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The striped marlin catch increased dramatically over the past week, adding weight to the theory that the season is yet to peak as the fish are still south.
The warmer than usual waters appear to have encouraged the big ocean-going predators to stick around feeding in waters down to 40 degrees south, with massive schools of albacore and skipjack tuna keeping them there.
The New Plymouth Sportfishing and Underwater Club is on track for its best season. Big fish continue to be brought in or tagged in numbers off Waihau Bay. All of which suggests there are large numbers of the pelagics yet to cruise back up past the northern east coast, where the returns so far have been unusual and low in the case of stripeys.
There are also huge numbers of mahimahi off both coasts. "We haven't had a mahimahi recorded here since 1987," said NPSU club president Mike Steel. Several were landed during their one-base at the weekend. There were also shortbilled spearfish, never officially reported before, and several stripeys each day over the three days. The club has 60 so far and is running around the catch rate of its best season, 288 fish in 1999.
Muriwai club member Mike Steel left the beach there to compete in a tournament off Ahipara, nailing six marlin on the way. "It's incredible off the west coast at the moment, it's the stuff dreams are made of," he said.
"From Muriwai to Baylys Beach there are marlin everywhere."
One American tuna boat, the Suza, fishing off the west coast, hauled 80 tonne of skipjack in one set.
The game fishing has been good from the Bay of Plenty to East Cape but not so hot in the Far North. Off Tutukaka, the Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers weekend contest attracted 97 boats but around just six billfish a day.
It is much better at the Three Kings where Guy and Eryn Jacobsen targeted and nailed world records for light-line fishing. Eryn took three and a half hours to land a 94kg striped marlin on 4kg line, for which a world record claim has been made. Days later, husband Guy had to quickly deal with a bigger fish on 1kg line, claiming a world record for a 105kg striped marlin.
Fishing at the King Bank off the Three Kings Islands on family boat Hookin' Bull with charter operator John Batterton as skipper, Eryn broke the New Zealand record on Wednesday last week with a fish of 82.4kg on 4kg and lost a second potential claim when another marlin hit the line while she was hooked up. Then she landed the world record on Thursday.
A hammerhead shark circled as the fight continued. The fish went deep several times. Globs of jellyfish and algae clagged the line, all making the team aboard very nervous.
"Light tackle big game fishing is so amazing and gets the adrenalin pumping," Eryn said. "it is my most favourite sport. I love being out to sea with all the creatures. I love the Three Kings to fish," she said."
"It isn't for the faint-hearted," she said. "But then, when you hook up on one of these amazing fish knowing they weigh so much more that your own body weight and playing them with such light line you might as well call it cotton, it is all just so, so worth it. I am stoked and feel like I have won lotto."
She does around 10 days fishing a year, obviously in the right places with good technique and good crew - she has four world records over the past five years.
Guy's claim is his second, after a 173kg blue on 8kg.
Snapper action remains hot. You do not have to travel far as good fish are in close, as I've found both off Russell Point in the Bay of Islands and Cheltenham Beach on Auckland's North Shore in recent days.
Bite can be light for size of the fish. Lightly-weighted flasher rigs used like a strayline, run slowly out the back through a berley trail, work very well. Cut baits are better than whole.
In very shallow water, ground bait and berley can work a treat, as John Moran proved while fishing reefs near Maraetai. In just one metre, Moran picked up a dozen fish around 3kg. "You need light line, I use 7 pound braid and 12 pound fluorocarbon trace," he said. He straylined big squid cut in half, on a two-hook rig.
"Once your ground bait and berley run out you can forget it, they go straight off the bite."
There are plentiful kingfish to 20kg in the mid-Gulf. Live baits are far more effective than trolling.
On the Manukau, snapper to 2kg are in numbers, feeding on the channel banks then the flats as the tide rises. Big snapper have been the order off the coast, with the continued easterly winds and small swell allowing locals a snapper bonanza. The bigger fish are from 35m out, as are gurnard to 2kg and huge kahawai.
Light line is even more imperative on the Manukau and Kaipara Harbours than it is elsewhere, probably because of the huge current flows. Moran has a simple demonstration. Drop a 15kg monofilament line with good sinker to the bottom, drop a 7pound braid line next to it.
"You can feel the 15kg line hum. Fish ain't stupid," he said.
