nz fisher issue 9
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www.nzfisher.co.nz 1
ISSUE 9 June 2011
// Broadbill season fires up in the chill of winter
Kawau by Kayak//
// The Prowler 4.3 tested
Monster Snapper at NZLBG Nationals
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2 www.nzfisher.co.nz
THE RUM THAT INVENTED RUM
www.mountgayrum.com Enjoy the adventure, drink responsibly
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Pg 6
12
20
SPORTFISHING
6 The NZ Landbased
Game Nationals
GAMEFISHING
12 Broadbill Swordfish:
Gladiators of the Sea
KAYAKFISHING
16 Testing the Ocean Kayak
Prowler 4.3
20 Kawau by Kayak
22 Fishing Video of the Month
THE CLUBHOUSE
24 Feilding Surfcasting Club
26 Regional ReportsPg 24
CONTENTS
4 www.nzfisher.co.nz
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This is a GREEN MAG, created and distrib-uted without the use of paper so it's envi-ronmentally friendly. Please think before
you print. Thank you!
Its wInter, but no one seems to
have told Mother Nature. Warm waters
at about 17 degrees and Northland is
still producing Striped Marlin, (albeit
few and far between) very late in
the season. We even had skippies at
Rawhiti on the 10th of June – crazy!
This unseasonably warm water may
not be a bad thing for traditional
game fishing but it is nothing short of
sensational for the broadbill swordfish
season. Admittedly more boats than
ever are out chasing them, but the
returns have been nothing short of
exceptional. One boat landed two in a
night and hooked another five.
Primetime Skipper John Gregory has
been like a Broadbill magnet with
at least 5 under his belt in the first
two weeks of June. It used to be a
remarkable catch when a game club
weighed one swordfish a season.
Now weigh masters across the North
Island sleep with their cell phones
on, expecting the call to come weigh
another swordfish almost nightly.
Check this out for an awesome story
of two young chaps in a trailer boat
chasing swords off Northlands east
coast. Broadbill are a species that has
had a bit of a torrid time in the last
few years, but since being bought
into the Quota Management System
(QMS) in 2009 they appear to be on
something of a rebound; that makes it
a success in my mind.
Sadly the QMS isn’t always titled
in our favour and based on what
the Minister of Fisheries has been
up to, we should be more than a
bit concerned about keeping the
successes we’ve had rebuilding our
stocks to the levels we’re at now.
I don’t generally agree with taking your
limit and certainly can’t recommend
it, but have to wonder about the logic
of releasing fish just for the Minister
to give them away to the commercial
harvesters! We’ve worked hard to
educate fishers about looking after
our stocks, not abusing them and how
to safely release fish just to hear the
Minister (who honestly isn’t a fisher
despite his claims to be one) say there’s
money in it, so let’s sell ‘em all!
ABOUT /
Short and sharp, NZ Fisher is
a free e-magazine delivering
thought provoking and en-
lightening articles, and indus-
try news and information to
forward-thinking fisher people.
EDITOR / Derrick Paull
ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson
GROUP EDITOR / Trudi Caffell
CONTENT ENQUIRIES /
Phone Derrick on 021 629 327
or email
derrickp@NZ Fisher.co.nz
ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES /
Phone Richard on 09 522 7257
or email
ADDRESS / NZ Fisher,
C/- Espire Media, PO Box 137162,
Parnell, Auckland 1151, NZ
WEBSITE / www.NZ Fisher.co.nz
//From the
EDITOR
Happy Fishing!
Derrick
Cover Image: Saul Harman with 11.26kg Northland snapper
6 www.nzfisher.co.nz
The NZ Landbased Game Nationals story & Photos by saul Harman
sportFISHING
A winners tale
Ben’s hooked up!
www.nzfisher.co.nz 7
It’s been a goal of mine to land a
25kg plus landbased kingfish for more
than 5 years now. It’s my bogie fish.
I’ve fished the Coromandel Peninsula
more times than I care to remember,
I’ve fished Lottin Point, the Cavalli’s
and I’ve had a crack at Great Barrier
Island but I’ve never fished the Far
North. So when I read that that the
NZLBGC National’s competition in
May was to be based out of Waitiki
Landing in the Far North I thought this
is my perfect opportunity.
With a green light on the home front
we pulled out of Ben’s driveway in
Onehunga at 5am with 300ltrs of
IceyTek chilli-bins filled to the brim
with bait, burley, food, beer and ice
and heading the back of my mind, a
voice was saying that this was it – in a
few days from now the fish I had been
chasing for 5 years would be mine.
