The Pannies were feeding hard last night, probably putting on weight for the lean months over winter. March and April has always been very productive Snapper fishing months me.

I decided to fish a spot which I have not fished since I changed my tactics, mainly because the tides did not suit fishing a few of my usual spots and I could not be bothered driving to the Kenepuru. I started fishing around 7:30pm but the best fishing was the first hour or so after dark, by 9:30 I was still getting strikes but only landed a couple more fish. All up 8 pannies were landed.

Was a great overcast night, the cloud cover kept the temperature pleasant and it was calm most of the time. Just the occasional light breeze which got more consistent around 10pm.



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After reading about large numbers of Ray Bream being caught of Kaikoura I decided to head down there for a fish today.

Got to Kaikoura around 11am, but would not of been on the water until after midday. Conditions were perfect, I launched at Limestone Bay and it was not long before I was into blue water. I tried jigging a few spots closer in for nothing, so started heading further offshore. Caught a couple of Couta trolling. Went further out again, and eventually caught my first ray bream, then another, and another... most drops were getting hit. Must of landed around 9 and kept 6. They are a very soft fish and they easily got damage from the hooks. Would have loved to try and catch more, but that would of meant keeping more something I did not want to do because I never tried them before.

Was a great day out on the water.



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went out bethells yesterday afternoon, managed a few bugs



also: if anyones keen to fish/dive great barrier on friday 30 march - sunday 01 april ... ive booked redquarters (charter boat) and we have a couple of spare spots ...cost is $250pp ... great opportunity to get out to the barrier. most of us are spearing but scuba and rods are welcome also. drop me a pm if youre interested

Nice one on the left mate. Hoping to hit Coromandel friday

Caught this fellow tonight, he is approximately 60cm long, and according to the length/weight chart should weigh 9lb. But it was in excellent condition, probably the fattest Snapper I have seen so suspect it would have made 10lb. So my first 10lb Snapper since the Spring.

It was a last minute decision to go Snapper fishing tonight, I arrived around 7pm to mostly calm conditions. With just the occasional gust to ruin a otherwise pleasant evening. Tide was nearly dead low when I arrived, there was a strong current running. The current quickly reduced in strength, but before that happen I had caught the above fish. Put up a excellent fight and might of taken 60m of line, I find the smaller big Snapper (9-14lb) put up a better fight then the big old ones. After dark, not much happened, just a couple of pannies. Finished fishing at 9:30pm.

nice birch!

got out out last saturday early AM, was really nice. spent about 4 hrs chasing work-ups and slamming some kahawai for the smoker. bringing up a small kahawai saw a HUGE kingy following behind, came right up to the boat then jetted down as soon as it saw the boat. no bait used that day

tuesday after work, fished change of light till about 8.30pm. went to the first spot, wasnt producing much except some small bites. moved about 200m further into the tiri channel and immediately started picking up good 38-42cm size snapper. did 30 mins of that then back to the bay to clean up and get home and ready for work the next day. no more of this with day lights savings gone

Caught this fellow and a couple of others in a Mountain tarn today. Perfect weather, barely any wind. Only downside, the small tarn had 12+ anglers on it. I got there first.

Stuffed the strike up on 4 others, and saw heaps more. Also caught one in the river on the way home. Slipped and hurt my knee when trying to net her.

Why the lack of fishing reports, this is probably one of the best time of the year for fishing.

I'm just lazy

friday 30th headed for great barrier on redquarters, got past tiri and the swell was hammering us. skipper decided to detour to colville bay instead. disappointing but thats how it is sometimes. we hit up a small island group there. weather was pleasant but viz was shoddy as. not that fishy either, everyone just kept returning to the boat shaking their head. bar a few small snaps caught on rods and a few ky trawled on the way home, it was pretty unproductive

Sounds lame bro

yeah it was good bunch of lads though, all kept their chins up. as the organiser i was gutted for them but everyone took it well and made the most of what we had

Birch wrote: Why the lack of fishing reports, this is probably one of the best time of the year for fishing.

Uni and work are taking up all of my time at the moment. The poor old thundercat is going to have to stay in the garage until next summer

went for a cast off castlepoint yesterday, bit rough and lost a few traces which sucked. only caught a few sand sharks but was a nice day

Went fishing with the old man a couple times over the easter weekend.

Fishing was average, lots of undersize stuff. Got a decent amount of snapper, 1 x decent kahawai and a few rat kingies which we obviously chucked back.

Was a decent school of rat kings swimming around the boat which was pretty sweet to watch.

Was surprised this bad boy was able to get his mouth round the hook haha.

been out a few times last few weeks but just hitting a couple hours for a few snaps for dinner and then back

this sunday i plan to do a bit more of a mish, hopefully will get some photos up! gotta match birch's sweet reports

fuark boys where you all at? must be fishing

went out yesterday afternoon for just a couple of hours, in the tiri channel. fished the whangaparoa side in about 25m. got the burley down nice and soft so it started working and immediately had nibblers stripping our baits. after about 30 mins it was like shooting fish in a barrel... every drop was a 32cm+ with the occasional 40 and 1 in the fifty range. We kept 17 between the three of us and because we only really fished the two hrs before sunset we kept most of what we touched rather than handling lots of small fish (which there are plenty of around right now!). used full pillies and squid to try and hook up only decent size ones and for the most part it worked, with the squid being more effective.

One thing that was different was it was hard to catch mackerel for fresh bait.. threw down the old sabaki a few times and got trevally and snapper but no mackerel? first time ever... maybe it was just something we were doing but usually get them instantly. would've been nice to have some butterflied mackerel for bigger specimens.

all in all a very nice afternoon/evening fishing and a full bin for only 2.5 hours on the water. mint!!



p.s. noticed there weren't actually that many boats in the channel just before sunset... all out wide or (unlikely) you guys have social lives or something?!

I haven't been fishing in a while. I'm hating myself for not making time for it, but life must come first

I got out on Papamoa Beach while I was down there this weekend.

Wasn't much going on. Couple small KY I would've been absolutely stoked with most of the time, perfect livey size. Strip-baited them and had a couple big pulls, but no hookups.

Even the guys next to us with a Contiki got nothing (Unless they ****ed up somehow)

The 12lb Snapper I caught a week or so back

dif wrote: One thing that was different was it was hard to catch mackerel for fresh bait.. threw down the old sabaki a few times and got trevally and snapper but no mackerel? first time ever... maybe it was just something we were doing but usually get them instantly.

Theres a ridiculous amount of mackeral and KY further out that might have something to do with it. We were getting massive amounts of real horse mackeral taking softies out in the middle, that's if the KY didn't get them first.

Had to use 4 ounce jigheads just to make it through all the baitfish to get to the bottom unmolested.

whats yall anzac day plans

desperately hoping i can get to the coro for a dive. family needs more convincing that fish is vital for their health

I'm gonna do the long walk through tawharanui out to Tokatu point to hopefully get some LBG + snapper hunting done. Been 7 or so months since I last headed out there

Working tomorrow to avoid the masses and hitting the coro Thursday.

Heading down to Kaikoura, Spearfish then either a kayak or surf fish.