KEY POINTS:
The game fish contest season is in full swing, amid mounting concern from amateur anglers at the scarcity of striped marlin this year and a trend for New Zealand boats to fish them outside the Exclusive Economic Zone.
The easterly winds have made the pelagic billfish available to those fishing off the west coast in trailer boats but the luxury launches of the east have spent much time tied up in marinas or trolling empty seas.
At Tutukaka this week 95 boats were entered in the annual one-base contest. The return on Wednesday was four stripeys tagged and released and three landed; on Thursday there were three tagged and three landed.
Lots of mahimahi were caught, proving the warm currents are here. There were two in the 14kg range but unfortunately the Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club contest doesn't have a mahimahi prize section.
At the Bay of Islands there are almost as many blue marlin being caught as there are striped, a most unusual tally - this week, six stripeys and four blues up to Thursday.
In the Far North there have been few of either species.
At Whakatane, the ladies' tournament is under way after days of poor return.
The tuna prevalent earlier - 100 landed in one day in January - have all but disappeared. Rick Pollock reported a 62kg yellowfin landed on Pursuit in 20.5C water at the Ranfurly Bank but expect that warm water to have disappeared after the latest southerly change. "The bottom fishing [hapuku, bluenose and bass] has been between excellent and phenomenal but the early promise for the game fishing that we had in January has just disappeared," Pollock said.
He had a rare encounter with a sailfish when in 200m off Lottin Point on the East Cape this week. Angler Mark Kitteridge hooked and played the fish, which jumped to reveal a huge dorsal fin, before throwing the lure.
The blue water remains just 5km offshore from Waihau Bay at the 100m mark, said lodge owner Slim McCallion, where lots of trailer boats are working the area. Best catch so far is a 424kg blue taken by dairy farmer Russell Mead from Waimana.
The New Plymouth Sportfishing and Underwater Club is enjoying its best season for several years, with the annual Cockies' Tournament under way this week with 650 anglers entered hooking striped marlin north to Port Waikato.
The Muriwai Sportfishing Club had recorded 19 marlin to Thursday, easily beating last year's season total, with most over 120kg and the biggest at 173kg nearing the top of the weight range.
The Hokianga Big Gamefish Club held its marlin contest last weekend with 12 boats recording eight fish on Friday and the seven that ventured out in less pleasant conditions on Sunday catching four. The billfish are in water from 120-160m, around 5km out.
The New Zealand Big Gamefish Council is in talks with industry and Government about a fisheries management plan for highly migratory species, including marlin and tuna. It wants the landing of marlin from commercial boats and sale here banned.
Marlin has started coming on to the local market via New Zealand-registered boats that are travelling outside our EEZ to intercept them while on their way to and from the north Pacific. In 1989 the Government responded to concern at the rapidly decreasing marlin population by banning the tuna long-line fleet which takes them as by-catch from keeping the fish - they had to be returned to the water dead or alive. At the same time, amateur anglers agreed to a tag and release programme with a target of 50 per cent return; that is always exceeded.
"What we're asking now is that the Government and industry honour the intention of that moratorium, which was to ban the sale [of marlin] in New Zealand," said NZBGFC president Richard Baker. "Given the value of it to tourism alone through recreational fishing it just doesn't make sense."
The three parties meet again on Monday to further the management plan. Action applying to international waters requires approval from the Western Pacific Fisheries Commission including numerous island states, with politics a major complication given Asian aid handouts made in return for tuna fishing rights.
