Fishing – On the Ocean – Tuna run a welcome surprise

This late December/ early January period will be remembered by many anglers for two things – the great run of yellowfin tuna off the back of the Hen and Chicks Islands, and the strong westerly offshore winds that kept many boats at home, and made for mainly unpleasant conditions for those who did venture out wide.

The beauty of the yellowfin run, which has had some striped marlin captures in the mix, was its proximity to the main Bream Bay launching points – Whangarei and Mangawhai harbours. Many anglers who might ordinarily never give gamefishing a shot were putting tuna on the deck, which had them swiftly scouring the internet for the best tuna steak marinades and Hawaiian ahi (tuna) poke recipes.

One family I spoke with at the Mangawhai ramp in mid-January had headed out to chase a few snapper for their dinner but came home with a much more valuable prize – a couple of modest (12kg) yellowfin.

They saw the birds diving about two miles off the back of the Chicks and headed in their direction. They were greeted with a full-on workup involving gannets, shearwaters, a whale, dolphins, and a school of yellowfin busting up in front of them.

The snapper were quickly forgotten and a couple of kingfish rods set up with Rapalas were trolled around the action, the result being everyone on board catching a yellowfin. Eight in all were landed with two being kept. What a fantastic holiday memory and good on them for showing some restraint in keeping just enough tuna to share with family and friends.

Like any fish, tuna need to be cared for from the time they hit the deck. That means firstly iki-spiking them to kill them humanely and quickly. If you don’t want to weight them, then gut and gill the fish, packing the cavities with ice before placing them in either a large bin or a ‘body bag’ and more ice. The aim is to bring the temperature of the fish down as quickly as possible. Tuna generate a lot of internal heat during a fight so the quicker you can get them on ice the better.

Getting back to the snapper fishing, this has been tough over the last month with the better fish tending to be found out deeper – 50 metres plus.

Ice should be an essential part of your trip ‘must-haves.’ We work on one 5kg bag of salt ice per angler, plus one for the boat. If you are going to make the effort to go fishing, you may as well enjoy any catch to the maximum by looking after it.

The Mangawhai Boating and Fishing Club has been hosting the Summer Slam over January with kingfish, kahawai, snapper and trevally the target species. Snapper is the target species for February with a mystery weight event for members.

Check it out on the club’s website www.mangawhaiboatingfishing.co.nz