Fishing Report RSS

Kaide Parish with his fish of a lifetime! At the start of this report period we ventured out into the Bay to be greeted by bait balls and gannets! The fishing was great with some nice pannies falling to the “lazy” softbaits drifting out the back and a few more to slow jigs. The snapper are in great condition and already have roe which indicates an early spawn. However yesterday we tried again and struggled to find the fish or at least get a bite! Lots of bait and sign on the sounder and we did pick a nice pannie...

Lilia, visiting from France, happy with her first snapper! Strayling has been producing the goods although the largest fish we have caught most days are on an unattended softbait drifting way out the back. We’ve been fishing around 10-15m and most days we catch enough for a feed although we are plagued by high numbers of undersized fish. Fortunately using the non-offset circle hooks means most are quickly and safely released. Locals Ryan and Bryon have been doing well up the Waikare inlet fishing from the shore and report at the change of tide they have landed some nice fish...

On Fire! The Bay of Islands is simply on fire as the school fish have arrived and the weather has been great! Happy to report that every time we’ve been out, some great fish have been caught. The bite times from fishing.net.nz have been spot on, we fished for 3 hours with little to show for it and them boom, at the predicted time all hell broke loose! Interestingly, I haven’t come across a single work up in the last 2 weeks, but there this plenty of bait showing on the sounder. Find the bait sign, and drifting through it...

Mitch (aka Uncle) with a great fish caught the same day we were out! Finally! Its on! Dolphins, gannets, terns, seals and even a whale… simply chaos last Tuesday out in the middle of the Bay near the 50m mark. Myself and Pete were lucky enough to find this insane workup and everything we tried produced good pan sized fish. A softbait produced the biggest fish of the day but the slow jigs accounted for the most. We had our limit in under 2 hours and went home to share the bounty with friends and neighbours. The same day young...

Bryon with a cracker Snapper! Firstly, my apologies for missing the last fishing report. I was sunning myself in Rarotonga and Aitutaki where I managed to squeeze in a fish and was rewarded with a coronation trout and small mahimahi that were enjoyed at the resort restaurant that night. Upon my return, I have been met with “You should’ve been here, the conditions and the fishing have been awesome!” Local kayak fishers Ryan and Bryon have been doing great. Bryon particularly, who, while slow-jigging in around 50m of water, pulled up an 80cm snapper – followed by an 83cm one!...