Bay of Islands

fishing report

March 6, 2020

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Hi team.Well, as I sit here looking at the well-deserved rain I’m thinking just how long it’s been. We badly need a lot more as well and that is always an indication that this has been an unusual year for weather, which in turn, can affect the fishing if it changes water temperatures enough. What the future summers hold will remain to be seen

On the fishing side, it’s been very hot and oily calm out there, which makes for some great days at sea. It’s all well and good for a comfortable day on the water, but sometimes finding a good bit of tide and wind going in the same direction is more welcome as it seems to break us out of those quiet patches and get the fish moving.

We’ve been chasing snapper in along the banks and small holes inside the islands, which have been holding a good number of fine snapper, with some nice big ones in along Roberton island in particular, and the channel between Urapukapuka island and Motukiekae Island.

Fishing either a live bait or a big dead jack mackerel has been producing some nice fish including mixed bags of kingfish, snapper and john dory.

Out in the deep, the 45 to 55 metre zone has delivered consistently with good snapper up to 6 kg common enough.

However, the bite has been very soft, and you need a little finesse with both bait and soft baits to make sure you let the fish mouth the hook.

Unfortunately, there has been a commercial long liner working right into harbour limits, so based on our previous experience it’s possibly going to be a lot harder to find fish later this month.

On the kingfish side, there are good numbers on all the reefs and chasing the bait schools but as per usual the tax man is in full swing, so getting a fish back in one piece is the challenge there.

The usual practice of trying to land your fish quickly and just moving if the sharks turn up is the only thing you can do.

There is plenty of good live bait available over towards Kemp Passage and out wide some good numbers of gamefish are being caught with some nice size tuna in there as well.

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Tight lines

Regards Darren

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PS: Feel free to ring me if you are out on the water and having a hard day 😉😉🎣

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