A good run saw us pulling up at
Waitiki Landing campground around
midday. The talk around the kitchen
table that night was of the big swell
from the storms earlier that week
dropping so when we woke at
6am the next morning to a virtually
still morning, there was only one
thought on our mind – crossing the
Parengarenga bar and getting into
some serious fish!
Having only ever embarked on a
couple of very smooth bar crossings in
much larger boats, as we approached
the bar in the 349 Stabi I suddenly
realised my good fortune – I was
soaking wet in togs with no undies!
To cut a long story short, full faith was
placed in our skipper as Ben expertly
navigated the 2m breakers crashing
all around us and put us safely on the
other side of what I would have called
for an impossible bar. It had been
white knuckle stuff but all of a sudden
we were planing on an open smooth
deep blue sea.
As we made our way north the
realisation of how remote, wild and
untouched this coastline really is
began to creep in. The awestruck
feeling created by the image of
towering cliffs plummeting down to
kelp covered ledges awash with white
water and ripping current lines soon
changed to one of excitement and
anticipation. The whole coastline
screamed fish and my pulse was
starting to quicken.
After a fair old hike we finally found
ourselves on a stretch of coastline that
looked to have a one or two ledges
that may be fishable. Unfortunately
with 150 ponies on the back, team
The NZ Landbased Game Nationals
sportFISHING
Planing on the other side of the bar
8 www.nzfisher.co.nz
sportFISHING
Demolition had put the hammer down
after we appeared out the other side
of the bar and beaten us to it. They
were already unloaded and tying off
their bungee when we arrived.
Thankfully though she was a big bit of
coast and we were able to find a nice
fishable ledge far enough away to be
called our own but not too far to be
hammered by the swell.
After a fairly intense 20 minutes of
setting the pulley ropes and unloading
the gear we were on our ledge and
the first burley was in the water. By
the time we had set up our livie rigs
and baited the first hook on lighter
gear there were stacks of kahawai in
the burley. With two livies swimming
under balloons within half an hour of
arriving we settled in to soaking some
snapper baits.
The first few hours on the rocks were
pretty slow. There was plenty of action
in the burley with kahawai, maomao,
and rat kings being present pretty
much all the time. A few moray and
even the occasional snapper would
come up to have a nibble out of the
burley bag but it wasn’t until just
before midday that the first decent
kings turned up and started harassing
Mark’s livebait. His livie was set a fair
distance out but even from where
we were standing you could tell they
were big fish, possibly the fish I had
come here for! There were maybe two
or three fish all rolling and mauling
Mark’s kahawai, any one of them
easily big enough to swallow it, but it
seemed these fish were just bullies out
for kicks with no particular interest in
eating.
Ben cast out a popper and had one of
these fish give good chase, giving off
a nice bow wave and almost nosing
Mark 6.5 kg
Demolition tying off
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sportFISHING
the popper but we just couldn’t
seem to get a strike out of them.
The frustration continued for a good
5 minutes until the kings got bored
and decided to move on. The only
attention any of our livies got for the
rest of the day was a big ocean sea
turtle! Swimming with its head out
of the water it seemed to be trying
to eat my balloon. I never knew they
even existed in our waters, let alone
hung around the rocks and enjoyed
playing games with balloons! Just
a testament to how warm our
waters really are becoming – even
at the end of May. I’m certain it
won’t be long before somebody is
going to appear on the front of the
Herald next to New Zealand’s first
landbased CaugHt marlin.
Concentrating on snapper fishing
now, we had a steady stream of 2-3kg
fish joining us on the rocks. Whole
pillies were a waste of time and even
the bigger slabs of kahawai and baby
blues were getting nailed by these
pannie sized fish. I could feel a good
bite starting to form.
It was at this point that I noticed Ben
rigging up a nice big chunky section of
kahawai – good idea I thought, these
“small” 3kg fish would have a hard
time swallowing one of these baits.
So I followed suit and lobbed out a
similar bait over the sandy bottom
between a couple of patches of kelpie
foul and sat back to wait for Mr Big.
After waiting a little longer than
I had hoped I decided on a bit of
excitement and so brought my bait
up off the bottom in an attempt to
hook into a slightly larger king of
about 12kg’s that had been enjoying
a free lunch in our burley trail. I waited
until he disappeared in the general
direction of my bait and gave a couple
of quick cranks of the handle, dropped
it into free spool and BANG he picked
it up and took off. I locked up pretty
quickly and enjoyed a nice long run
before dropping the fish. Damn, well
that will be him gone I thought.
