Some spectacular snapper out in that 50m zone last weekend with the main stage of workups, whales, dolphins and more moving east a few miles dragging a big hungry snapper along with them. The move aligned with warmer water temperatures and currents towards the Colville side of the gulf, which interestingly also coincided with the wind swing around to the NE. While further south down in the Firth of Thames the bite slowed alright, ‘too calm’ for a day or so over the full moon – you know the ones, gloriously smooth day on the water but everything so very, very quiet, foggy and still with very tentative bites. Yet back over the Whangaparaoa peninsula side later over the past two days there’s been a gathering, some small pods of dolphins, a lot of gannets chasing bait right on the surface, fun to watch! The dolphins have been chasing around  right into places like below the 16th of Gulf Harbour Golf Course – just watch out for flying golf balls! Through the Tiri channel and around to the northern side, Wellington reef and out there’s been some good little workups too, not all containing pots of gold, but a shift around and you’ll find some fish. Fingers crossed the dolphins hang out a few more days.
The big smiling toothy pandas, Orca or Killer Whale have been hunting around the inner Waitemata over the past few days, the size of these beasties is impressive, hopefully they are feeding well and keeping warm, always exciting to see.
Bluefin tuna are showing up out from eastern Coromandel and Tauranga up from Waihau Bay way – so anglers are taking advantage of that, high wind speeds the biggest topic of conversation and when/if fishing is possible. Some outstanding and notable tuna catches have been made, and one in particular has captured the attention of the entire fishing community, Flyn Jack hooking and landing a Southern Bluefin Tuna…jigging! I kid you not. This guy was out at night and decided to try the famous Double Trouble jig. Battling under the intense pressure of these fish at night at sea is challenging to say the least. Flyn is 14 years old and already fishing like a wise ol’ veteran, massive congratulations Flyn. From Flyn himself:
“Plenty of interesting sign showed on the sounder that we struggled to identify. Curiosity had me dropping my 300g Catch Fishing Double Trouble White Warrior jig down with the Catch Acid Wrap 400 Rod. My first 2 drops were unsuccessful, so we moved around a bit. I dropped again and decided to speed up my jigging action and WHAM ……I was on!
Bucket list tick and a half!
Fishing for new things if the wind is howling? Go online – have a look at last weeks ICAST show in the USA, all sorts of bright shiny new innovations, developments and cool fishing gear.
More instructional and ‘how to’ Youtube style videos are underway, thanks to the massive and positive feedback from previous videos, inspiring to say the least, a huge and sincere thank you. Based on your feedback there will be more details, more real-world information and techniques are on their way and will be uploaded to the Catch Fishing Youtube channel. Again thank you for your amazing support, feedback and epic pictures of your fishing successes.
Carpe Diem, seize the day – go fishing!
Espresso.