While snapper fishing is proving patchy at best, game fish are keeping anglers occupied as they experience one of the best summer seasons for many years.
Example: A wahoo was caught off the west coast recently - the last one boated in our waters was recorded in the summer of 2005. These tropical speedsters are common throughout the Pacific Islands where water temperatures reach the high 20s, but are rare this far south. This was the first one caught off the west coast, and blue water reaching 26C has been recorded off the Bay of Plenty. The other tropical visitors, mahimahi and short-billed spearfish, are far more common and have been caught in large numbers from East Cape to North Cape, while marlin are everywhere.
But most people head out on the water hoping to bag a feed of snapper and what they usually encounter are hordes of small fish and big kahawai. Three-kilo kahawai are common and sometimes it is impossible getting a bait down to the sea bed where the snapper lurk.
A good example was the experience of the 250 guests fishing in the annual Pakuranga Rotary Club's Top Day Out on Tuesday. This is the 24th year the club has organised a fishing contest aimed at corporate guests to raise funds for various charities, including Coastguard, and a cheque for $15,000 was presented to Coastguard at the prizegiving on Motuihe Island.
The event is sponsored by Green Freight and principal Paul Green has won the prize with his team for either the biggest kingfish or biggest snapper - or both - for seven years running. This year, it was the largest snapper, and while the anglers reported catching large numbers of snapper, the largest was 2.65kg until Green's team weighed in a 3.4kg fish.
