Bay of Plenty

Fishing generally great with fantastic yellowfin tuna action and snapper and bluenose catches, promising a bumper game fish season ahead.

As the water temperature rises, local fishing across harbour and deeper ocean areas is improving, offering diverse catches from snapper to kingfish amid more manageable sea conditions.

Despite unpredictable weather limiting opportunities, fishing near Motiti Island continues to yield nice snapper and tarakihi, with conditions expected to improve as water temperatures rise.

Despite challenging weather conditions, fishos are finding success with notable catches along Papamoa and Matakana Island, while upcoming boat ramp fees warrant question.

Despite cooler weather quieting things down, recent fishing trips have been successful, yielding nice catches from the shallows to deeper waters.

Good Tauranga season rolls on with marlin still about and snapper down the beaches.

The local fishing scene continues to deliver excellent catches, from the surf to offshore, with Matakana Island being a notable hotspot.

The recent weather has been favourable for fishing, with good catches of snapper off the beaches, excellent tarakihi fishing in deeper waters, and sightings of large workups, indicating a promising weekend ahead for anglers.

Excellent harbour fishing, alongside successful outcomes from the Mount Sport Fishing Club's "Blue Water Classic" despite initial rough seas.

Excellent sea conditions, plenty of skipjack sizes, with marlin sightings near Mayor Island. Improved fishing including pannie snapper and terakihi. Anticipating better snapper sizes and continued good fishing through late April.

Fishing in the Tauranga area has been mixed, with calm sea conditions, some tarakihi and golden snapper, and increased activity of marlin and sharks offshore.

Plenty of tarakihi, some good snapper near Motiti Island, and exciting sightings of albacore, bluenose, and yellowfin tuna, alongside the return of bronze whaler sharks in the harbour.

Varying success day-to-day, featuring catches of tarakihi, snapper, and trevally, and an interesting presence of bronze whaler sharks in the harbour.

Russ Hawkins of Fat Boy Charters highlights promising fishing conditions in the BOP area, noting an increase in tarakihi and snapper, and offers recommendations for the upcoming Labour Weekend.

A slow start turns into a good run of tarakihi. Waters temperatures slowly climbing out wide.

Despite the weather recently, there looks to finally be a few windows opening up to get out there again.

It seems every fishing report in recent times starts with commentary about the weather, and at the moment, why not?

Well, it may have been a pretty crook summer, and autumn to boot, but one thing that seems to be the shining light is some damn good snapper fishing. In fact, it’s some of the best snapper fishing I can recall for this time of year in quite a while.

There’s big snapper in the harbour, and some really decent trevally too. Looks like fishing in the Bay is getting off to an early season start this year if the recent catches are anything to go by.

Manta rays, flying fish, and a couple of sunfish all point to the summer season well under way, and gamefish action is just starting to get into gear.

Finally, it’s starting to feel a bit like spring, and when you can get out to sea the fish are mostly playing ball. The kingies are perking up around the western side of Tuhua Mayor Island, and stick bait fans will be getting the gear up and ready to go.

Well needless to say it’s really been a bit of a rubbish few weeks, but that is far from unusual for the middle of winter. In fact, after spending twenty years fishing the region, July and August are always the two lowest months for trip logs.

Winter conditions have limited us to only getting out on the odd occasion now, and there’s not really too much change from things we reported a few weeks ago, other than the tarakihi now seem to have spawned, so that means they are back to being interested in eating and not so worried about making little tarakihis!

We’ve had a reasonable number of days out considering the weather, with some pretty tough going ones mixed in there. At the moment, it’s been hard to pin down any decent tarakihi fishing, although this species is often hard to find one day, and plentiful another.

Snapper fishing has been very good still, by all accounts, and some very nice fish have been caught in the harbour this week, the same favourite spots along the edges of the banks on the harbour entrance around both sides of the tide turn.

Just a quick update from out at sea today. There are some good snapper and tarakihi out in the 80 metre zone at the moment. Good pannie snaps are pretty plentiful out in the middle ground about halfway towards Motiti.

The easterlies and subsequent swell over the past week have made it a bit tough to get out regularly of late. Game fishing continues through for a few months yet, and so far a pretty good season has seen everything from spearfish to blues on deck.

Well I’d like to be reporting more action, but the festival of easterlies has certainly made it pretty hard to get out consistently and give the fishing a good crack over the past weeks. To put it mildly, fishing has been only ok at best, with some good catches of tarakihi and a few snapper doing all the heavy lifting.

Well, it’s really feeling like summer now, with bronze tans and bronze whalers alike. The bronzies have really turned up in the harbour now, ready to happily tax any nice snapper that you might be pulling in if you strike it unlucky, particularly around the edge of the main shipping channel off Pilot Bay. The last couple of trips we have had between one and six decent size sharks around the boat, and it often forces you to move along if you want a chance to get your catch on board in one piece. Obviously using berley is a big dinner bell, so perhaps drifting and soft baiting when the tide allows could be a better option.