This time I removed the Walleye from
the back of the bait and hooked it
through the gut cavity of the big
section and cast out again – same
bat time, same bat channel. Again, I
didn’t have to wait long before the
bait was picked up half way down the
water column and the fish steamed
7.5ish kg & 11.26 kg
10 www.nzfisher.co.nz
sportFISHING
off with it. This time when I struck, I
struck hard and held it there. The rod
doubled over and line peeled from
the spool. I gave it another hard
strike to be sure this time and settled
into a nice scrap on the 15kg gear.
The fish made a couple of heavy runs
toward the foul and thinking it to be
a king of around the 10-12kg mark I
was fairly flippant with how I treated
it, thumbing the drag and giving it
death. It wasn’t until Ben calls out
“nice snapper bro” that I suddenly
started to take things seriously. I
looked down and sure enough there
was the big red side of possibly the
largest snapper I had hooked up to
and I had been treating it like “a bit
of fun” – well I guess at the end of
the day a bit of fun is what’s all about
right?.... WRONG!!
“Grab the f*****g net bro – hurry up,
hurry up – get under it bro – s**t –
f***** get it in the net man – net it,
net it - YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!! “
As Mark climbed back up the ledge
the size of this fish became apparent
and we knew we had a goody. After
some high fiving, man grunts and
apologies for my colourful directions
to Mark while netting, the fish was
iki’ed and weighed.
By Ben’s Berkley digital scales, this
fish went somewhere between 11.0
and 12.0kg on the rocks – it later
pulled 11.26kg at the weigh-in on
calibrated scales. This was by far my
biggest snapper, blitzing my previous
PB by more than 2kg!
The next few hours were some
of the best snapper fishing I have
ever experienced. We all landed a
succession of fish in the 3-5kg range,
most of which went back. Mark
landed a model around the 6.5kg
mark and I landed another that that
went around 7.5kg.
As the snapper bite started to
slow we began focusing on the
trevs that had become more and
more prolific in the burley. We all
managed to sight fish a trevally
each around the 3kg mark but the
bigger ones seemed to elude us,
with kahawai and snapper often
shooting up out of the depths and
scarfing our pillie heads before we
had a chance to react!
The confidence of having a leading
fish was quickly zapped out of me
when we got back to Waitiki Landing
and the guys in the cabin next to
us had a fish in excess of 10kg in
their bin along with a number of
other impressive lumpheads. From
memory at least one other fish was
weighed in that night over the 20lb
mark and a heap of others around
the 7 and 8kg mark. All these massive
fish and from only 28 anglers fishing
the comp!
Strangely, only one king was
weighed in (somewhere just over
18 kilo’s). Most of the other guys
had only seen rats all day. The nasty
weather earlier in the week had
obviously made for great snapper
fishing but the kings didn’t seem to
appreciate the dirty water.
That night the drinks were flowing
and so were the yarns. This was only
my second fishing comp and my first
multi-day comp so it was great to be
able to sit up all night talking about
fishing and not once feel like having
to change the subject!
Saul Harman
...Part two next montH.
Ledge 2
Livies Day 2
Mark - 8.04 kg
www.nzfisher.co.nz 11
“If it works for the NZ Army, it’ll work for you!”
As used by the NZ Defence Force!
Ask for the Active Duty sun and bug skin defence range at selected pharmacies and retailers throughout New Zealand or order online at www.skinshield.co.nz
12 www.nzfisher.co.nz
Broadbill Swordfish: Gladiators of the Sea
gameFISHING
story by Kurt bennetto
Photos by tom gray
www.nzfisher.co.nz 13
...for once in a blue moon the weather was right so we headed out in pursuit for the gladiator of the sea.
gameFISHING
In aPrIl I wrote about the marlin
season coming to a close but also
mentioned there was still a chance
to get out and drift for a Broadbill
Sword Fish. Well, for once in a blue
moon the weather was right so we
headed out in pursuit for the gladiator
of the sea.
Any game fisherman will tell you
that catching a Broadbill sword fish
is a once in a life time fish. These
fish are labeled the ‘gladiator of
the sea’ for one reason only, they
fight like no other. Anglers have
played these fish for in excesses
of 10 hours and have lost them
due to their amazing strength.
The anticipation was huge and the
crew was buzzing as we geared
the boat up for what we were
anticipating was to be an epic night.
We set the 80 wide reels to 20 kg of
drag at strike and we threw the big
squids in the fish bin.
We headed north to fish a seamount
of Northland’s East Coast, where the
action had previously been. As we
headed out we got in contact with a
friend of mine who was fishing on his
boat in the same area. It was good to
know there was another boat out there
as it can be a very long night miles out
to sea by yourself in a trailer boat!
