Fishing – Plenty to fish

The bluefin tuna annual run has finished and the average size of these fish has been somewhat larger than previous years. Bluefin have been landed for the first time in years from Waihi Bay, with boats fishing past Mayor Island around the 1000m mark.

We also had a few local bravehearts attempting to chase them when we had a four day window in the weather. Great Barrier, however, did not produce, and they came back empty handed.

There have been some huge workups around Little Barrier and large schools of small pilchards have been on the menu. There have been many boats out there chasing kingfish, kahawai and snapper. These workups have been active for some weeks now in the same area.

Snapper chasers should be getting excited as the annual spawning season, which kicks off around October/November each year, is soon to arrive.

These fish gather in large schools over this period and are always hungry to guzzle down any bait that is presented to them. Depths vary from 30m to 50m depending on the area and depth you prefer fishing at. Please remember to try and put back the larger fish, especially the females carrying roe.

Anthony Roberts, Tackle & Outdoors
tecnisportnz@gmail.com