After a few beautiful days and some good fishing, its certainly a nice welcome to maybe an early summer this year. It’s not just the days fining up either, water temperature inshore in the Bay this week measured a very moderate 18 degrees, which is warm enough for us to expect seeing a change in the fishing with that being the ideal spawning temperature for snapper.

Well, it’s been a Topsy-Turvey last couple of months, with the Covid restrictions, and some less than friendly spring weather seemingly conspiring to stop any fishing at all from happening. Finally, we seem to be feeling the results of the spring temperatures coming up a bit, and that is being reflected in the fishing once you do finally get out there. The last trip we managed saw a warming water temp of 14 degrees, which is going in the right direction but not yet warm enough to be bringing in game fish, and it was refreshing to have some pretty good results. Just out by A Beacon and then the Karewa Island areas, we picked up some nice 40 cm plus blue cod, john dory, snapper and a few nice terakihi.

We’ve done well recently at the Penguin Shoals, with some really good fishing for trevally, terakihi, pink maomao and snapper. The fishing there has been pretty thick and fast, with good enough hauls to be heading back early and getting the lawns done. Trevally season is here, with big fish and good numbers of them appearing in most of the common fishing areas around the Bay. The great thing about trevs is that you can catch them anywhere, off the sand, the reefs, the harbour and in just about any depth of inshore water. They fight like hell, are amazing to eat as sashimi or smoked, make great bait, and take a variety of terminal gear.

We’ve been out a bit in the beautiful weather, which has been very nice for being on the water, and took advantage of the opportunity to get out deep off the Mayor Knolls. Targeting puka and bass, we fished the Knolls in around 250 metres and ended up with plenty of gemfish, big ones! We managed a nice bass, but no sign of puka and bluenose. The bluenose have spawned, so they may be recovering a bit from that and looking to put back on some condition soon though.

I have not been out too much lately, but there looks to be a good couple of days weather this Sunday and Monday, so I’m sure many will be as keen as I am to get out into the last of the warm weather. The sea temps are still pretty good at 19 degrees, so there is any chance of good gamefish and other action too.

Being able to get out on the water has been challenging at the moment for us, however, not as challenging as this time last year! April is traditionally a great month for fishing in the Bay, and we have had some really good results on most species at this time over previous years. The water is still warm at 20 degrees, and the days are nice and short, meaning you can fish both changes of light without extreme wake up times or big hours at sea. We have caught, or at least hooked, marlin around Astrolabe as late as May, and with good reports of gamefish still coming in, the next few weeks will still be well worth targeting the big pelagic species.

Just an update to last report, as not much has really changed since then. The water is still quite warm at 20 degrees, so gamefishing is still very much on the table. Just last week a friend of ours bagged a 79.8kg yellowfin out of Whitianga, and there are definitely plenty of marlin around, and not necessarily too far out. Kingis are hitting jigs aggressively at the moment, so plenty of fun to be had at your favourite reef. Tarakihi are spawning, so there are some good sized specimens around, but do be aware this is a good time to only take what you need if we are thinking about the future. Snapper and trevs are firing well in the harbour and off Matakana, and Bowentown fishing is still good for snapper too.

Tarakihi fishing has been pretty good in our usual areas. We are still getting some really good sized tarakihi around the Astrolabe and particularly good fish up to 2 kgs out of the middle ground halfway between the Mount and Motiti in around 85 metres. We had a couple of old fellas including a 91 year old on board last week, and the teri’s in 85 metres had him stuffed by 11.00am, lucky there were no kings out that way 😊

We’ve been doing pretty well lately on the good old terakihi. After fishing the middle ground for a bit there seems to be a plague of juvenile snapper there greedily cleaning up the baits, so moving out a bit deeper to around 60 metres is producing some better results.

Fishing in the Bay has been pretty good this summer, with the water really clearing up now and taking on that lovely blue colour that often brings the action. Temps are up over 20 to 21 degrees in patches now, and we are seeing the fish responding accordingly. Out past the Alderman rise there is all sorts of action with yellowfin tuna, manta rays, whales, dolphin and of course marlin are hooking up.

Great terakihi fishing at the moment in our usual favourite places such as Astrolabe, and the 80 metre areas between Motiti and Schooner Rocks. We’ve been out over the last three days catching a good variety of fish, including some decent sized blue cod, snapper and john dory.

Ed note: Just been in Whakatane for a couple of days and it is fishing well, not too far out past the bar now. The school snapper have started to move in nice and close, with some very nice specimens holding in the mussel farms. Strayline rigs seem to work better than droppers for us with good snapper up over 5kgs. Lots of sign across the sand in 20 -25 metre mark, snapper and bait, but you’ll have to deal with quite a few kahawai getting in on the action. Still too warm for the skippy and gamefish at the moment but it’s definitely feeling close.

