KEY POINTS:
Three blokes who had never fished from a boat before had the day of their lives on a deepwater trip out of Paihia this week, moving their personal best catches out from about 2kg to about 25kg.
And they didn't have to lie to ring work to make excuses for a day off. Boss Lee Wynyard, who part-owns the Kebabs on Queen food shops, shouted them.
Amosa Terekai, Tangi Vano and Roy Featautau had hurled a line off a beach occasionally and hooked the odd kahawai. On Tuesday they brought in red snapper, john dory and some bigger bruisers.
They were in 100m of water off the Hole in the Rock, using slimy and jack mackerel live baits. Skipper "Captain Bucko" was still explaining how to handle the big overhead rigs and to expect bites as soon as they got to the bottom when the first rod doubled over and the first hapuku was hooked.
It was one of those days anglers live for and on subsequent drifts they took five more 'puku up to 25kg then turned their attention to kingfish and enjoyed some action with 15kg.
As a measure of contrast, I was fishing off Port Jackson on the tip of the Coromandel at the same time and catching under-size blue cod and red moki.
Out with Geoff Thomas to film testing of soft plastics, three snapper of about 7kg, 5kg and 4kg were landed by plastics experts, all in a short period.
Subsequent drifts produced blue cod of which there appear to be increasing numbers, though most shorter than the 30cm limit.
Last weekend's cold southerly blow turned the fish off big-time, anglers finding it hard to encourage anything to bite even as the weather improved on Monday and Tuesday this week. There's no doubt the southeasterly wind puts the fish off their feed.
The work-ups that were a daily event in the outer Hauraki Gulf are all but over, the dolphins and whales still around early this week but feeding widespread. As soon as you move towards the splash of kahawai they will go down. It's harder to find the snapper on the bottom.
The Bay of Islands Swordfish Club's 38th annual 6kg contest over four days last week attracted some of the best fishers from Australia and New Zealand, with local Matthew Smith taking top honours for the 37.8kg kingie caught early on and reported in last week's column. A world record claim is in.
Weighmaster Dave Cadell said 23 teams entered, landing 104 kingfish and tagging many more.
The annual Gurnard Guru contest scheduled for tomorrow on the Manukau Harbour is again a sellout but the weather doesn't look good. It's either on or off tomorrow - it won't be postponed. Prizes will be decided by ticket draw if it is cancelled.
Recreational fishing groups have supported Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton's declaration that he will look at raising the "deemed value" paid per kilogram for fish taken over and above quota limits, but say it will not be enough to stop commercial over-fishing.
For 12 of 15 years the industry has exceeded its total allowable catch on the west coast of the North Island, last season by 134 tonnes. Recreational fishers believe the most effective penalty would be to deduct each year's over-catch from the following year's quota.
"This will encourage all commercial fishers to work together to ensure their long-term interests. Best of all, it would allow fisheries such as the west coast snapper stock to rebuild to healthy levels," said Richard Baker, vice-president of the Big Game Fishing Council. "We are concerned that higher deemed values alone will lead to commercial boats illegally dumping fish, as they avoid the penalty costs," Baker said.
Bottom line: the deemed value system still allows over-fishing.
