan Bay Bonanza with $65,000 in prizes is here again.
Day one, 28.01.11. We leave home at 3.30am to try and get to the ramp and to be as close as we can to the head of the queue for the tractor, we arrived to find we were number 3 with the 2 boats in front having stayed the night and sleeping in their boats (cheaters). Today we have Evan back on board with us as the boat he is crewing on isn't going out today, bad move we think as the weather forecast is bad, with a ex-tropical cyclone bearing down on us, expecting to hit us tonight. We get the all clear and head out into a sloppy sea from a southerly change last night and head out to our Hapuka spot TR1A, on arrival we have a look around to see if we can find any good sign - plenty of small fish sign but not allot of big sign, so we back up to a spot and start our first drop. Soon we are back into small sharks again in 185 metres of water, the good news is the wind is fading away and the sea is glassing over - still a metre swell running the bad news is - 2 other boats join us. After an hour Evan haul up a nice 16kg Bass and soon after the other two boats depart. We decide to leave as well and set out our lures for a troll for Tuna and head towards EB1A which is about 14 km's away, half way there we spot to our right, the bigger of the 2 departed boats on the horizon. so we decide to head over that way for a nosey, as the area is a big blank on my GPS map. We arrive to find both boats there and both are fishing. The area has a good rocky area above a nice 30 metre drop (we named it EH1A). Evan soon has a 10kg Bass on board and I am back on to the sharks, the other 2 boats are pulling the odd Hapuka and sharks as well, by 10am the sea breeze starts to make it's presences felt and it is time to move. We troll to CO2A a 125 metre rocky outcrop 5 Km's away, we anchor up over good sign, I drop over a small hook rig to see whats there and the boys drop their big hook puka rigs down, I soon catch a couple of Tarakihi, Evan changes rigs as well and sends down small hooks, straight away he hooks something large and after 5 minutes of heaving brings up a 18 kg Bass and I'm soon on to a 8kg Hapuka (so much for fishing the deep). By 3pm the wind and the sea is getting up and the sky is darkening to the east were the decaying cyclone will be coming from, we decide it is time to go and throw out the lures, after an hour of trolling we have 3 Skip Jack Tuna (3kg's) in the bin, with the skies getting darker and the sea rising we pull the lures in and slog our way home.
29.01.11 Day Two...Cancelled .....the storm came Friday night with heavy rain and strong winds, we were lucky, the Bay of Plenty copped the worst of the storm, with flooding, slips, road closures and a bit of damage. The storm was very fast moving and was gone by Saturday lunch.
30.01.11 Day three. Just Murray and I today, 3.30am leave home, a small snag Murray's slept through his alarms, forgot to set one and sleep through the other 2, never mind shit happens. We arrive at the ramp a wee bit late but are number 2 in the queue, the sea is still a bit sloppy and a 2 metre swell is running. We get the all clear a head to EH1A again, we are first there and again the wind is dying away, we manage a puka each and a small Bluenose, soon we have company again the 2 boats from Friday join us, Murray quietly hooks up and hauls up a nice sized Hapuka (21kg). by 10am the fishing has gone quiet so out go the lures and we head toward the inshore reefs 30km's away, by midday we have 3 small albacore tuna in the bin and the sea breeze is rocketing in, we pull in the gear and seeing the rough conditions on the reef head home.
Murray's Hapuka manages to "get us out of jail" and comes in second winning us $500 (which pays for the 3 days fishing Yay).
31.01.11...The day after... Jordan my youngest son and I load the boat and hook it on the Prada and head over to Bowentown in the Bay of Plenty for a weeks Holiday (hopefully the storm damage is cleared).