15.12.12 Evans Xmas Ham Competition

Evans Xmas Ham one day competition is new to the club with only hams for prizes. We left early from the ramp around 5.30 am and headed out to Aerial reef to look for feeding schools of Kahawai for bait, last weekend they were everywhere but as luck would have it none were seen, so we headed another 5 k's to South rocks  where we finally came across one. After 30 minutes we had 7 in the bin and the largest put aside for the comp. We headed out to Baistows for a Hapuka drift, the conditions were good with a light wind and little swell. Over the next 5 hours we managed to land a 13 kg Hapuka, 2 Bluenose and a couple of good sized Gemfish. We headed back to South rocks for a snapper fish in the shallows and managed a few small ones and later a couple of Terakihi.
At the prize giving Murray came first in the Hapuka, third in the Gemfish and I came 5th in the Kahawai section. We ended up with one whole ham and 2 half hams which will end up on our Xmas families tables.

I wish all my readers a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.

09.12.12 $5 dollar fishing.....yeah right

Summer has arrived well and truly, the temperature have warned up to the high 20's. Sundays forecast had a large high moving over us which should give us calm weather, we decided to fish Sunday and head out to what we call the supermarket.
The supermarket is a small group of rocks in 40 metre's of water, 2k's straight off the ramp where fish start to gather in December through to late February - easy and cheap fishing for us.
We had heard that some good catches have been made of late. So at 6 am I pick Murray up and we where soon dropping the pick over good sign. With in half an hour we where joined by another 5 boats, but we  never had a bite and looking at the other boats they to weren't having any luck either. Saturday morning we had a 5.4 earthquake so we put it down to that, as the sea looked real good we pulled the pick and headed out to baistows 29 k's out. We stopped at Arial reef to jig some bait from a large Kahawai work up we came across and them headed out , the sea was calm except for a increasing swell. we dropped our gear in 220 metre's and slowly drifted over the rocky areas, we managed a few Gemfish until Murray hooked up and manged to boat 2 nice Hapuka. I kept on catching Gemfish until finally I landed a Hapuka and a small Bluenose, which were soon joined by another 2 Bluenose, with our bin full we headed home after one more drop on a area of rocks new to us, after a big battle I got to the boat a large shark which was released and it was time to go. We got to the ramp to find the swell had increased and a half metre wave was running down the channel that made trailering the boat very interesting - we nearly lost it but all ended well. So a trip to the gas station on the way home and we were $90 poorer - so much for $5 fishing.

17.11.12 Discount Fishing Deep Water Contest

17.11.12 With a forecast that started the day off ok but with increasing winds in the afternoon, we had a early start, up at 4am, at the ramp by 5am, on the water at 5.15am. We headed to Thunder rock 38 kms away to find  sharks and more sharks, haulling them up from 180 metres hurts the arms and back so off to another spot I call EB1A, a further 10 kms away. We find another couple of boats there, which is ok as it is a large area, we start drift fishing as the wind starts to pick up. Lucky for us the current is going the opposite way to the wind so the drift is slow. We manage to catch 7 gem fish (really good smoked, in fact the best smoked fish I have eaten.) the heaviest weighted in at 8kgs, 2 Trumpeters (also very good eating, my favorite)  heaviest at 6 kgs and one Hapuku also weighting in at just under 8 kg. By early afternoon the wind changed to the north and began to kick in and it was time for the long slog home.

18.11.12 Looking at the forecast we decided not to go out, with a sever gale warning in place with 25 - 35 knot westerlies turning sou-west lunch time. The 5 boats that did ended up in the shallows a couple of k's offshore by 10am in very windy conditions, so a day on the land was a good decision.

 Glass - it doesn't get any better

 45 km's out from the ramp and 220mtrs of water

My first jig caught Hapuka 5.3kgs

24.11.12. Day 3 Up at 3am, pick Murray up at 4am, on the water 4.20am, we head to the spot we were at on the 17th. After 70 minutes of steaming we arrive at the GPS mark I had entered and Bugger it was the wrong one, we had overshot the one I had wanted by 7 km's, but by chance it was the spot I had wanted to go to last week, so all was good. The wind was zero...just a sea of glass...excellent. We dropped our gear in 220 metres of water and I was rewarded with a Hapuka around 7kgs, Murray managed a shark. We motored back to the mark and I dropped the baited rig down again as well I dropped down a Jig. After doing the jig thing for 5 minutes  I was tried and put it in the rod holder (how people do it all day is beyond me), meanwhile Murray was hauling up another shark and my jig rod bent over, thinking I was caught up with Murray I wound up and up popped a Hapuka around 5.4kg ....(my first ever on a jig). Another drop and another Hapuka around 9kg and another shark to Murray. by 10am the bite was over, except for the sharks and gemfish. With lines out at 3pm we headed home at 1pm and still there was no wind, amazing day - a sea of glass this time of year. We managed 2nd in the jig caught Hapuka section, 2nd in the Trumpeter and 2nd in the Gemfish.

