Biting Back in the Bay with Pinky Green

Although overall the WBOP fishing last week and weekend had beautiful conditions with flat seas, weak winds, plenty of sunshine, few currents, water temperatures around 14C, and the fish were out there, yet the fishing was mostly patchy at best, and many times uncomfortably cold.

Russ Hawkins (Fat Boy), mid-week last week on a beautiful day out at the Mayor Knolls puka fishing they succeeded in landing 4 average sized bluenose and 5 gemfish. They also picked up some tarakihi and snapper at the Ten Mile Reef. Saturday they travelled many miles searching for some fish. They searched the Middle Ground and around Motiti and backtrekked to the Ten Mile and round Karewa. According to Russ it was ‘very slow', but the 3 Hawke's Bay anglers aboard were quite happy with their 15 tarakihi tally, saying that that was more than they would have caught at home.

Sunday out at the Mayor Knolls again it was a beautiful calm day and at one stage they had a pod of dolphin playing around the boat, but fishing for the anglers was hard going. They tried 3 different places before they got any fish. Then they landed 3 hapuku – the heaviest around 15kg.

Brett Keller (Manutere) on a good calm day last Thursday was fishing around Motiti Island and picking up a satisfactory amount of tarakihi. Saturday in the same area although it was a bit blowy the tarakihi fishing remained ‘pretty good'.

Garth Le Lievre (Deepstar) early last week was out after hapuku but after a largely unsuccessful trip came to the conclusion that the bulk of hapuku must have moved away or at the least changed their grounds. Mid-week Wednesday-Thursday however they did find a fairly plentiful supply of gemfish and tarakihi and a few snapper on a good calm day. Sunday was a beautiful calm day and they were fishing in the deep (80m) and a shallow trough near Motiti. The fishing although not good was good enough. All the anglers aboard got fish and one got his limit. The catches were largely tarakihi but with the odd snapper. The bottom fishing recently had been quite good, Garth said.

Beach fishing: our regular Papamoa kontiki fisher did not have a good week but on 2 occasions in one or two sets he brought in 3 snapper. Others however did better – one early Friday morning got his snapper limit in one set. There were some good catches with snapper up to 5kg. The best catching times remained the change of light and the best areas ‘way out'.

At Pukehina Beach conditions have been very good and Tuesday one kontki fisher brought in 13 very good snapper and a john dory in 2 sets.

Kayak fishers off Papamoa Beach have been doing it tough with 2 to 4 fish being typical for a few hours or even many hours fishing. The fish were a mixture of snapper, kahawai, and tarakihi. Many fish were too small and had to be returned.

Tauranga Fish & Dive Club McFarlane Trophy, Heaviest Kahawai Harbour Only, Contest, was held on Sunday. Russell Anderson who caught only one fish won the trophy with his 1.87kg kahawai catch. Other prizes went to:

Average Weight, Jaimie Borrell, 1.31kg;

Mystery Weight, Warren Fletcher, 1.355kg;

Heaviest Junior Catch, Te Rina Marsh, 1.34kg.

Heaviest Other Species: Paul Ashford, Fourteen Fish were weighed in.