KEY POINTS:
You've heard of flying fish, but not like these ones.
Father and son Leon and Ken Carpenter were kite fishing on Muriwai Beach last week when the weird weather of recent times put on a show for them.
Their line was 1800m offshore when a waterspout/tornado appeared, intensified, then picked up their gear with fish attached and drove straight at them.
"It was the scariest thing ever to hit Muriwai," Leon said.
"We got heavy rain out of nowhere and the wind started to pick up to around 45km, then all of a sudden it rose to over 100km while me and my dad were trying to get up to the sand hills.
"There was thunder and lightning and after the boom a white funnel came down. I said to my dad, 'We've got to go'. We left the gear ... and ran."
They sought cover in the sandhills as the whirlwind flew over, receiving cuts and bruises from flying shells and other debris. It caused damage to trees and cars. And they saw their kite and gear among it, heading for the golf course.
"The amazing thing was the kite went all the way over the golf course and when we got to it there were six snapper, two big kahawai, two big trevally and three gurnard, which was an awesome set." Kite fishers continue to enjoy a snapper bonanza off the west coast with persistent easterly winds. The little fish have disappeared, with the average now around 3kg. Squid and fresh kahawai remain best baits.
Fishing has also been good in the deeper water off the east coast's sandy bays, and in the Firth of Thames. From 30-40m there are fish in the 3-7kg range. Find them on the sounder and use ledger rigs or soft baits.
There has been a shortage of pilchards this year, perhaps the reason it has been slow for kingfish in many of their usual haunts. Theory says the warmer than usual water temperature has driven the baitfish schools deep.
Host of Sky's Black Magic Fishing NZ Adam Clancey reported multiple schools of pilchards on a trip back from Channel Island to Auckland but said there were no kings working them.
But there were good snapper underneath. They also caught good-sized kahawai in numbers. His theory on the lack of kingfish: "Maybe there's so much kahawai around they don't have to work too hard for a feed."
Auckland charter skipper Eugyn de Bruyn has been entertaining performers from the Comedy Festival this week. They've been getting their fill of snapper just off the East Coast Bays, using lots of berley and pulling in fish around 2kg. Baby squid was the best bait, he said.
De Bruyn landed a 15kg mahimahi out of Tutukaka on Wednesday and had two marlin strikes.
Marlin are still in the Poor Knights area, as they were into early June last year. Several boats had strikes and hook-ups in the area north to Whangamumu, said Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers club president Pete Saul. Temperature remains around 20C.
Marlin have been landed at Pauanui and Whangamata this week.
Mercury Bay Game Fish club manager Tony Fox said hapuku had moved in in numbers on the foul at the north of Great Mercury.
Peter Gatley had a successful day on the hapuku off the west coast, nailing bag limits of fish to 30kg in the Mokau Trench. On the Manukau, gurnard catches have been spectacular in the inner harbour, up the Waiuku and Papakura Channels.
These are areas that normally fish well later in the year, said Manukau expert John Moran. The temperature has dropped from 19 to 14C over the past week or so. "This is going to be the year of the gurnard I reckon," Moran said, commenting on the good numbers and good-sized fish already in the harbour.
I'll hold judgment until it hits peak mid-winter. Last weekend, three sets of a 25-hook long-line produced 26 tope sharks, each of which had rotated around the backbone to wreck our traces. We did far better on the rods.
