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.