Xmas

the run of bad weather took a break for the Christmas holidays (4 days off work), finally the sun came out and the sea calmed down. With Matt home for Xmas we put out the crayfish (like Lobster but without the claws, all the meat is in the tail) pots for Christmas lunch. We took the rods and zoomed round to Coopers bank its only 5 kms offshore, Tzar radioed they were doing real well, they had left when we arrived at my marks, after a couple of hours Matt managed a nice 3kg snapper and a big Blue cod 2.5kg. we moved closer to the ramp to a spot called ramp rock and managed a few Tarekihi and a couple more small snapper.
Christmas day we checked the pots and 3 legal crays went in the live bait tank and back home to cook them up.
Boxing day another 3 legal crays went into the live bait tank, and again Craig from Tzar called us over to Coopers bank saying it was fishing well, this time we arrived to find them about 1.5 kms away from my mark so we dropped the pick on some sign near them and watched them catch fish after fish - nothing big, all around pan size, we managed 10 snapper enough to feed everyone.
The day after boxing day we checked the pots again to find 10 legal cray fish waiting for a ride in the live bait tank. I was going out deep to take Matt Hapuka fishing but the sea breeze was already starting to blow so we headed over to coopers again, only to find it a boat parking lot. Finding a spot was easy but staying on it was the problem, 3 boats were on the hot spot and holding and were doing well while the rest of us were dragging our anchors and catching nothing. we tried for 3 hours and gave up after multi resets of the anchor.
The forecast for the New Year break has a tropical storm heading our way so it looks like fishing will be off again, when is our summer going to kick in is the big question??????

15.12.11 The weather sucks

Sorry about the lack of posts but Gazebo hasn't left the driveway since the last contest, we have had weeks of easterlies - on shore winds, humid, cloudy and light drizzle so far the summer totally sucks. The only good bit is it is pushing warm tropical water closer to Gisborne, so hopefully when we are able to get out there will be Tuna about.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all those who read my blog.

20/26.11.11 The discount fishing deep water contest

Wow where do I start. If you have been reading my earlier blogs you will see that we have been fishing the deep really well. Not so this contest, we travelled over 200 Kms and caught nothing - I mean not a fish did we bring home, this must have been our worse ever 2 days fishing.

The fist days fishing was postponed until the following Saturday due to a southerly front that turned a flat calm Fridays sea to 4 metre storm tossed mess.

Sunday - the sea had calmed down to around 1.5 metres and the wind had gone, so the contest was on. We travelled the fist day 120 kms visiting nearly every deep rocks we know, fishing from 180 metres deep to 350 metres - and nothing. At lest we were not alone, the majority of the fleet had the same story, except for 2 boats skippered by ex commercial long liners who went out to their old grounds (out of our range).
We have been having a few deep sea earthquakes of late and maybe that has upset the fish, who knows what goes on down there.

The following Saturday the conditions were good, but a southerly was forecast to arrive around lunchtime. Again no fish and again we weren't alone, except for the 2 ex-commercial fishermen. But the southerly turned up at 8.30am and with the sea turning to custard the contest was called off and all boats asked to return home on safety grounds. So for all the practise we had done we sucked big time.

Fish species that we catch in the sea off Gisborne

Here are some of the fish species we target in the waters off Gisborne New Zealand. Our fishery is in good shape after years of over fishing, with the introduction of quota management for the commercial fishing fleet, it has allowed most of the species recover, still away to go yet - but they are on the right track.

Skipjack Tuna.

Up to 8kg. Seasonal January to June.

Good eating, better bait.

Snapper.

Up to 17kg. My favourite fish to catch.

Very good eating

Trumpeter.

Up to 25kg. From 50 metres to deep.

My favourite fish to eat

Terakihi.

Up to 6kg. 25 metres plus, main commercial catch off Gisborne.

Very good eating

Red Snapper.

Up to 10 kg. 50 metres plus.

Good eating

Kingfish.

Up to 45kg. All depths, a very good fighter, pound for pound better than a Marlin.

Good eating.

Gurnard.

Up to 2kg, Caught usually in the shallow sandy areas.

Good eating.

Gemfish.
Up to 10kg. Caught in deep water 150 metres plus.
Very good smoked


Bluenose.