Bowentown

Being on holiday is great, Deb and I loaded Gazebo and hitched it on to the Prado and headed up the her sisters batch at Bowentown, The weather was good and on Saturday I  managed to get a couple of guys I know who are good fishermen to crew and we headed over to Mayor Island on a perfect sea of glass, We dropped anchor on a reef 3 km before the Island in 70 metres of water fishing was slow but we managed to catch a dozen Terakihi, one snapper and live baited 3 John Dory, not a great days catch but we heard later from the locals that the fishing was really hard at the time so I suppose we didn't do to bad then. Tuesday I took my brother in law who was over here from Australia out for a fish, again the conditions were great but no matter what we did we couldn't catch a thing, the Bay of Plenty is such a fickle place to fish, where as Poverty Bay where I am from seems to yield consistently, maybe the early explorer Captain Cook got the names around the wrong way.

27.10.12 Day 3 of the Inshore contest

Day 3 promised so much, the forecast was for light winds and they were spot on. In the morning the sea was just perfect, no wind what ever just glass, sadly the fish weren't playing the game, the tide was very slow so with no movement the fish were off the bite, we managed to drop a few lures in a patch of schooling Kahawai and Murray managed a reasonable sized one, he also managed to jig a 8-10kg Kingfish that was under one of the schools we came across.  The rest of the day was very slow with a few Terakihi caught in 70 metres of water. With the day running out and the sea breeze picking up we headed to Penguins reef were we put out the last of our berlie in the hope of a snapper or 2 but as luck would have it the barracuda turned up, with our last bait in the water Murray managed a large 5.8kg Barracuda which looked good as they were in the contest. At prize giving Murray took out the Kahawai (1st) and Barracuda (1st) sections and picked up a 3rd(average weight) prize in the Blue Cod section, not a bad effort foe a bad day out. Check out the competition results on this link http://www.gtsfc.co.nz/Competitions/20122013Results.aspx

20.10.12 Inshore contest

After the southerly blow yesterday the morning was calm but the sea was still running at 1.5 metres and very sloppy, we left the Tata ramp at 7 to arrive on Aerial reef to find the northwesterly was picking up making conditions very uncomfortable. In fact after setting the anchor I very nearly lost my breakfast and that hasn't happened in a long time. we dropped our baits and managed some reasonable Blue Cod and after a while the odd snapper showed up. We thought we would put out a berley bag to bring the snapper in and hopefully get a big one but strangely it worked the opposite way with the fish under us disappearing completely. By lunch the wind had dropped and the sea was calming down we pulled anchor and moved over to South rocks and again anchored on good sign to find fishing hard, after catching a few Terakihi we moved off to try a drift over the mud banks between 2 areas of rocks but that plan failed, so with time running out we headed home.
The second day was called off with the off shore wind getting up to 30 knots. The third day is on next Saturday and the forecast is looking good, so hopefully we can get out and have a good days fishing.

Crayfish and they taste real good

As I'm on holiday at the moment and so is Craig from Tzer, we have been doing our Crayfish pots each morning. Crayfish or Spiny Lobster (they don't have claws, and taste real good) are a high value fishery in New Zealand and highly regulated. The last 2 days we managed to catch our limit each, which is 6 each, that is good as it has been hard of late to even get 1 legal cray so hopefully it is a sign that the fishery is recovering around Gisborne after the last few years of overfishing.

19.10.12 Wind and more wind

Nothing much has happened since my last report, the spring northwesterlies have arrived and we have had gale force winds for the last 3 weekends, at least it is fine and warm and the ground is drying out. Today I have loaded Gazebo for tomorrows contest and as usual a southerly front has just ripped through, it is expected to drop tomorrow with light winds so here's hoping we can get out.

22/23 Sept Tui fishing contest

How time flies the first contest of the season is here already, the 3 day Tui fishing contest. We left the ramp early at day break into a 1.5 metre swell and a breeze that was to drop. We headed to a area we call SR4A at South Rocks some 26 km out from the ramp. We had to take care going over Aerial reef as it was breaking on the shallows (9 metres deep at the shallowest part), we anchored up and started to catch Terakihi and after an hour the first snapper (only small). Then we both lost our sinkers, I looked at the fish finder and we had 50 metres of barracudas under us, after another 4 sinkers and a dozen hooks latter we knew we couldn't stay there. We headed to a number of marks in the south rocks area catching a number of fish but nothing big. On the way home we came across a school of Kahawai feeding on the surface and flicked out a couple of lures and landed a couple of nice sized fish.
The next day was even better, we headed out to Baistows 32 km's out from the ramp in 225 metres of water for a deep fish, we managed to land 5 small bluenose 1.5 to 2 kg, at lunch time we headed back to South rocks where the wind had completely died off. It was just perfect a rarity in our waters, on the way we came across a sun fish doing it's thing. We anchored and berlied up trying for a good sized snapper but only managed small pannies, we headed home and managed to see a Humpback whale cruising past. It was a truly magic day.

