The season continues to be pretty damn good to most of us with the odd Marlin still being either landed or tagged and released and it seems more predominant up towards the Alderman Rise areas but the water temp is still around 18.5 degrees locally so anything could happen.

I have observed some really large Mako sharks terrorising our fish and gear from ten miles out and being very fast as is the norm for these beautiful fish to chase any fish right to the surface.

Snapper fishing is still really good down towards the Papamoa areas  and even in close at four meters close to shore. Always be aware of the swell conditions when doing this.

The fish have been a really nice size around 3kgs with the odd larger ones in the mix.

The harbour entrance on that change of tide is still going well and a lot of boats are fishing outside the entrance on the edge of the shipping approaches or in the actual channel itself. (Be aware of shipping movements of course, these movements are usually advised on the Coastguard on channel 1.)

There are large numbers of small skipjack from four miles out from the entrance and further out towards the Penguin Shoals scattered over a wide area.

Our good old faithful tarakihi are still around but as mentioned in previous reports seem to be in the  60 to 80 meter plus depths.

It has been disappointing in the past few years that the “Middle Ground” between Omanu and Motiti Island that the tarakihi just seemed to have gone. This area used to be great and always produced at least a small feed, what has happened I honestly do not know.

The deepwater stuff like bluenose ,hapuku and bass I have personally heard of any results but they should be there soon for sure as they supposed to move in over the winter months and we just need those frosty mornings for that calm day out.

Interesting to see in the local paper about the MPA (Marine Protected Areas) that 23 vessels were caught fishing in these areas by the regional council patrols over the summer period.

It is of course not the fault of the council as they have no option but to act.

What really annoys me is the futility of this 63.5 kilometres of reef areas that only effects recreational fishers and commercial cray guys and was closed without any proper science or consultation with any user groups/commercial fishers.  I guarantee will in no way make any noticeable increase in the fish populations at all because there  is to my knowledge of fishing and diving in these locations for over fifty years no real pressure with log book entries for the past 20 plus years covering over two thousand plus trips that even when we could fish these areas on most days there were no other vessels there at all or perhaps one or two on the odd occasion .

The weather prevents anyone going there on many days of the year as well.

Right off the soapbox and time for a blood pressure pill !!

Cheers

Russ Hawkins

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