14 www.nzfisher.co.nz
As the sun set the night was soon
upon us, we attached the light
sticks to the leaders as we deployed
one bait to 60 metres deep on a
downrigger and we set the second
bait on the surface. The wait began…
We didn’t have to wait long before
I had a call from my mate who was
absolutely ecstatic to say the least!
It was only 8pm and he already had
a sword on the deck! As you could
imagine I was over the moon for the
crew but I would be lying if I said I
didn’t fell the frustration setting in.
But what was very interesting about
this catch was that the fish was caught
on a live Kahawai surface bait at 7pm,
it had only been dark the best part
of 45 minutes. Looking back most
Broadbill are caught on dead baits.
As the long night progressed we got
bit at 4am, the adrenalin was pumping
but was short-lived as we soon had
the fish to the boat. It turned out
to be a dirty Mako shark with some
serious dental work. That was the end
of our night. We didn’t get the result
we were after but that’s just fishing.
We were soon informed of five Sword
Fish being caught that night from 9
boats fishing so the odds were not
bad at all.
I spoke to the crew the following night
and they informed me that when the
carcass of the fish was cut up it was
sitting on the duck board glowing
a fluorescent color. This discovery
intrigued me as the Broadbill is a fish
that is relatively unknown, even to
scientists. I immediately though this
could be something that assists the
fish when it is hunting its prey, much
like a striped marlin lighting up?
All and all it was an outstanding night
out on the water, with the weather in
our favour. Give me that in tandem
with the chance of catching a prime
game fish and there is simply nowhere
else I would rather be. We didn’t get
the result we were after but as they
say that’s fishing and I am sure there
will be another chance before the
season is over.
gameFISHING
www.nzfisher.co.nz 15
gameFISHING
FOSTERING CHANGEMarine recreational fishing in New Zealand
NZ Recreational Fishing Council Conference1st-2nd July 2011
New Plymouth Sportfishing & Underwater Club, New Plymouth
Register online at www.recfish.co.nz
or contact Secretary, Sheryl Hart 07 8258867
Get involved...to design a future that has guaranteed access to abundant fisheries for all the fishing public in NZ. Hear ideas about reform of the recreational fishing sector, lessons from recreational models in operation and from the fishing media about public opinion for change.
All welcomeMembers and non-members
16 www.nzfisher.co.nz
kayakFISHING
trIallIng new KayaKs is not
actually an easy task. You know what
you like and often, what you don’t.
I am sure that all yakker’s have pet
hates about even their favourite kayak.
In late 2009 I tested the new Ocean
Kayak Prowler Ultra 4.7 at Rawhiti
over a two day weekend. I absolutely
loved it and consequently purchased
one for myself. Over the next few
months I fished out of it a fair bit,
including a few offshore missions and
in some very inhospitable conditions.
It is a wonderful kayak with a lot of
great features, but the faults bugged
me and in some cases pained me by
the end of the day.
The Prowler 4.3 was designed to
fill a gap, to improve on the Ultra
and provide a hull more suitable for
inshore paddling while maintaining its
handling in the rough stuff.
The 4.3 gains a lot and gives away a
little, notably 400mm in length which
is mostly gained by removing the
livebait well immediately behind the
angler. By not reducing width, stability
has not been reduced over what
the Ultra offered; if anything this is,
incredibly, a more stable platform. The
Testing the Ocean Kayak Prowler 4.3
by Derrick Paull
Is less really more for a kayak?
www.nzfisher.co.nz 17
hard chine’s have been rounded off in
an effort to reduce drag.
A reduction in speed is not obvious
between the 4.3 and Ultra on flat
water, but there was a noticeable drop
once the waves got above 300mm.
They have increased the waterline
length in the tail to provide better
speed and improve tracking. The
like the Ultra, the 4.3 feels great in a
following sea, tracking well and not
uncomfortable as waves get speed up.
Once on to the important stuff and
lines are in the water some of the
smaller changes become apparent.
The cockpit has been redesigned to
raise the anglers seat position and
provide a faster draining deck. I could
not figure exactly how they’d modified
it but the peddle tracks are now flush
mounted and do not catch as they
used to. The peddle design has been
improved so the system doesn’t bind
like previous models.
I had issues with the reversible lid
pouring any deck water straight into
the centre well. With some clever
engineering this has been overcome &
water now simply flows off the end of
the lid and out the foot-well scuppers.
kayakFISHING
18 www.nzfisher.co.nz
kayakFISHING
The rear well now has an additional
scupper to aid draining and lessening
the water load faster. This works very
well (too well for those who like water
in there keeping fish fresh!) and will
most likely aid in rougher conditions.
