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