Finally back on deck and fishing, and as we all know, every day can be very different. Today, we fished in glassy calm conditions with only a slight swell, but the fishing was surprisingly slow, yielding a modest catch of trevally and a few small snapper. This was in stark contrast to the previous day, when another charter boat in virtually the same area had a successful hour with plenty of fish.

The tarakihi fishing has been hit or miss in the same areas, but we've consistently returned with a nice mix of mainly tarakihi, along with snapper, trevally, and golden snapper. A recent trial run further out by another vessel in search of Albacore yielded few fish, but as we've seen, this could change any day. Last Friday, I noted varying water temperatures over a 15-mile distance, with a low of 15.6 degrees and a high of 19 degrees northeast of the harbour entrance, indicating that things might start happening soon, especially out wide where the water is beginning to get that blue look.

Harbour fishing has been inconsistent, with some nice snapper catches but many small ones, and the bonus of some really nice trevally on the inner harbour banks. Unfortunately, I haven't received any reports on deep water fishing (Bluenose, Hapuku, etc.), and the southeast winds may not have been helpful.

In the last three trips, I've noticed that the bronze whaler sharks are back in the harbour, sighting 5 on Friday and 7 the next day in the same area. We managed to tag two from the boat with a tag pole without actually hooking the sharks, much to the delight of our clients.

That's it for this week. Enjoy, as the forecast looks pretty good for the next few days.

Russ HawkinsFat Boy Charters Ltd (Follow us on Facebook to see that Bronzie action)