One of the biggest and best received
changes was the addition of a
universal transducer mount that even
accepts both Humminbird & Lowrance
side/down scan transducers. It’s
not an attractive scupper, but once
the transducers in there, the design
changes are welcomed. Gone are the
days of chopping, welding & crying
when you’ve made your boat leak!
To accommodate large screen
sounders the centre well has also been
widened so you can conceal your
sounder inside during surf entries and
while transporting. The centre hatch is
now about 20% bigger and this makes
a surprising difference when it comes
to stuffing all your toys in!
We made plans to spend some time
on the rocks which is beneficial two-
foldFirstly so we could stretch a leg
and get off the yaks for lunch and
secondly because land based fishing
is bloody good value! Sadly this
weekend the rocks were not where
it was at. Off the water I had a good
look at the seat. I’ve been told that
the 4.3 seat was perfect for a big
guy like me, but after about 5 hours
my backside was about as numb as
normal so I can’t say it’s too much of
an improvement. Or maybe I just have
a soft ass.
Rock fishing generally requires you
to stow your gear and with the Ultra
accessing the hatch was a complete
nightmare. Yes, the neoprene hatch
seal kept water out but sadly it’s
application required a doctorate
and it became a focal point of hate
amongst many Ultra owners. Ocean
Kayak came across a genius hatch
system to save our sanity and now
opening and closing the hatch is a
simple as flicking a lever.
There are other improvements that
will appeal to many, but really it’s
the ride, speed and fishability that
we’re really interested in. A few other
yakker’s out with us asked me how
the 4.3 fared and the answer is, it was
great. But the Ultra’s great too. So
what’s the real difference?
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kayakFISHING
What really appeals to me is the
weight. At just 27kgs dry it is much
lighter and more easily handled that
the Ultra. The reduced weight makes
it slightly easier to handle on and off
the roof single-handed – something
the Ultra wasn’t great for.
The deck layout & foot well are
better proportioned to accommodate
longer or wider legs making paddling
easier & more comfortable for long
periods. While the seat is possibly an
improvement, the extra leg-well space
is a definite plus.
Having four rod holders immediately
behind the seat is fantastic. I think I’d
add a grommet in the two moulded
ones to stop rods rattling, but the
concept is so simple it’s brilliant. I
cannot think of an occasion where I’ll
need more than four rods and having
them tucked up in behind out of the
way works well.
So all in all this is an improvement
over the Ultra, but it’s not really trying
to replace it. The 4.3 is a new kayak,
not just an upgrade. If anything, the
4.3 is a replacement for the 4.5meter
Elite, the predecessor to the Ultra
and the last Ocean Kayak fishing yak
released without the now ubiquitous
rotating centre hatch.
Putting it simply, if you’re looking to
s very versatile, stable and spacious
kayak, there are few options as good
as the new 4.3. However, if you’re a
serious kayak fisher with aspirations to
chase and fight very big fish, paddle
long distances or in rough conditions
keep an eye on the Ultra.
20 www.nzfisher.co.nz
Kawau by KayakOur first circumnavigationby aileen and Peter michael
kayakFISHING
www.nzfisher.co.nz 21
Kawau by Kayak
we HaD been contemplating a
paddle around Kawau for a while and
looking at the forecast on the Friday,
it seemed like the next day would
be the perfect time to do it. SW
10 knots in the morning and NE 10
knots in the afternoon. Sweet as!
We sent a quick email inviting friends
to join us the next morning for a
6.30am start from Martin’s Bay; we
loaded the kayaks on to the trailer
and lots of food and water packed
for the trip.
Saturday morning, Dave and Jai
joined us (Jai taking the long way
round – he called wondering where
we were and it transpired he had
driven to Jones’ Bay instead of Mar-
tin’s) and we launched our kayaks just
on sunrise.
We paddled over to Kawau, troll-
ing lures all the way, and stopped
for a few casts when we got there.
We caught and released a few small
snapper, kahawai and a rat kingfish
before we carried on our merry way
around the island, fishing here and
there, catching a few more snapper
and kahawai and releasing them all.
Pete landed on a couple of beaches/
rocks to pick up some ‘floatation
devices’ (sounds better than ‘to pick
up buoys’) that had been washed
up. The day started off calm and got
even calmer, the water was like glass
most of the time and the scenery was
stunning. Little blue penguins were
popping up all over the place.
The only thing missing was big fish
action! We did however find a huge
school of large kahawai once we
were almost back to base – just off
Bon Accord Harbour. At least we
could get some nice fresh kahawai
for the smoker.
