Cook Islands - June 2010

Early start to wahoo season?

Weather was ideal for fishing over the first three weeks of the month, but then it turned nasty, with strong winds, thunderstorms and much-needed rain after a very long dry spell.

Yellowfin tuna were biting well at the Edgewater FAD until the last week, when they moved east to the FAD at Avana. These yellowfin were all good-sized fish, ranging from about 15 to 35kg. Slow trolling in the early morning with quite small soft-baits was, again, the most rewarding method.

There have been lots of small skipjack out a bit wider, but unfortunately there have been no marlin amongst them. In fact the marlin season was disappointing this year, but this was in no small way due to the cyclones that prevented boats from fishing for about six weeks at the height of the season.

Early in the month there were some good mahimahi caught, with the best a nice 24kg bull. In a month the water temperature has dropped from the high of 27°C to 25°C and it looks like the wahoo season may be starting early, with some 15 to 20kg specimens and one at 24kg captured recently.

The wahoo have mostly been caught on the eastern side of Rarotonga, off Muri lagoon and at Arorangi on the western side. The ‘old faithful’ technique of trolling a rigged flying fish has worked well.

- © Fairfax NZ News