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It feels odd to be writing this report while I’m supervising a planting crew near the Napier-Taupo road – it was -3 degrees this morning and we planted in the snow!! Fortunately, only a few days to go and then back to Russell. My fishing buddies tell me I haven’t been missing much weather wise so that’s some consolation I guess! Before I left we had 2 good weather days that I just had to fish. On the first day we fished the 55-60m zone with little success and then spotted a few gannets doing there thing around the 45m...

Finally!! Last week found a workup with a pod of dolpins and gannets smashing up a baitball of pilchards. With great anticipation we carefully approached and gently drifted towards it. And not a snapper to be found underneath!! Curious because only 15 minutes earlier we had dropped slow jigs and softbaits in a nearby area and got smashed by some good sized snapper. One string puller I lost crushed the softbait jig hook inwards – the power of a snappers jaw? The next week we ventured out into the middle of the bay looking for birds but nothing to be...

The word on the street is that some bluefin tuna were spotted around the bird trench so I couldn’t help myself and geared up for a look. We towed some lures around for a few hours but never spotted anything on the sounder or surface to maintain our interest. I did see a few of the bigger boats out there so maybe they are or were around?? While fishing this morning there were a number of boats calling it and stating they were heading out wide. I hope they get onto them!The snapper fishing has been slow but we decided...

Back from Kona, Hawaii and its cold! The locals tell me I didn’t miss anything while I was away with strong winds and intense rain. Not great fishing weather! Terry has found on the odd day that was fishable that theres a few kingfish and snapper around. He took out coffee cart carl who got two nice kingies on a jig. His first time trying the jigging technique and he was stoked!I’ve only managed one fishing session since my return and we found it tough going, one of those days where the bite times didn’t work out. Changing from slow...

Reports are that plenty of fat pannie sized snapper remain in the shallows and our straylining trips continue to produce a feed each time. I have been following the bite times found on www.fishing.net.nz and 9 out of 10 times these have been spot on! Well worth a look before every fishing trip and may mean the difference between a dissapointing and productive day. While we were out we were visited by an MPI boat with a very friendly crew to check our catch and see if we understood the local fishing rules and restricted areas. We passed with flying...