Fishing: So many fish ... so little time

The marlin have arrived in numbers off the Northland east coast, with multiple hits and good catches reported all the way from the north of Great Barrier Island up to Berghan Point off Doubtless Bay.

Among the better efforts are a triple for John Rowe from Whangaroa, fishing aboard his son Brad's home-built boat Blue Fix. Dad landed and weighed a 121kg striped marlin, snared a 210kg blue and tagged and released another stripey over the period of a week.

The billfish arrived off Tutukaka and for the past three weeks there has been a concentration of them from the Barrier north to the Poor Knights, over what is largely sandy bottom, with lots of skipjack and albacore tuna.

It's thought the big predators have been held in the area by baitfish schools and that these are now spreading further north, with the fishing off the Bay of Islands hotting up considerably in recent days.

The early action off the Bay was near Whangamumu and along the 200m contour line.

Now the fish were in as close as the 120m mark, said Geoff Stone on Major Tom II. The early marlin were small, in the 75kg range, but the big fish were in closer now in water that was holding consistently above 20C.

"They're straight off the Bay, the Ninepin trench is working well," he said. Mahimahi had also been caught.

The Bay of Islands Swordfish Club's best yellowfin this season is a 52kg fish. Other good catches include those of 10-year-old Talei Atwell who tagged a striped marlin estimated at 100kg and 11-year-old Stacey Matheson who tagged a 75kg fish during the national juniors inter-club contest last weekend. The club has forwarded a national record claim for a 10.282kg snapper caught on a 3kg line by Geoff Bowler.

Stone has mostly been trolling in recent days but said the snapper fishing was hot, with huge schools of baitfish and reds up to 6kg near Mita's Foul and spread all the way to Onslow Rock. They are taking cut bonito baits on a ledger rig.

High winds disrupted the Whangaroa club's small-boat contest last weekend but three marlin were landed. Since then the billfishing had gone mad, a club spokeswoman said, with the best fish a 146.6kg striped marlin to Ian Stewart aboard the boat Astrid. Another local, Carmen McIntyre, on Top Gun, tagged and released three marlin on Monday. The club's recorder, Sandra Moore, took a 197.8kg blue on Tuesday and several other fish were hooked in the area from Stephenson's Island north to Berghan Point.

It was good timing for the Whangaroa One Base which starts next week.

AROUND Auckland, the snapper fishing has finally fired, with consistent catches of fish in the 2-3kg range in the channels, particularly in the evenings. Tide doesn't seem to matter. The best method is straylining with as little weight as possible to get to the bottom and a long trace not heavier than 15kg.

Further out in the Hauraki Gulf, jigging works well. From Kawau south to Rangitoto, snapper will hit jigs in the 60g range, and the new Black Magic range of greeny lures similar to slimy mackerel are a hit. There are lots of big trevally in the Gulf as well as big schools of small kingfish, with some bigger models hanging around too. There were radio traffic rumours of a 53kg fish taken at Anchorite Rock. Off the north of Great Barrier, Brian Ward caught a snapper verging on 13kg. He released it but the big red swam down briefly then floated up sideways, its bladder blown during the haul up from deep water.

Trout fishing is going off at the Rotorua lakes, with temperatures there above 20C.

The Awahou and Hamarana Stream mouths have been hot for fly-fishers in the mornings and evenings.

Deep trolling is productive on both Rotorua and Tarawera; downriggers work better than jigs on Tarawera. Rotoiti continues to produce bag limits of fish in the 3kg range, Aucklander Anthony Clark nailing 31 in a day.

Spare a thought for Sydney fishers, who face a ban on taking any of their catch home because of high dioxin levels. In December all prawning inside the harbour was suspended after the New South Wales Food Authority registered dangerously high dioxin levels in harbour-trawled prawns. That sparked tests on harbour-caught fish and now bream have also been found to be carrying dangerous dioxin levels.

The tens of thousands of recreational Sydney anglers are now discussing the prospect of the harbour effectively being turned into a marine park, with just catch-and-release fishing allowed.