04.02.2010

The ones we kept
It doesn't get much better
Murray with another snapper

The bar is still closed so back onto the harbour again, we spend most of the day checking out different areas, but end up at yesterdays spot, on the turn of the tide the snapper came on we ended up catching 16 snapper the heaviest weighed 3.4 kgs which we are told is a very good fish for this end of the harbour out of the 33 snapper we caught we only kept 9 for the rest of the gang that was turning up for the weekend, the rest were released (17-16 to me). Sea lettuce is a problem in the harbour(looks like the lettuce we eat) it raps around your line in the Strong currents found in the harbour, at mid tide the current is at it's strongest and the lettuce gets to be a big problem and we call of the rest of the day and head back to the Bach for a beer or two.

03.02.2010

Logging on Matakana island
Waiting for action
No need to get up early with low tide at 5.30am we had a cooked breakfast and headed out at 10am. The bar was still closed so with the ladies contest on Saturday we headed out to find fishing spots with out much success until we anchored near a logging operation on Matakana island, where we caught another 6 snapper (9-8 to Murray) and back to the ramp before dark. It is so good to fish in a flat calm sheltered waters.

02.02.2010 Bowentown

Bowentown fishing club and ramp
After a washed out long weekend Murray and I headed over to the sunny Bay Of Plenty to stay at a family members Bach at Bowentown, we arrived mid afternoon to the same weather system we had left but not as bad, the harbour was calm, but the bar to the sea was closed with a 2 metre swell and rough seas. We unloaded our gear and launched the boat, it was low tide , in fact a very low tide as we found out, after leaving the ramp we went about 50 meters then grounded the boat, having to push the boat another 100 meters until finding deeper water before we were under way. The water was dirty from all the rain but we managed to pick up 8 snapper (5 - 3 to me)returning to the ramp at 10pm in the dark.

31.01.10

Day 3 of the Bay Bonanza is a total wash out, the rain is pelting down and the wind is a strong south easterly. I feel sorry for those who couldn't get the day off on Friday and didn't get to fish at all, lest we managed a fish in second place ($200) and if the gods are smiling a chance at a spot prize at tonights prize giving.


The rest of the week Murray and I are taking Gazebo on tour, heading to the Bay of Plenty (Bowen town) for a spot of R&R, hopefully for a fish around Mayor Island if the weather gods are kind to us and to meet up with the girls for the Bowen town fishing clubs ladies only Nauti girls contest.

29.01.10 Bay Bonanza

Day one of the 3 day Bay Bonanza, the easterly system that has been hanging around for the last 2 weeks is set to play a big part in the contest, the first day starts fine with a very light easterly (onshore wind). We leave the ramp at 5.30am (the first part of the contest is to be first at the ramp we manage to be 4th arriving at 4am with one boat sleeping there over night. We head straight to BS1A for a deep drift, the sea is a bit sloppy, we spend an hour or so drifting catching 1 Bluenose and 7 Gemfish, by now, half a dozen other boats have arrived, we notice the odd person leaning over and leaving a berlie trail. We move east to the gables about 10km up the coast checking out and drifting spots along the 200 metre line but fail to catch anything worth keeping. The water temp has finally reached 20c so we put out a set of lures and head to our 60 meter marks at gables, but the sea seems to be as empty as our fish bin, we look at 5 or 6 marks but there is little sign, we then back track to penguin rocks and set up a berlie trail in a good rocky area well known for big snapper and all we attract is cotta and sharks, we head back at 3pm and weight in a 9.6ks Gemfish and a 3.66kg Bluenose (currently in 2nd place).

Day 2 At the ramp at 4am (first in the line) to be greeted with a 20kt easterly and rain, back to bed by 5am, Day two is cancelled and day 3 isn't looking good at this stage.

The question again is where have all the snapper gone, out of 130 boats the heaviest snapper was 1.4kg. Hardly any were caught???

20.01.10

With a good forecast I took the morning off from work and took Max out for a fish, Max is a rep from out of town, we have been planing a days fishing for months but today was the first time we have had a good forecast that coincides with his visit here. We left at 5am and headed to "SR4A" a spot that has been very good in the past, not to be undone we were greeted with a school of fish 3 metres thick over the rock, we quickly anchored and were straight into tarakihi, Max was pulling them in at 3 at a time, it didn't take long before beads of sweat were dripping of Max's forehead. With 20 in the bin we were selecting only the very biggest and letting the rest go, by 7am we called a halt and filleted the fish, with time to spare we had a cruise round and found a spot of bird action that turned out to be a seal eating a fish. We stopped for a look and the seal dived down again and bought up a fish and tossed in the air and left it and then moved off for another dive to the bottom, we moved over and gaffed it and added a nice John Dory to the bin. After Moko the dolphin catching fish in town for people we now have Sam the Seal doing the same thing out at sea. On the way home we had a few dolphin pods come over and ride our bow wave ... a very enjoyable day

10.01.2010

Over the last 2 weeks we have been out several times, mainly to 'BS1A' (gps mark) where we have caught a couple of Hapuka and 6 Gemfish, on the way home on one of the trips we stopped at 'SR1E' and put 28 Tarakihi in the bin in less than an hour, most of the tarakihi were very good sized weighting over 1.3kg's. On the 10th we decided to go snapper hunting as they have been hard to find over the last few months. We went to a spot 'FR1A' where I caught good sized snapper last year to win 3 contests, we were there at labour weekend and couldn't find any snapper, this time we put a good berlie trail down only to get 1 small snapper. We managed to catch 2 hapuka on the straylines in 20 metres of water, so the question is where have all the snapper gone?. The water temp has dropped again to around 18.5 degrees and the water colour has gone back to the blue/green from the deep ink blue it was 2 weeks ago.