 The grand old lady SS Earnslaw, 100 year old steamship

Queenstown

Lake Wakatipu

Queenstowns Jetty on Lake Wakatipu

We had to miss the 3rd day as I was in Queenstown for a conference (also a wonderful part of New Zealand), our 2 Kahawai managed to come 2nd and 3rd.

25.08.12 Hard work and Hagfish

The weather has been very spring like over the last week, Saturday forecast was looking good so Murray and I headed out to South rocks to look for snapper and Terakihi, we went to the "Wall" where we caught the Terakihi last week to find 10 metres of fish, deep red on the fish finder, meaning big fish tightly packed, so we dropped our baits and I caught a nice Terakihi within seconds and that was that, no matter what we put down we couldn't get a bite let alone a fish. The general opinion latter was they may have been Blue Moki spawning. We headed back to the "Rope" for some snapper fishing that was slow but Murray managed a few small snapper and on my side of the boat I managed 3 Terakihi. We moved to a new rock we found that showed good sign but the increasing northeast wind made setting the anchor hard, with us continually dragging the anchor. Over the next 2 hours of setting and dragging the anchor Murray managed another 7 snapper and me 1, to finish the day off I managed a double hook up of blind eels (Hagfish), the worse thing ever, they are purple coloured and are covered in gallons of slimy clear snot. Time to leave, a hard days fishing.
This link will take you to a video of blind eels (Hagfish) after the shark the next fish shown is a Hapuka.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8aVgSIDJjM&feature=player_embedded#!

18.08.12 More of the same

After a great day yesterday I needed more, so I sent Murray a text that night that I would pick him at 7am.
So at 7am Murray was outside waiting. We headed to Tatapouri ramp to launch and to head out deep to Baistows to fish in 200 metres of water. The wind was less than yesterday and we were able to slow drift over the features but sadly the fish were not co-operating, we managed 1 Bluenose for 4 hours work. We headed towards South rocks, to an area I call the wall where the sea rises up from 100 metres to 60 metres, we found again good sign and dropped the anchor and managed 14 nice sized Terakihi before we drifted off (again the anchor not holding in the mud).

Back on land , just perfection.

The wind had gone and again the sea turned to glass, so we decided to check out a few of the rocks around. After drifting over a few different areas and not finding much we came to a area I call "the rope" (I got my anchor stuck there a few years back) and Murray got a double strike of small but legal snapper. We set the anchor and were into snapper and soon the size started to get bigger, the smaller ones were released with us keeping a dozen nice sized snapper up to 3kg's.
The day just got better and better, we didn't leave till 4.30pm for the 45 minute ride back to to ramp, spring is differently here.

17.08.12 Day off work

Perfect Day

I finally took a day off from work and got the weather and sea conditions to work in my favour. the forecast had a 15 knot Northwest fading out to nothing by lunch and the same for Saturday, I meet Linda a friend who I had promised a trip out for sometime at the harbour at 7am. We launched Gazebo and headed out the conditions out to sea was choppy with the 15 knot offshore wind, we headed to Westpac 28km's to the southeast, we found good sign in 73 metres of water and dropped the anchor. The bottom being mainly mud hooking up was a problem, so we ended doing a slow drift.

Visitors that came to play - hundreds of Dolphins

Over the next hour or so we reset 3 times and we managed to catch 12 or so good sized Terakihi and a small snapper, I then decided to try Bank rock were we might be able to stay hooked up. We travelled the 10 km's to bank rock and by the time we got there the wind was dropping. We found good sign again and dropped the anchor and we were straight into Terakihi smaller than Westpacs but ok, we put another 14 into the bin plus a small pup Hapuka that Linda caught. By 1.30 the wind had completely died off and the sea had turned to glass with a metre rolling swell. With the bin full and our stomachs full as well on the yummy food Linda had bought it was time to go. Spring is not far away, already there is a bit of heat in the sun.

11.08.12 A break in the rain.

Blue Moki 5kg

From Wednesday it has been fine and calm except it still has managed to rain at night and Saturday is meant to be good, so with Gazebo loaded and Murray picked up at 7am, we head out to Westpac via the Harbour. The sea is good with a light land wind, we arrive at the main Westpac spot and do a drop without anchoring to see whats there. I get a double strike of snakes (barracouta) and Murray one, 3 snakes and down 2 sinkers and 2 hooks- it's going to be an expensive day if this keeps up. We move a little deeper (90 metres) and drift over a ledge, I hook up to and land a 5 kilo Blue Moki, which is a surprise because I thought they were shallow reef dwellers. Murray hooks a nice sized Terakihi from a school of fish that extends 8 metres from the bottom, we set our anchor and we then reset our anchor as the current and light wind push us off the fish. Our third attempt and we are in the fish, we put 22 Terakihi in the bin before we drift off the mark. It was not all plain sailing as the snakes found us again and being the tax collectors they are we lost a number of sinkers and hooks. At lunch time we decided to do a bit of exploring and headed out to the first drop off.

