Had told my friends that the Snapper were going off in the Bay Of Islands, so Kevin, Sam, and Tim drove up from Hamilton in the middle of the night to come and get the personal best (PB) snappers on Soft Bait.

As usual when I make such bold promises it wasn’t to be. After hooking several nice snapper over 10lbs (up to 18lbs) the evening before I returned to the same spot with high expectations and things were looking good when Kevin landed a nice fish around the 6 – 7lb mark. Things were seeming a little wrong when we just kept bringing in legal but smallish sized fish with a few nice eating pannies amongst them. We moved spots several times heading right around the middle ground and I fluked one nice double figure fish a little over 10lbs which was safely released to breed. That was it for the day except for a few smaller snapper when the wind got up from the north and we anchored for a while.

I am still determined to get Kevin his PB snapper which currently stands at 15lbs and as he is back at the end of the week for a few days I think there is a pretty good chance.

What was noticeable as that the anchovie schools that had been there in plague proportion over the past week or two had largely dissappeared as had the gannets!

Met Denis, Ian, and Vincent at the Paihia wharf and headed out at 5 for a snapper fish. The strong easterly winds didn’t help our cause initially but Ian managed an nice snapper around the 5 or 6 pound mark – great eating size. With evening coming on the wind dying down and the tide building I headed into a closer a spot and looking at the sounder things looked good. The sounder proved right a few minutes later as the guys started to slay them! In just a few drifts the guys landed several nice fish in the 5 to 8 pound range, got busted off a few times, and Vince managed his personal best of 18 pounds followed by a 12 pounder which we were able to release and swam away to make lots of little snapper.

Picked up Andy And Colin from the Paihia Wharf at lunchtime today. A slightly slow start as I had to wash MY blood of the jetty where I had stood on an exposed nail head and cut my foot open landing the boat! Andy and Colin had never tried soft baiting before but picked it up quick with coling getting hit 3 times on his first cast. It wasn’t long before the guys had a few good sized snapper aboard and Andy with his personaly best of 12 pounds.

The wind eventually turned on us and destroyed our drift so returned a little early so I had time to fillet the fish for the guys.

Left Paihia at 5pm with Sirena and Dallas with no bait on board for an evening snapper fish. The trip started well after a brief run down on how to cast, Dallas hooked up first cast, and then second cast! Sirena followed up Similarly and it wasn’t long before both girls had some nice fish on board for dinner. The snapper were on the move and the second drift was a little slower so we moved to try under some gannets diving in the distance to no avail. We then returned to the first spot and re-located the fish landing a few before heading back to Paihia – stopping on the way at another spot and grabbing a couple of more nice snapper in the 7 – 8 pound range. All caught on Soft Baits!

Picked up Les, Karina, Jim, Graham, Foub Hamouda and his wife for an afternoon snapper fish. The fishing was not as hot as in the morning – not helped by the strong northerly winds but never the less the team still managed some nice fish with karina picking up the biggest at around 6 pounds. Les and a great introduction to soft baiting given the conditions and managed to hook several and land one or two. Jim managed a fish or 2 including one snapper on live bait that wasn’t hugely bigger than the live bait! Nothing on the Shimano Lucanos for Foub and his wife with a dead bait but they appeared to be enjoying themselves. Graham managed to hook a few but on soft bait but none came to the boat unfortunately – maybe next time!

Well, the only problem with this morning trips was it was just too good! We had to stop fishing after an hour and a half because the guys had too many fish and though we had tried to release the last two fish of 10 pounds and 12 pounds they went belly up on us and wouldn’t revive despite careful handling. Short of CPR or defib I am not sure how to get these fish back down so if anyone has any ideas please send me an email. The average size was probably 8 pounds with 3 going double figures. The guys were content to head for a look around the bay and catch a few mackeral for my next trip – though 90% of their fish were caught on soft bait. We then returned to base early where I filleted their catch for them.

Picked up Susan Moore and Peter Oldham from Paihia Wharf for an evening fish for Snapper. Susan was first on the board with a nice “pannie” snapper on a Shimano Lucanos slow jig and then follwed up with two more. Peter was in training with the soft bait rod and quickly got the hang of it. The fishing wasn’t really hot but was OK with Peter Landing a nice 10 pounder on soft bait.

Picked up Australians Steve Newall and his father from the Russell Wharf at 6am this morning for Bay Of Islands Snapper fishing session. It wasn’t long before Steves father got hit by a good fish that got off as I tried to loosen the drag before it would bust us. Shortly after Steves father landed a nice 4 pound pannie followed by a 10 pounder from Steve. Next cast Steve hooked a fish that after 15 minutes was still pulling away from us so we followed for 5 minutes in the boat before it pulled the hook and got off. Steves father shortly after landed a terrific 16 pounder which we photographed quickly and released. The guys a kept a few smaller fish and we back at Russell with a good feed of fresh snapper for them by 11 am.

20

A windy day greeted the mixed group from Auckland for todays Mechanical Jigging charter. We started with some Mechanical Jigging training in behind Cape Brett out of the wind but never got onto the fish – the strong winds made it too difficult to get out to the wider pinacles. After a short while I made the descision to go to plan B and anchored up out of the wind where we put down some live baits, and deads baits, and soft baits. The live baits one with one plucked from the hook after a brief loading of the rod and Rosemary skipper landing the fish of the day – this nice 25 pound kingy. James Armitage and his mate proved to me a short time later that Jerk Shads do work – though I am still a 6 inch grub fan in terms of soft baiting in the Bay Of Islands.

In the end I feel it was a pretty good trip given the 20 knot winds which were expected to gust 35knots from the nor west

Picked up two gentlemen from Holland this morning that I can pronounce the names of corretly let alone spell so I won’t try! The guys seemed to really enjoy cathing the mackeral live bait and it wasn’t long before we had landed a couple of small kingies (rats). That was it for the day for the kingies unfortunately but the guys but we did hook into a Bronze Whaler shaker for about 5 minutes but the conclusion was pre-determined without a stell trace. Later on the guys caught a few nice snapper including a fantastic 11 pounder to make a reaonable trip for two guys that had never been salt water fishing before.

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