Fishing: Waves dangerous and thieves busy

Finally we have some decent fishing weather, the big pelagics have started to turn up in numbers, but the news has not been all good for all anglers.

Hokianga charter operators Billy Milich and Jonathan Barlow had a lucky escape when their boat Crazy Days was flipped on the bar.

The swell was not huge, in the 1-2m range, but a nasty wind and outgoing tide combined to produce an unusual wave that overtook them as they came back from a day's fishing, dumping into the 8.5m White Pointer and corkscrewing it bow-first into the sand.

The men escaped through the forward hatch, then spent 20 minutes clinging to the rail on the front of the hull as the boat was repeatedly swamped by waves.

Luckily a walker on the point saw the incident and called the local Coastguard.

In another slice of luck, local game fish club stalwart John Pattinson had just removed his boat from his garage for maintenance, had the VHF radio on and heard the Coastguard call for help.

"It took us 20 minutes to get there and Billy was nearly gone," Pattinson said.

"He told us he couldn't have held on for two more waves."

Crazy Days washed up a day later near Mitimiti.

"Jonathan is a very experienced skipper, it just goes to show it can happen to anyone," Pattinson said.

He advised east coast anglers wishing to use the Hokianga bar to seek local advice first.

Heading to Great Barrier during a break in the bad weather over the holidays we, too, were thumped by a freak wave, which took the windscreen out of Lee Wynyard's Rayglass 850 Legend.

In a 1m swell and with following southwesterly, we were three-quarters of the way into the trip when a 3m wave broke over the boat, the weight of water folding the windscreen in two and the force of it wrapping the shattered safety glass like a cover around the rod holder and bait board at the stern.

Wynyard suffered facial lacerations, but thankfully the glass went past without wrapping around anyone.

We were fortunate a roll-on, roll-off ship was nearby and at 5.30am, in near-dark, we turned and sat in its wake, sheltering from the head-on wind until we reached calmer water near Rangitoto.

A few days later, Wynyard's boat My Mistress was stripped by thieves while tied to the floating dock at Orams Marine's dry-stack. Around $20,000 worth of dive gear, gamefishing rods and reels, boat gear and clothing was taken. The thieves apparently approached the Orams dock from the water, though nothing was captured on security cameras.

Auckland water police say there is normally an upsurge in thefts from boats over summer.

Sergeant John Saunders recommends marking expensive gear so it can be identified and recording serial numbers. Photograph your gear. Police have a fishing gear database co-ordinated through the Paihia office, where owners can log serial numbers so that gear that turns up in the hands of crooks can be traced back to its rightful owners. Contact Wayne Mills wayne.a.mills@police.govt.nz (see link to email address below).

Snapper fishing around Auckland is yet to hit its peak. Fish are there but they are lazy feeders. Those caught, though, tend to be in the 1.5kg and up range.

Look for big tides and fish morning and evening for best results. The huge increase in boat traffic around the inner islands at this time of year seems to drive fish out further. But in two trips to the Barrier lately our best fish was just 5kg.

At Doubtless Bay, Orewa angler Peter Jordan had good luck, nailing a 12kg snapper on a 1/0 hook while targeting maomao in shallow water near Berghan Point. The big red hooked neatly in the side of the mouth and couldn't straighten the hook nor bite the line.

Doug McColl from Coopers Beach Sports, who weighed the fish, also reported a 6.1kg packhorse crayfish taken by Hamilton diver Glen Summerville.

Snapper fishing in the Far North has been best early morning and evening, McColl said. There were good catches taken just off Coopers Beach early in the day but the bright, clear conditions meant anglers needed to move to deeper water during the day.

Offshore, there are work-ups aplenty, with large numbers of skipjack and albacore tuna and the first, small striped marlin landed with several yellowfin tuna.

At Whangaroa just four striped marlin have been recorded but Gamefish Club juniors have been cleaning up.

Lance Kenney, 10, fishing on the family boat Sexy Lady, has a New Zealand record claim in for a 54.8kg yellowfin on 24kg gear and Joshua Balme, also 10, landed a 110kg stripey on Odyssey, both while fishing in the club juniors competition.

Before the competition, Ricky Corden, 15, landed a 70.5kg yellowfin while fishing 24kg gear on board Seaquell. World and New Zealand record claims are in for that fish.

The Bay of Islands Swordfish Club had recorded 47 gamefish to Wednesday, 22 of them billfish, including three short-billed spearfish. John Rowe on Blue Fix took a 121kg stripey one day and a 121kg blue marlin the next.

On the west coast, the Hokianga club has recorded four marlin caught and two more tagged and released.

Further south, onshore winds and high swells have curtailed fishing.

The Manukau Harbour shows lots of baitfish activity. Kahawai and kingfish are chasing them but snapper fishing is poor.

Anglers face further threats to access at three favoured spots. At Muriwai near Auckland, there appears to be no intention to reinstate vehicle access at the south end of the beach.

Only four-wheel-drive vehicles can get to the beach via the road to the golf course or Rimmers Rd further north.

And marine reserve proposals will put boat ramps on Wellington's south coast and at Patterson Inlet on Stewart Island on the "don't use" list - fishers landing catch on ramps inside a reserve risk losing their boat, gear and car if they cannot prove their take was caught outside the reserve boundaries.

In both cases, recreational anglers are concerned that wind and sea conditions at ramps outside the reserves offer far less fishing opportunity.