Biting Back in the Bay with Pinky Green

Last week there was a recovery from the marked fish drop off the week before and the ‘no fish' in most of the inshore, middle area, and local fishers' spots.

However last week, put off by the ‘no fish' stories of a fortnight ago, there was a considerable drop off in the number of anglers going fishing. But most of those who gave it a go had some success.

The recovery in Tauranga Harbour fishing became apparent when the angler fishing the Otumoetai Channel one day last week landed seven good sized snapper.

Off the ocean beaches from Papamoa to Matata surfcasters and longliners were bringing in sufficient snapper and the odd gurnard.

Saturday our veteran kontiki operator brought in his limit of good snapper up to 3kg and a few gurnard in two sets off Papamoa Beach.

The Western Bay Surfcasting Club April Club Fish contest was at Papamoa East on Saturday. Five snapper and one gurnard were weighed in. The heaviest fish was a 1.94kg snapper weighed in by Grant Dodunski.

In the Middle Areas it was largely snapper, but also some tarakihi and gurnard. Out wide there were still good catches of tarakihi, snapper, bluenose, gemfish, and kingfish.

Brett Keller (Manutere): out last weekend both days was fishing around Motiti and getting a good variety of fish although the main group remained snapper, red snapper,and tarakihi.

Garth Le Lievre (Deepstar): out at Mayor during the weekend found the tarakihi still good, but the bluenose not so abundant.