BOI Fishing Report - 17Sep26 - Big Bluefin Tuna and Big Snapper

The last fortnight has seen more fishable days than for some time. At the start of the period I was out around the 65m mark to gather a feed for the team’s usual Wednesday night dinner. I was just saying that we should have been out at the Brett looking for Bluefin when a call came over the radio that someone had landed one! Shortly afterwards I was contacted for the weigh. As we had already caught enough with a mixed bag of snapper, tarakihi, gurnad and a fairly large grand-daddy hapuka and were about to head in, I accepted the assignment. The Pacific Bluefin Tuna weighed 177.3kgs and was caught by Dean Howard from his Alloy boat Sharpey.

The following Monday we set off early for our own Bluefin mission. Nothing went to plan as catching some blue koheru for livebait was to say the least, frustrating. It wasn’t until 10am that a couple of smaller kohi’s were at last secured and deployed. There wasn’t a great deal of bird and bait sign and the other 20 or so boats out there didn’t look like anything was happening. Around Wairere rock we spotted some snapper sign on the drift and Mitch deployed a slow jig and landed a nice 15lb snapper that pulled a fair bit of string!

I understand that one bluefin was caught that day but for us, and everyone else, it was very quiet. We stopped on the way back in at around 60m and Pete caught a nice sized Porae as well as a couple more pannie sized snapper. 
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We have reduced our opening days from the 1st May through to the 1st September. Closed Mon, Tues and Thurs, Open Weds, Fri, Sat from 9am to 4.00pm, but close on Sundays at 3pm. And if you want more intel then just give me a call.