KEY POINTS:
The year's first marlin have been recorded, women anglers taking early honours, but the gamefish season is off to a slow start bar swarms of small yellowfin.
Houhora angler Lynda Matthews is credited with the first billfish of the 2007-08 fishing season, an undersize striped marlin estimated at 75kg which was tagged and released on December 29 from the Moet.
One striped marlin was tagged and released off Whakatane on December 30. Another caught by Michelle Goodhue weighed in at 95.4kg, the Whakatane Sportfishing Club's first for the season and believed to be the first above the New Zealand clubs limit of 90kg.
Jayne Van Heeckeren on Moana Nui tagged and released an 85kg stripey out from the Bay of Islands on December 30, that club's first of the season. The Mercury Bay club has had several boats report hook-ups but is yet to have a fish brought to the boat.
Yellowfin, however, is another story. Mercury Bay Game Fish Club manager Tony Fox reported tuna schools "the size of rugby fields", with the bulk around 20kg but best landed a 42kg fish to Craig Innes fishing in a 6m runabout and Troy Wheeler's 42.9kg bigeye. The fish are being caught near The Hook, close to the explosives dump and on the 130m pins north and south of The Aldermans.
Biggest yellowfin so far was caught by Ian Howse on Runaway Cash out of Whakatane, 63.2kg. Whakatane Sportsfishing Club manager Kevin McCracken said 57 fish had been weighed so far. There are lots of albacore in the Bay and marlin chasing them, several anglers reporting hook-ups on billfish but none landed. Rick Pollock on charter boat Pursuit reported great fishing off the Motu River, action not seen for some years.
At Whangaroa the most interesting catch has been a 17.5kg mahimahi to Theresa Kenney fishing on Sexy Lady. One marlin has been weighed at 84.8kg.
The Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club had its second undersize marlin of the season, brought in because it had an existing wound on its back, weighed at 70kg. Several yellowfin have been caught each day but most are around 20kg.
Snapper fishing continues apace. The Bay of Islands has provided spectacular fishing for holidaymakers who have clogged the boat ramps and the offshore reef spots but despite the heavy pressure everyone continues to catch school fish in the 2-5kg range. The number of boats over Mita's Foul has topped 100 some days, all catching fish. The Auckland area is the same with the Motuihe and Rangitoto Channels being hit hard. Ledger rigs baited with cubes of pilchard are producing steady catches of 1-4kg fish. Don't cut the cubes too big - make them bite the hook. The bigger snapper are taken early morning and evening, drift-fishing further out with baits or soft plastics.
Off Coromandel Tony Fox reports good catches of snapper straylining around the offshore reefs at dawn and dusk. There are still gurnard and john dory being caught in numbers. The good condition of scallop beds has kept holidaymakers happy.
In the Far North, snapper have been coming on to the beaches in the evening, especially on a rising tide, meaning good catches for surfcasters. Shellfish baits are working best.
Marlin have been sighted off the Manukau bar but none have yet been landed. But big snapper continue to be hooked in numbers from Raglan north to Muriwai, both by boaties who have been able to get to the 40m mark or beyond and by kite fishers taking advantage of the easterly winds. Fresh mullet or kahawai baits are best.
Inside the Manukau, small kahawai are the order of the day, coming in in numbers with the rising tide. Fly-fishers targeting kingfish around the channel markers have had good success on fish mostly in the rat size but up to 15kg. Juvenile snapper are in in plague proportions but there are still gurnard among them. The scallops are abundant and mostly now of legal size at 100mm or more.