The Seal that came to play

On the way I noticed something out to sea and taking a second look saw a water spout from a whale, we turned and headed towards them for a look, Murray said to me "get your camera out" and the old "nec minute" a Humpback whale breached 150 metres off our bow, seen it on TV but never in real life, I now had the camera ready and waited, only to see the whales in the distance heading away. We headed to a spot not far away in 165 metres for a drift fish, as soon as the gear got to the bottom we were joined by a seal, with nothing happening we wound up and headed home to be joined by a pod of dolphins, what a day, makes up for all of the shitty ones we have been having.

03.08.12 Rain, rain and more rain

I know its winter but the rain continues, easterly after easterly, the ground is sodden, we or should I say me thought Sunday would be good for a fish, Saturday afternoon there was no wind and the sea was glassy, so Sunday morning with the valley I live in was shrouded in fog, it looked good. We launched Gazebo in the harbour and headed out to sea, the bay was good - nice and calm, swung passed the island out to sea and the conditions changed dramatically, big confused swell and a rising easterly wind, after a couple of km's of hard slog we saw a couple of Orca's, we stopped for a look and deciding the sea was getting worse and it was not worth it we turned around and headed home.

It was nice to see that the local paper reported we are having the wettest year for the last 25 years, it can stop any time it wants now, the locals have had enough, we need a good dose of vitamin D (via the sun).

14.07.12 Back in action.

Yesterday I drove over to the Bay of Plenty to pick up my trailer, Wow what a difference, basically its a brand new trailer at half the price, I recommend Surtees Trailers if you are looking at re-zincing your trailer, they did a very good job.
I got gazebo back on her trailer and loaded the boat, we headed out at first light to the groper fields 40 km away from the ramp, on the first drop off 60 down to 100 metres we went over a school of fish, we turned around and did a drift over them and a I gave my new jig rod a go, first drop a hit and a nice 10kg Kingfish, 3 more drops and 3 rats (small undersized Kingfish). Note to self try more jigging in the season. We headed out to our deep water rocks and down went the first baits and up came the first of many sharks - bugger. Murray said that we had a earthquake in the night (5.2 - 180km's away) never good for fishing and unbeknown to us at 8am we had another earthquake (4.2 - 20 km's away and only 20km deep) certainly not good for fishing. we headed back inshore to good sign but again struggled to catch fish. We ended up with 1 Kingfish and 2 small snapper and 1 Terakihi, a bit sad but enough to feed us for a couple of days. The quakes caused no damage, just the shaky isles giving us another shudder.

24.06.12 all quiet on the western front

Not much has been happening of late, the weather has not been the best. We did manage a trip out to Aerial reef 3 weeks ago for a couple of snapper, 5 2-3kg blue cod and a metre long kingfish around 10kg, the sea conditions weren't the best - it was sloppy and not much fun. There will no fishing for the next 3 weeks as I have taken gazebos trailer back to Surtees trailers for re-zincing (rust never sleeps). Looking at a refurbished trailer at the workshop mine will be basically brand new when I pick it up in 3 weeks time.

28.05.12 Gutted

With only 5 days to go till the end of the 11/12 fishing season for the Gisborne Tatapouri sports fishing club, Ray Scott went out and caught a magnificent 13.065kg snapper to knock me off the leader board. So out I went again on Saturday to my spot with half of my bait freezer on board, We berlied up in lumpy conditions, the perfect glassy sea from Thursday and Friday had gone as usual with a quick southerly front Friday night. The fishing was slow I manged 3 nice eaters of around 3kg and Murray 1 before the snakes (barracuda) arrived on mass, taking tackle as fast as we could retie it, so time to leave. We headed out to the drop off for a Hapuka (Groper) fish, but only managed 5 nice 4kg Bluenose scattered between sharks and spiney dogfish fat with eggs. After 3 large sharks in a row we had enough and headed back to town.

