Eastern Bay of Plenty - May 2010

A great year for Motu kahawai

Lewis Atkinson caught this well-conditioned 20kg kingifhs at Waihau Bay.

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Fishing has been patchy through the last full moon cycle, but will quickly settle back into a more predictable pattern.

Up until the full moon the surfcasting from the sandy beaches had been excellent – two or three decent snapper in quick succession after work is what enjoyable surfcasting is about.
When the snapper are there and biting, it resolves a lot of the other issues that can arise with beach fishing.

You can be more forgiving with bait choice as there is less need to have tough baits to beat the paddle crabs. Current shifting the terminal tackle along the beach is less significant if the fish are there, too. The snapper should be inshore into the early winter.

The kontiki fishermen have also been having a good time of it over most of the day. Despite strong shore currents, multiple fish – including gurnard and kahawai – have been usual. Some good snapper are coming in, although most would be around 30cm.

Ohiwa Harbour has followed similar lines, with the entrance fishing very well. Snapper have been around there and in the channels, while some big trevally have been caught near the entrance. Flounder are also in this harbour, along with others in this part of the world.

The Motu River mouth has continued to fish well for kahawai, which has made it a great year there – especially as there are always kingies following them.

Boat fishing has also been patchy over the full moon. When the fishing is harder, good-quality berley comes into its own, rather than sitting at anchor catching nothing. It has been a similar story right across the Eastern Bay, with some good catches being made by those in the right place at the right time, but hard for others.

(To give you some idea, a hard day’s fishing out from Opotiki would be a couple of fishermen in the boat spending three or four hours for four to six snapper, six to twelve gurnard, along with a few kahawai and mackerel. The usual is limit bags in less than two hours, so we should not complain.)

Good fishing should carry on for some time yet.

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