We kept about half a dozen good fat
kahawai and paddled back in to Martin’s
Bay as the sun was setting. Another
fantastic day on the water. Jai’s GPS said
we had done just over 33km.
We probably spent about half the
time fishing and half paddling, at a
rough guess. Needless to say, we are
looking forward to our next mission,
and a GPS is at the top of our wish
list – the map Ails traced from the
Spot X book was handy, but just not
the same!
kayakFISHING
22 www.nzfisher.co.nz
CHeCK out brady rowe and Kyle
thomas’ dual swordfish action aboard
their trailer boat, Bluefix.
And for the skinny-stick jiggers out
there watch reece Claxton get railed
by a 30kg King of the ever productive
Kapiti Coast last month. Reece is a
star on you-tube with nearly 20 jigging
vids but this one is probably the best
of the lot.
Here’s a brief from Reece on
this video:
This fish was caught mechanical
jigging at Kapiti Island using a
Synit deepshot100 and a 200 grm
(Blue runner) Bite jig. Reel is a
Accurate500xn and braid is 24kg
Suffix performance. This has been
a goal of mine to catch a 30kg king
on this little red rod and I am very
pleased. Now it’s time for a 40kg
beast from local waters.
Please note these videos contain
offensive language and viewer
discretion is advised.
Fishing Video of the Month
FISHINGvideo
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THEclubhouse
Feilding Surfcasting Club by brent rolston,
nZaCa President & 2012 nationals Chair
This is what’s available at Waitarere on the good days
www.nzfisher.co.nz 25
tHe FeIlDIng surfcasting club are
hosting the New Zealand Angling
and Casting Association (NZACA)
nationals in March 2012. Feilding
might be considered by some
a strange place for a successful
surfcasting club, but it has, over the
past 13 years, been very successful -
winning many of the major trophies
on offer at the NZACA nationals.
The original idea for the Feilding
surfcasting club came from a mix
of Pania surfcasting club members
and motivated locals and since
its inception it has maintained a
membership of approximately 40
individuals and family groups.
The early movers and shakers within
the Feilding surfcasting committee
realised that the club would require
large boundaries because of being
located in the Manawatu: Patea
river mouth on the west coast,
south including all the Wellington
south coast and harbour and up
to Parangahau on the East coast.
These large boundaries enable us
to remove the weather factor from
preventing us fishing within our
boundaries for field weekends. They
will also be the boundaries used
when we host the NZACA nationals.
Apart from the advantages of avoiding
the weather, large boundaries and
diverse coastlines enable us to target
many species. While red cod, many
shark species and a few kahawai and
gurnard dominate the winter fishing,
the summer fishing can be spectacular.
Summer species include snapper up
to 14kgs, gurnard up to 1.5kgs, blue
moki up to 7kgs, with the odd kingfish
up to 18kgs as well as 4kg kahawai.
As a club we, like so many north
islanders, rate snapper highly. They
can be caught anywhere within our
boundaries, but in greater numbers
on the west coast, in the period from
February to May.
As well as fishing monthly the Feilding
surfcasting club have monthly
meetings at the St. Johns ambulance
rooms in Feilding, these meetings
typically having a guest speaker
or using more experienced club
members to give guidance to others.
Anyone who would like to join the
Feilding surfcasting club or is planning
on attending the NZACA nationals
in 2012 and who would like more
information should contact any of the
following people.
President: brian snaith 06 3225567
secretary: Dick lash 027 242 2549
treasurer: maria moxham
027 557 9903 [email protected]
This is what’s available at Waitarere on the good days
26 www.nzfisher.co.nz
as you reaD this “PURSUIT” and her
crew are leaving the Far North having
completed this year’s charter regime
slightly earlier than normal. We depart
somewhat reluctantly since things are
quite buoyant currently on all fronts –
arguably better than they have been
for many weeks – or make that months!
Doubtless bay
Still brilliant snapper and kahawai
fishing, even if the quality isn’t so good.
Again limit fishing for pannies coming in
just hours, sometimes less.
great exhibition bay
Also very good snapper with better
quality overall. A few nice fish in
double digits grace most catches
right throughout this expansive bay.
A few more kingfish also apparent
after a fairly lean time of late. A few
stripies have also been plucked from
between Mount Camel to North Cape
in 120-140 metres in rather cool (but
obviously acceptable) water.
garden Patch
Here is the premier spot in the country
for two premier species. Most boats
here are seeing and coming into contact
with at least one striped marlin each
day, some many more. Seeing fish
feeding on saury and forming meatballs
has been quite common just lately. With
the settled weather lately there’s been
a pleasing upsurge in effort with some
reasonable success. While this has been
a great bonus, it pales in comparison
with what’s happening on the broadbill
front. While there’s been a lot of
effort (17 boats one night!?!?) there’s
also been a good amount of success.