18.05.12 Day off

18.05.12 I had the day off work, texted Murray to see if he could get the day off as well as I thought the conditions would be good, he texted back wanting to know what weather site I had looked at as the ones he had were for strong sou west winds and a rising swell. I so as I was Johnny no friends I loaded my surf caster rods and drove up the coast to Losiels beach, the view out to sea from the hills was fantastic glassy, no wind and hardly any swell (bugger I thought, should of been out on the boat). Losiels was looking good as I drove along the beach to my spot, the sand had partly gone from the cliffs so at low tide there wasn't a lot of room to drive between the rocks and the sea but it was ok. My first cast produced a small but legal snapper that was released, 2 hours latter and 3 Kahawai (all released) I caught another small snapper and released it as well. It was about time to go, I had big hit and something loaded up the rod only to spit out the bait, properly a stingray but enough to think, should I stay longer, but nah, the tide was coming in and it was time to go. Just as well as I did leave, the sea was up to the rocks and I had to wait for a wave to suck out so I could drive around otherwise I would have had to wait to low tide that night at 10pm to get around again. Driving home the sea was still perfect but as usual the wind picked up by 4pm and the weekend turned to custard. Hopefully we can get out this weekend coming.

29.04.12 Out for a feed

Saturdays forecast was for a fine morning and a short southerly change at lunch and the forecasters got it spot on. Sunday the forecast was for light Northwesters calming at lunch and freshening in the evening, also spot on. We headed out from the Tata ramp to Aerial reef for a quick snapper fish, I went to my favorite spot and dropped the pick and put out the berlie bag, the current and wind were in opposite directions, which was a problem for us but not for the barracuda which took their normal tax rate of everything. I managed 1 snapper after a couple of hours so it was time to move. We traveled a long the reef and about the mid way point saw some likely sign but went on to penguins reef the northern end about 5 km's away. That to had the same wind v's current problem, so again up with the pick and back to the mid way spot. In went the pick and first bait Murray had a nice snapper around 2-3kg, second bait a nice 4-5kg fish, we managed another one each and then the barracuda took over again as well as rat Kingfish (undersize). By 1pm we had enough and headed home with enough fish to feed our families.

22.04.12 Snapper time

With the weather still good I took out a friend (Little Ed) who was over here from Australia on holiday, we headed out to the spots I was going to take the girls on Saturday, heaps of sign but no fish, so we headed back to where the girls caught theirs. In went the berlie and soon the snapper and again the barracuda were on the bite. We managed to bin 9 or 10 nice 2-5 kg snapper in between replacing hooks and leaders, The action was good with Little Ed enjoying himself, with the day coming to an end as well as the bait I made one last big bait for my line and cast it out, with in minutes I had a big hit and by the feel of it it was a big snapper, after 5 care full minutes of playing it in, Little Ed managed to net the snapper and she was a beauty. We pulled the pick and headed back over a glassy sea, I rang a friend who is a weigh master and we weighed the snapper in at 11.155kg to take the lead on the clubs board. What a weekend after 3 months of crappy weather this was one out of the book, hopefully more to come.

21.04.12 Bronwyn Kay Ladies day.

Since my last blog the weather really sucked, with heavy rain again just before Easter, this time the roads south and east were closed and the rail is unlikely to be reopened. The road north closed now for 3 weeks was opened for daylight hours for Easter and we made our escape to Bowentown for the break. The weather was summer again - sunny, hot and calm. I left Gazebo back home and had use of my Brother in laws runabout. The swell outside the harbour bar was huge, 3-4 metres so Cliff and I entered the Bowentowns Fishing Clubs Sunday competition, The day was nice and we got to catch some snapper, nothing big but we managed to weigh 4 in.

The rest of April in Gisborne the rain eased off and the sun came out, but still no fishing - big swells, crappy weekends etc.

                                                                      The Jelly Fish

21.04.12 The Bronwyn Kay Ladies Competition. The weather map had a nice weekend for us, so Deb, Trish and Leanne were told to be ready for a 5.30am start. So we were ready at 6 am (you know lippy, hair, toilet, coffee, toilet, tissues, towels, toilet etc). We were in the water just after 6.30 and puttering out the harbour and the girls all decided they wanted to wear life jackets, So I had to go into the cabin to get them and unbeknown to me I unplugged the fish finder from the transducer. It was a few Km's out to sea when I noticed the fish finder had no bottom and couldn't find the reason, so I changed plans and went to my old favourite snapper spot. I blindly chucked the pick over when the GPS said we were there and put out the berlie bag. It didn't take long to get the first snapper in and for the barracuda to find us. Over the next 5 hours we caught some nice sized snapper and Trevally and lost a lot of gear to the snakes (barracuda). the best snapper weighed 6.280kg and gave Deb first place and she managed 2nd place in the trevally section with a 2.455kg fish. The sea ended up glassy as and we had a really good trip home, while washing the boat I found the unplugged lead and I had the fish finder back in business. The girls Came second in the fancy dress section in their Jelly fish outfits.

