Bay of Plenty

fishing report

May 22, 2020

Supplied by

Note: If map is showing it is created by LINZ / New Zealand Hydrographic Authority and made available by Creative Commons 3.0. Maps should not be used for navigation

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.

Tarakihi fishing has been good at Astrolabe, but be prepared to move around a bit to find the better sized fish.

Motiti also fishing well with some good mates easily catching their limit within a couple of hours last week.

Mayor is also fishing well around all the usual reef structures, and we expect the knolls will turn up a few bluenose for us this week once we get out there. I’ll let you know how we get on next time around.

Obviously the big talk in the Bay, that will have huge effect on the region’s fishing economy, is the proposed, and likely closure of the Motiti reef areas. Disturbingly, this is a closure proposed by the regional council and not MPI etc, so will this set a possibly worrying precedent for other councils around the country to propose similar?

If the lockout does happen, Mayor and the few other reef structures in the Bay will be seeing a lot more angling pressure over the next ten years as this will be one of the few remaining areas for recreational and sport fishermen to go.

If you want to know more detail about the lockout, or have your say, there is a dedicated group that can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/stopthelockoutNZ/posts/?ref=page_internal

This page has been provided to give all anglers and divers the opportunity to keep up to date with the implementation of the fishing lockout at Motiti.

The lockout applies to the area on the attached map, outlined by a green line.

You are invited to join this group and are encouraged to have your say.

IF THIS IS OF ANY CONCERN TO YOU, PLEASE SHARE THIS POST TO ALL ANGLERS YOU KNOW AND HAVE YOUR SAY HERE.

Sign the Petition here: https://www.change.org/stopthelockoutnz

Included in this area, are Astrolabe Reef, Schooner, Plate Island, Okaparu Reefs and Brewis Shoals. This is over half of the reef structure that recreational anglers can easily access from Tauranga and Maketu. It represents some of the most productive fishing structure safely accessed by local recreational anglers.

Cheers

Russ