Highlighted was a 168k sword taken
on 15k by Carl angers off the national
and world records. This was followed
up the next day with a spanking on 10
kilo tackle – same angler, same boat – a
spool job after nearly seven hours of
hopeful toil. All this took a backseat to
what well known skipper John Gregory
did, single handed, onboard his equally
famous “Primetime”. After landing a
solo sword a couple weeks previous,
he followed that up with an incredible
four in one night! He tagged three and
was forced to keep the fourth –DOA
and just to sweeten the deal he also
caught several bluenose between 25-43
kilos plus tagged a 100 kilo stripey in
his travels! What a trip! Just to finish
off, many boats did exceptionally well
on the bluenose, averaging 10-20 kilos
in size if you can get them through the
killer whales.
north Cape – “the shelf”
Beautiful water with plenty of
temperature, especially on the bottom
end of the region. Also, not surprisingly,
there’s still good numbers of skippies
(some over 5 kilos) and the odd stripey
lurking about. Snapper have obliged
well inshore with many in double digits
and a few over the bite with some
excellent sessions on both bait and jigs
– definitely better and more consistent
than anything we’ve seen there over
the past two months. Not only numbers
(most 13-18kgs) but a few trophy fish
over 30 are available now. Deepwater
(140-200+ metres) has also been
productive – not amazing with few big
fish but good steady fishing. A nice mix
of bass and hapuka grace anglers hooks
here, often two at a time.
King bank
Some nice fishing here with a real mix.
On the right day (not every day) there
is still some class striped marlin to be
had. “Reel Passion” enjoyed a great day
with three stripies to his credit. These
late season fish have taken a real liking
to bait with few rising to trolled lures.
Skipper Mark Hoare utilized live bridled
rigged skippies to entice these fine fish
– all in excellent condition between 120-
160 kilos. However, and just to prove
the opening statement, he followed
that brilliant day up with a fishless one
at exactly the same locale! Also some
great bottom fishing (three bass over
60kgs!) with kingis vastly improved as
well. Many of the latter are over 20k’s
with the odd one approaching 30.
In the case of this bank, it just seems
to be getting better with time. More
opportunity on more species (albeit on
an intermittent basis) now at this late
stage – what a screwy season it’s been.
middlesex bank
Same old, same old here. Water plenty
good enough for stripies but none seen
by the very little traffic just lately. Plenty
of skippies and a few decent (to 20kgs)
albacore showing for trollers. Bottom
fishing is pretty ho hum by this bank’s
standards. Still pretty decent on a
mixture of bass and puka (as many king
terakihi as you would like) but few fish
over 30k’s. KIngIs, quality kingis, are
abundant here – easily affording ones
best chance at a 30 Kilo and even 40
kilo fish. Bronzies, and a few XOS mako,
still are in abundance meaning you can’t
stay too long anywhere regardless of
how good (or bad) the fishing is!
summary
Still great fishing opportunities as
you’ve just read and, in many instances,
better than anything over the past
couple months. Yes, wish (weather
permitting) the “PURSUIT” team had
another few weeks to exPlore those
opportunities. But alas duty calls and
we’ll be alternating our efforts between
White Island and Ranfurly Bank over
the next six weeks. Expect another
Eastern Bay of Plenty report soon.
Rick
The Far Northsource: rick Pollock www.Pursuit.co.nz
regionalREVIEWS
www.nzfisher.co.nz 27
epic Coromandel Kingfish action!!
Hi All!
We’re officially in to winter but with
the water temps we have, the bait
that is around and the spell of weather
we’ve had lately who would know it!!!
SST charts are showing patches of
water still pushing 19 degrees in
places, the bait reads on the sounder
have been chocka, there have been
dolphins and birds galore and the
fishing - well it has been red hot!
KINGFISH
The last two weeks we’ve continued
to see some awesome action on the
kingfish front, some nice kingfish have
turned up in close round the bait
schools on the coast and out wide
they have been feasting up large. On
several occasions out wide we’ve had
bait being pushed right to the surface
presenting opportunities for stick baited
kings and kingfish slow trolled on the
surface (pretty sure we missed a marlin
bite this week doing just this as well...).
All day bites on kings in the teens to
early 20kgs have been the norm. Livies
are more consistent producers of the
kingfish but jigs still producing some
good fish for the guys and gals that
have gone hard on the jigging front.