The 21st Annual Cricket Fishing Trip

As I wrote in my last blog the heavy rain warning was correct, Monday and Tuesday it blew and it poured, the road north has been cut by a massive slip for the last 2 weeks and the road south was cut by flooding and the railway line South (the only one) was washed out so badly it may never open again....But the road East (to Cape Runaway) was open and in good condition for the first time in many years (normally heaps of road works etc).
We left Wednesday morning and reached the house we rent at lunch time, the owners told us that they hadn't had much rain, so with that we unloaded the 4x4's and had a quick recon to see if the conditions were OK and they were, so by 2pm we had the small boats in the water and we were soon on Cricket Island with baits in the water. Fishing was slow with only 2 snapper caught - both to Johnstone with the heaviest at 2.3kg.
That night the wind picked up and it blew and the rain poured and about midnight it changed direction and came back at us. The morning bought calm conditions and the rain had gone - well almost. We had a late breakfast and at 10am some of the boys cracked a cold one or two and decided it was going to be a lay day. Not being a big drinker, 4 of us packed our gear and went for a drive to find somewhere to fish and we found a nice rock in a sheltered bay and spent the afternoon enjoying the sun as there wasn't much happening on the fish front.
Friday dawn was clear and calm so we packed the boats and headed to Lottin to fish our rock, the sea was a bit swelly and still a little choppy but we made it ok to our spot and were able to fish a sheltered area that produced a lot of pan sized snapper and the odd shark, I managed to catch a 4.3kg snapper that put me in the lead for the Green Jacket, that didn't last long as 4 of the team had gone over the hills on 4x4 bikes and Pooh managed a 16.8kg Kingfish to take the lead. That evening we bought out the clay bird launcher we had hired and a couple of shot guns and had a spot of target practise.
Saturday dawned calm again and we loaded the boats and headed to the Cape Rocks, but sadly the surge was big, making it to dangerous to get ashore so we headed to Maoris. 2 of the boats went to one rock and Johnstone and I felt it was a bit crowded so we headed to another spot further round, it proved to be a good spot with a steady stream of nice sized snapper coming in all day (all but 5 were released). We put out a number of live baits under balloons only to have them all taken by sharks, but it was a very nice day in the sun on the rocks. We got back to the house to find that Pooh had caught another Kingfish 17.6kg and was this years fishing champion taking the Green Jacket. Again we had another round of target shooting blasting off 500 rounds over the 2 days (the way a number of the boys shot the ducks have nothing to worry about).

 Gnome takes aim

                                                              Magnet reloading

                                                                   Magnet takes aim.

The next day was pack up time and to head back to town and reality.

19.03.12 The worse summer ever

Not much to write about, the crappy weather continues, this would have to be the worse summer in the last 40 years that I can remember. The pastoral farmers are happy, they have plenty of feed and water, the cropping and grape farmers not so - too wet and not enough sun. The rest of us are just pissed off big time, our normal hot dry summer has turned into a wet - humid - cloudy one. The Tuna/Marlin season looks like it has lasted a whole 5 days (a marlin was hooked and lost in the weekend) with the warm water now out to sea it means those wanting to catch a Marlin will have to burn a lot of fuel to get there, it may come back in but it will take a weather/current change to allow it. Our cricket team are about to go up to Lottin Point for our annual fishing trip for 5 days and a heavy rain warning has just gone out for the region = Great!! (More about that on my return)

16-19.02.12 Eastland Port Marlin/Tuna hunt

The Eastland Port Marlin/Tuna Hunt.

Johnstone, Gnome and myself asked Rex if he was going in the Marlin hunt again this year, if he was does he want a crew as we crewed for him last year. Rex Briant replied that he was going to compete in the world series Jet Sprint champs that was being held in New Zealand this year, as a former world champion he thought it was a opportunity to good to miss. So Rex said "take my boat and do well". Rex owns White Pointer Boats a Boat building business here in Gisborne, so with great generosity gave me White pointer to take out, White Pointer is a Sportsman 840 pro, the boat we fished off last year with Gnome coming second in the Marlin section with a 117kg Stripe Marlin.
The first day the sea was still sloppy from a southerly that came through the day before and was forecasted to die out late afternoon. We left the dock at 5.30am and headed to the area where they caught the short billed spear fish last year.
We chugged around most of the day with nothing to show, Gnome was up the front asleep and Johnstone and I had just reset the lures, they just didn't look right so we changed them all and reset the pattern, I said to Johnstone they look great and feel fishy, 20 minutes later the 80 wide screamed, we scrambled to pull the other rods in, the reel went silent, I said to Johnstone "have we dropped it". "No" he said "its still there" I got Johnstone (his turn) and the rod into the Game chair just in time for a big run, we looked out and saw a lot of slashing and the sickle shape of it's tail, "fuck it's a marlin" and with that it screamed off and pulled half the 37kg nylon off the reel. By now Gnome had woken and was backing the boat. It took Johnstone 45 minutes to get the marlin along side the boat so I could sink the flying gaff into it, we dropped the door down into the sea and the marlin flopped its bill into the boat allowing us the pull it into the boat in one easy pull. After 10 minutes of back slapping we checked the marlin out and to our surprise it was a Blue or a black. As we had never seen one before we weren't sure.

