Bay of Plenty

fishing report

February 4, 2022

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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.

Although the water is warming, and we are seeing manta ray, turtles and PLENTY of baitfish around, the gamefish seem to be a bit scarce and there’s been no sign of skippy or albacore that we’ve noticed.

Mayor Island nearly 23 degrees, tons of mackerel about in huge schools, but only a few solitary kingfish seemed to be keeping them company, and that’s a report back from 15 divers in the water!

The harbour fishing has been very solid, with some good catches of snapper from around the entrance, especially late on the incoming tide, and some absolute banger trevs, one going 66cm.

With the weather a bit dodgy we likely will head for the five mile reef north-east out from the harbour entrance. There’s been some reasonable pannie snapper out here, and a few tarakihi, so that’s always worth a try in about 32 – 35 metres.

Matakana has fished well out past the pipeline usually around 15 – 20 metres. Snapper are foraging all along the beach looking for paddle crabs at the moment, so they can be picked up with baits or soft baits usually.

We usually get good sized tarakihi in 80 metres off the far side of Motiti on the way to Schooner Rocks so it pays to keep an eye on the sounder and plod away at the area.

The Tauranga sport fishing are holding several comps this month, but the weather may have something to say about the dates, so you can keep up to date HERE

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Cheers

Russ