There are some freight trains out there
too, best to hold on tight and keep some
steady footing, as one of our anglers
found out getting pulled over the rail by
a beast and losing $2500 worth of kit......
more on that in our full report here
HAPUKA
More a by-catch for us,
but with these tasty
beasts turning up round
the Aldies, Mercs and
Cuvier for spawning it’s
hard not to fish your
livebaits a bit deeper
than usual.
This nice 21kg puka
opposite was a nice
reward for an Aussie
angler who did just
that.
SNAPPER
Plenty of eating size
fish along with the
kingis, and some
horse sized fish
turning up in the
shallows, now is
a great time for
getting in close
and casting some
softbaits.
SWORDS
There have been a lot more boats
out there this year trying and
Tairua clubs first ever broadbill was
weighed a few weekends back for
club member and Pure Fishing rep
Jason Harris from the vicinity of the
Aldermen Knoll on Innova.
Some awesome captures have been
taken out the back of Mayor as well.
SPOTS
We’ve got plenty of openings
over the next few weeks, if you
are keen to get amongst the kingi
action check our calendar here www.
epicadventures.co.nz/availability.html
All the best
Epic Adventures
Cheers
Carl and Tobes
Coromandel source: Carl muir www.epicadventures.co.nz
regionalREVIEWS
28 www.nzfisher.co.nz
regionalREVIEWS
Sadly (or luckily for Mark) he
has been off in New Cale-
donia for the last couple of
weeks. He hasn’t got any
local reports, but check
out his facebook page for
plenty of pictures and here
for a brief report.
weatHer In tHe naKI isn’t
flash to say the least. Wind,
wind and more wind keeping
the boats at home. I’ve had
Narcosis is in Tauranga get-
ting an electrical fault sorted
(engine management) and that’s
meant more time off the water.
Good snapper are about right
along the coast in reasonably
shallow so when the wind does
allow, those who venture out are
generally doing well. The Gur-
nard are still there too, but it’s
no good if you’re land locked!
Spiky dog’s are here in numbers
now, along with Couta and they
can really ruin your day sadly.
For those who get the chance
to head out wide a few Puka
caught but fisho’s I have talked
to are a bit disappointed by
the lack of them. This is an area
of the fishery that needs some
close attention.
Duncan MacIver
Bay of Plenty New Caledonia source: Mark Armishaw
www.extremesportfishing.co.nz
Taranaki – West Coast source: The Taranaki AMF Team
www.amfboats.co.nz
www.nzfisher.co.nz 29
Marquesa
Ask instore for details. www.fin-norfishing.com
™
Biscayne
AHAB
Free casio watch with every Fin-Nor rod & reel combo
valued at
$15000
tHey’ve arrIveD alrIgHt :(
“The gulf is a wonderful fishing
bonanza at this time of year.
Over the past few weeks there
has been exciting workup action
with whales, dolphins, gannets,
kahawai, snapper, kingfish,
‘couta…basically just tick ‘(d) all
of the above’ and much more in
attendance too. When the Mother
Nature’s dinner gong goes off the
feeding frenzy is epic and worth
the time and effort to find the pot
o’ gold action.
However fishing success can readily
be had without the tumult, simply
drifting along using the dancing
jigs (as I call them) – the Prowler/
Inchiku style jigs have and are
working an absolute treat on the
snapper, often when not much else
seems to be working.
The soft baits and soft plastics have
been coming on strong a bit later
in the bite. The wider in the gulf
you go, the bigger the snapper
seem to be at the moment, many
excellent snapper in the 10 to 16lb
range are grazing over the open
areas – worth a random drift fish
as I call it, just stop, drop and roll
so to speak. Keep an eye on fishing
calendars for bite times.
The inner city channels have
slowed, but can still produce
the goods, just not as easily as 2
months ago.
Also in closer drifting over reefs
and lumps in 10m out from most
land masses, let the tide run and
bounce your dancing jig or softie
along the bottom and a some
excellent snapper (many pannies
are around double digit pounds)
should be yours, with the odd
trevally thrown in for good and
tasty measure. The smaller and
darker soft plastics seem to be
working better than the larger
varieties right now.
There are miles and miles of
Kahawai feeding just north and
east of Tiri Tiri, the further you
go the less you get, but the more
‘couta! For the rest of the late
afternoon and right on dark there
should be some good fishing to be
had, shorter bite times but hungry
fish needing to feed during the
winter chill.”
The Hauraki source: espresso www.catch.org.nz
30 www.nzfisher.co.nz
In the next issue of NZ Fisher…
Part two of the Land Based Game Nationals report•
Gurnard – The down low from the Carrot King•
More Broadbill madness•
NEXTmonth
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