228.650kg Blue Marlin

We decided to head back to port and weight the Marlin in before it started to lose too much weight as there was a couple of stripe marlin's on the way in also.

Unloading White Pointer of her Precious cargo

at the Gisborne Tatapouri sports Fishing Club.

3 very happy snapper fishermen.

The next 2 days of the competition the sea was flat and calm, fishing was hard , all we managed to boat was 11 skip jack tuna and 3 albacore tuna, nothing worth weighing.

We had the lead and the last day the weather turned southerly again, but with the choppy seas a number of boats hooked up and a couple more stripe marlins were caught, but lucky for us no Blues, the nearest marlin to us was a stripe marlin at 126kg.

Johnstone won the contest and we shared the $10000.00 prize money 4 ways (a share for Rex)

If you are looking for a new boat that catches Marlin go to

http://www.whitepointerboats.co.nz/

For the full results go to the Gisborne Tatapouri Sports Fishing Clubs web site. http://www.gtsfc.co.nz/

10.02.12 Weather break

Half way through my holidays and a break in the weather. Murray who is also on holiday are able to head out. The easterlies and southerlies that have plagued us this summer roll back to give us a stunning day out. With a lazy 1 metre swell and no wind all day we head out from the Gisborne harbour and find the deep blue coloured water 15kms out and set our lures and troll out to sea. With the Tuna and Marlin hunt on next week it was good to have a look around, but sadly we found no sign of fish, though it was looking good - heaps of dolphins and birds everywhere but no workups to be seen. we found a area called the Roman nose in 120 metres of water and anchored up and caught 24 Terakihi, which was good because the area looks like it has allot of potential for the future as we don't have many marks down south.

04.02.12 Bowentown Nauti Girls comp.

On Thursday we did our usual 4 hour trip up to Bowentown in the Bay of Plenty for the Bowentown Sportsfishing clubs Nauti Girls competition. This year Deb and I drove up towing Gazebo and Liane came up Friday with the Kids, Trish unfortunately couldn't make it because of work commitments. Deb and I arrived Thursday evening to flat calm sea and harbour, no swell and no wind. the next morning we launched Gazebo and headed out to the entrance with the hope of going over to Mayor Island, but the line of white water over the bar and a freshening wind put paid to that, harbour fishing it was, again a case of "you should of been here yesterday" all we got were Stingrays and sharks and a couple of small Trevally.
The Nauti girls comp was much the same for us 4am start and a frustrating day of stingrays and sharks, but we were not alone. The day was good and the harbour flat and the girls enjoyed themselves - till next year.

27-29 January. Enterprise Nissan Bay Bonanza

27.01.2012 Day one; 4am start. Murray, Evan and myself are at the ramp and 2nd in line for the tractor, the wind is howling from the Northwest (offshore) and a southerly front is expected late afternoon. we are released and sent off at 5.30 and head out to southrocks in a choppy sea with 15 - 20 knot Northwest wind. We go the the area where we had success two weeks ago, we caught a few fish but nothing to write home about. By mid afternoon and a couple of moves later, the wind died away. Looking towards the south you could see the front building and getting closer, so we decided to call it quits and head home. We were driving up my drive when the rain and the wind hit, glad we came in when we did. I managed to weigh in a Kahawai at 2.620kg and we registered 6 fish in the most species category.

28.01.2012 Day Two: With the front passing in the night and the sea not having time to settle we decided to have a late start at 6.00am. We arrived at the ramp to find 6 or 7 boats already out in a lumpy sea with a light 8-10knot southwesterly blowing, we headed out to Aerial rocks for stray line in a favorite spot of ours. We arrived and the sea was crap, but we anchored and gave it our all. By 10am we had 2 small snapper in the bin and the sharks had returned, but the wind had dropped and the sea was calming down. We headed out to south rocks and the sea was getting better so we kept on going to Baistows, our Hapuku (grouper) grounds. Over the next 3 hours we managed 4 Hapuku, 3 Blue nose and 3 Gemfish. The sea now was perfect so we did a 17 km run to Thunder rock and managed only a trumpeter, and time to head home. Nothing we weighed in was heavy enough but the Kawahai I weighted in Friday was in first place and we managed to up our species tally to 11.