Up to 40kg. Caught in the deep 200 metres plus.

Very good eating.



Hapuka.

Up to 50 kg. Use to be caught in all depths, now in deeper water 100 metres plus

Very good eating.



Bass.

Up to 100 kg. Caught in the deep, 200 metres plus

Very good eating

29/30.11.2011 The Hunting & fishing Inshore Contest

Saturdays forecast wasn't that good, so with that in mind and a light Southerly (on shore wind) Friday we did a bit of a late start. We hit the ramp at 7am to find calm conditions. We headed to Aerial Reef 20km's out from the ramp, to the spot we caught our Snapper last year. We berlied for a couple of hours and nothing "a big fat zero", we pulled the pick and headed another 6km's out to South Rocks to our spot we have been fishing lately. We dropped the pick and put the berlie bag in and I cast my first bait, and it hadn't even got to the bottom and a big hit. I played the fish in thinking a double hook up of Barracuda and got a shock to see a nice big fat snapper. After another hour we were getting snaked (Barracuda's) on every bait. Managed to catch a nice big one and it went in the bin as they were in the contest. Lunch time found the sea dead glassy - not a breath of wind, so we decided to take a lunch break from "inshore fishing" and head out to the Hapuka fields. Still glassy we dropped our baits and sat on 200 metres of water, I caught my usual shark and Murray a double hook up - Hapuka and a Bass. My next drop was a small Bluenose and Murray a shark (his turn). With lunch over we headed back in to Penguins and back to snapper fishing, by mid afternoon the sea breeze had arrived and with nothing else happening we headed in.
Sunday the weather forecast was better, but the sea breeze was already up at 7am, we headed back to south rocks only to find every barracuda in the world had turned up. By 10am the sea breeze was howling and the snakes were destroying baits and gear, by 11am I had enough and pulled the pin and headed home.
The snapper 7.340kg won first place in the snapper section and the barracuda 5.420kg also won first place in the barracuda section.

23.10.11 More of the same

Sunday was very like last weekend except it was the first long weekend of spring (Labour day), as usual Friday was our first real taste of summer and as you guessed it a southerly front came over early evening. Saturday was ruined with messy onshore conditions. Sunday there was a light Easterly leaving the sea sloppy - but we went out anyway, to the same spots as last week and ended up with one snapper and 24 Tarakihi. The forecast had Monday as freshening northerlies (not good for our coast) and with Rugby world cup victory to celebrate we decided to leave the rods at home and just pick up the crayfish pots we had set on Saturday, as per normal it was flat as and not a breathe of wind and so with only 2 legal crayfish we came home in a rather foul mood. I later heard that the northerly was howling out to sea and it wasn't that good, with most struggling to catch a feed. So a day at home wasn't that bad after all.

16.10.11 Bin full

The weekend had a good forecast which is great as the last 2 weekends it wasn't that good, I had decided to stay at home and do some of those "I'll get round to it" jobs around the house. Saturdays forecast looked good so I dragged Murray kicking and screaming out to sea (he was waiting by his gate at 6.30am to be picked up). The wind was a 8-10 knot offshore, making the sea a little sloppy, but it was supposed to drop off to nothing. We went to South rocks which is 20km's out to sea to try our luck as the next contest is an "inshore" one. As we don't have a "inshore" as such, the species that we are targeting are caught in the shallower water around the various reefs found off shore rather than the deeper water around the drop offs.
The rock we went to showed good sign so we dropped the pick and missed to spot we wanted by about 5 metres, but we dropped our lines and managed a couple of good snapper. Over the next hour or so we managed 6 nice snapper, we thought we would re anchor on the rock and did so only to find the rock was surrounded by school sharks. so we pulled the pick again and headed over to the rock we caught the snapper on in the last contest. The sounder showed 5 metres of fish, so down went the pick again and we were straight into Tarakihi, good sized ones and 2 at a time. In an hour we had 37 in the bin before the wind changed and we drifted off the fish. The limit is 20 each and with 3 short we decided we had enough, so at midday it was time to head home to do some serious filleting. Deb and Murray did the afternoon fish run dropping off fish to all our friends and families so there was no waste. It turned out to be a beautiful day out on the water.