With spring arriving officially, and daylight saving about to kick in, the snapper fishing has responded with some very good signs of things to come this season. Longlining with a kon-tiki off Papamoa beach this week proved very productive with plenty of good fish landed including one monster that went 25 pounds! Small boat fishermen, kayakers and surf casters can all fish inshore now with good expectations, as the spring pre spawn will start pulling snapper populations back into the shallower areas as they feed up ready for action.

We’ve had to do a lot of running around to catch fish out there at the moment to be fair. The sounder has been running pretty barren, and with folks on boards expecting some results the only option often enough is just to keep looking! Thankfully they are usually there eventually, and we have seen some reasonable snapper and nice terakihi in the 80 metre mark between Motiti and Schooner.

It’s been one of the better southern bluefin tuna seasons off Cape Runaway this year, with some really good barrels ranging from 70 to up around 150 kilos being caught, and more than the odd occasion where multiple hook-ups have been landed. It seems that if you give it a decent effort, you have every chance of getting a fish this year, and they are something quite spectacular. The fish are slowly migrating their way north now, and the season will still have a few weeks in it before the bluefin school out of reach of the trailer boat fleet travelling up the east coast to the top of the north island.

Around about now many of you will be thinking about a trip over to Waihau Bay to chase the southern bluefin tuna annual run. This year has seen some big barrels landed already, with fish up to 100 plus kilos making it on board.

Now is the best time of year for targeting the deepwater species, and we have had some nice gemfish and bluenose come on board lately. Top area naturally, the Mayor Knolls, that can easily be found on any of the popular sonar charts south east of Mayor Island. We’ve been fishing 250 to 300 metres off the ‘hills’, and I’m sure some people must be wondering ‘oh what’s he DOING going round and round’! Well, it’s really important to find a decent fish mark before you go to all the trouble of setting up a drift and its worth investing the time to get set up right to actually hit the mark. Often fish are also well up off the bottom so not only getting the right place is important, but getting the right depth counting your coloured/metred braid is key too.

Well Covid – 19 doesn’t seem to have infected the snapper fishery here in the Bay! It’s been great to get back out on the water and you don’t have to go too far to get a good feed lately either. The harbour has had an unbelievable season and it’s still going strong. Snapper up to five kgs are still being caught and there are also some nice trevally mixed in with the bag. Good fishing is between Rangiwaea and Motuhoa, and around the Te Puna channel area. I’ve been fishing here for fifty years and never known the harbour to fish so well for so long.

Sunday looks to be a pearla of an opportunity to get out fishing, but thankfully we are getting a few settled spells making life good while the last few weeks of summer are still in full swing. The harbour is still fishing very well for nice pan sized snapper, the most popular method still being a long running trace with a 6 – 12 oz ball sinker getting the business down into the current.

You’ve got to love having some decent weather, and variable 5 knots is putting a few smiles on faces at the moment. The Blue Water Classic tournament is on at the moment, and it’s getting some good conditions so no doubt there will be a lot of good fish landed over the next few days. Water temp is only around 20.2 so not super hot, but there seems to be good fish around and it may pay to watch for temp breaks if you are chasing game fish out wider.

All sorts of good things happening with all this warm water we are getting at the moment. One boat out of Whakatane was locked up to an absolute monster tiger shark until it finally broke at the double. Normally reserved for more tropical waters those beasts! Probably just as well as I don’t fancy dealing with 300+kgs of tiger shark at the boat thanks a lot. There’s tons of skipjack and albacore around out towards Mayor and coming in closer on occasion. These fish can be picked up trolling with skippy lures, and the albies make for a brilliant feed.

There’s the good news and the bad news, depending on what you like fishing for. The good news is that north of Mayor the yellowfin bonanza has been a real treat for medium to big game fans. Such an awesome run of this species is most welcome, and some fish have been caught right up to 80kg plus, even though the more common size is around 15 kg. Incredible fish that offer so much value to recreational fisho’s both as a fighting machine and a table fare.

Kingfish have been one of the more consistent species to chase over the last few weeks, generally smaller fish in the 10-13kilogram class are being captured however there have been a few bigger specimens landed as well.

There is plenty of buzz in the Bay of Plenty right about now in regards to the upcoming gamefish season, already there are reports of Marlin being spotted in nice and close to the shore. Other reports getting circulated are of schools of Yellowfin tuna busting up on the surface out from both Mayor and White Island. With Mahi Mahi, short bill spearfish and Yellowfin tuna already being caught in other areas of the country, it surely won’t be too long before the Bay sees some of this action. Here’s hoping for a cracker run of Yellow fin tuna this year.

Springtime in the bay of plenty is when we start to see an influx of life moving into the area, this year is no different with big bait schools of both jack and blue mackerel turning up in good numbers. Word has it the juvenile squid have showed as well at White Island and the offshore reef areas out of Tauranga.