29.01.2012 Day 3; Back again to to ramp at 4am and first in line. we were released again at 5.30 and headed east in a northwest wind at 8 knots. We anchored at 12 fathom rocks about 30km away and set up a berlie trail. We managed a couple of snapper again and half Kahawai's and Kingfish, thanks to a couple of small Marco's that kept hanging around. By 10am the sea had glassed off , no wind so we headed out to Tinman to fish an area we hadn't been to for awhile. we managed 3 Red snapper and a Kingfish, but time was running out and it was a early finish so we started to head home towing some plastic lures, hoping for a Albacore tuna or Skippy tuna to add to our tally. We came across a small work up and managed to get 6 nice Albie's but no Skippie's and then we ran out of time. We had a pleasant run home in a flat glassy sea. We managed to get our tally up to 17 different species, only to find when we got home we had one more that I (yes me) had forgotten to weigh in that would have given us joint 1st place and a half share of $1000.00 for most species. My Kahawai managed to stay on the board and got 3rd place for a $100. Later at prize giving my name was pulled out of the barrel with 39 others for a chance at winning a Holden Barina car, Last man standing gets the car, I manged to last to the last 7 and then my day was done, managed to get a bottle of Rum as a consolation.
Our Species list: Snapper, Trevally, Red Cod, Kahawai, Tarakihi, Barracouta, / Hapuku, Bluenose, Gemfish, Trumpeter, Banded Wrasse / Blue Cod, Red Snapper, Conger Eel, KingFish, Albacore tuna, Sea Perch. and a blue sweep that I forgot.

14-15.01.12 Liquorland family contest

Black Friday 13th January I took the day off to help Deb move our camp site back home, with the hope of getting out for a fish, as the Liquorland contest had been going all week. But as usual the weather gods frowned on me. The wind picked up from the Northwest strong to gale force, so no fishing, just packing up the camp site. The northwest wind in Gisborne is our hot dry wind and our temperature started to rise, finally summer is here and we picked the hottest day of summer to pack up. The contest is a 7 day one, with those lucky enough to be on holiday being able to go out and fish calm weather during the week while the workers had to wait until the weekend.
14.01.12 day 1 for us - The wind had dropped from Friday but was still expected to be strong, but with the temp expected to get into the low 30's I thought the seabreeze might hold the northwesterly back and we might get a nice day. We left the ramp and headed out to PR1A a under water reef system 16 km off shore. We found a area a fish on the sounder and anchored, put out the berlie and threw out our strayline baits and we were soon into a couple of snapper the heaviest at 2.7kg, after an hour things quietened down with the only highlight being a Marco shark taking our livebait as soon as we put it in the water (the reason for it being quiet) and playing it to the boat so we could release it. I managed 3 more pannies on a ledger rig and we decided to try somewhere else. The new spot turned out to be a Marco shark hang out spot with all baits being taken and bitten off. We spent the rest of the day looking around and trying different things to no avail, at least my predictions were right
15.01.12 - We headed out again into a building northwesterly, this time we went to SR1A another under water reef system 26km's out to sea. we found another school of fish in a shallow area and wiped a couple of strayline baits into them and bang a nice 2 kilo snapper, another bait and bang another nice 4 kilo snapper, Murray not to be out done whipped out a bait and again bang other nice snapper @ 6.74kg. I managed to catch a good Trevally @ 4.74kg. Then it went quiet, to stir up interest we put out the berlie bag *bad mistake* Marcos and blue sharks came to us, every bait was taken, we managed to play 3 Marcos and one Blue to the boat so we could release them, the rest just chewed us off. and with that our day was done.
Murray's snapper took out 1st place and my Trevally also took out 1st place.

6/701.12 Here we go again

Back to work for 3 days and guess what, the weather is great no wind and calm seas. After having a quick look at the long range forecast on Metvu I see another big Sub tropical low heading our way for the weekend, I decide to check the coast out after work Friday and an hour later we are launching Gazebo and heading out to Coopers Banks 4km offshore. We dropped the pick on the edge of the rocks and soon we had our first snapper on board, over the next 2 hours we managed 15 pan sized snappers, 5 Terakihi and a just legal Kingfish (released) and all in perfect conditions. On our way home we called in to our camp site on the beach and our neighbours were packing up because Civil defence had issued a weather warning for the next 4 days. Being tough stupid Kiwis we decided to stay put as we had camped through everything the weather gods have manged to throw at us over the last 30 years. 5.30am Saturday morning we were ready to leave home to head out again as the conditions were still very good. we went back to the same spot in case the storm arrived early, we could be back on the ramp in 15 minutes. We fished to 10.30am and caught 12 nice sized Terakihis and 1 small snapper and headed home. The storm was slow to build and by night fall the rain had set in and luckily the wind never got up to anywhere near what was predicted. Sunday was wet and humid but breaking up. Monday back to work - not a cloud in the sky hot and calm... really makes going to work a joy - yeah right.

New Year break

As I predicted that weather turned to custard for the long weekend. the only time I moved Gazebo was to mow the lawn under her. Believe it or not the next weekend's long range forecast is for more bad weather - but there might be a small window of opportunity Saturday morning before the rain arrives for us to get out, but I'm not counting on it. So much for our long dry summer.
Till later