Kingfish around Stephens Passage are being hammered by anglers.

While many of them catch and release, some boats have been conspicuous by being out there regularly and killing fish. Apart from kingies, some good-sized snapper - averaging 3.5kg and up to 10kg - have been taken in 90m of water, reports Fraser Cooper of Hunting & Fishing in Blenheim. Remember, 'don't kill your limit, limit your kill'.

Dave Fishburn reports some excellent tarakihi being taken, along with some good school groper averaging 10-15kg and up to 30kg. Groper fishing had been very good over the winter until the onset of bad weather, with the resulting dirty water turning the fish off.

Laurie Stevenson of Picton Sports reports good gurnard in the sandy bays, with 40-60g jigs being successful whilst avoiding the plague of spiny dogs. Snapper are in depths of 60m-plus off Queen Charlotte Sound.

"Lots of blue cod are there, but it's hard to get cod in the 30-35cm slot," said Laurie.

Encouragingly, the Marlborough Recreational Fishers Association has received a positive response from Fisheries Minister David Carter to a request for a meeting over the discrimination against recreational fishing public over blue cod and set-net bans. Another issue is the controversial Malaysian-owned King Salmon proposal to expand its salmon farms. The MRFA has strongly opposed this, along with SoundFish and Sustain our Sounds.

Scallop season opened on July 15, with Queen Charlotte scallops in reasonably good condition. However, due to the demise of Tasman and Golden Bay scallop beds, fears are that the commercial boats will concentrate on the Queen Charlotte beds - to their detriment.

Expect fishing on the Clarence Coast to fire up in the spring, with Wade Lindstrom of Clarence Charters already having good bookings for October and November.

Kahawai unexpectedly turned up at the Wairau Bar before the rains produced a bank-to-bank Wairau River. With whitebait season open, look for kahawai to start showing up, and a few sea-run brown trout are likely to be feasting, too. One angler took six good-sized red cod on surf-casting gear near the Wairau Bar.

Trout fishing has been quiet, although one report from the lower Motueka indicated fresh-run browns of 1.5kg are being taken lower down on spinning tackle and a small black Toby.

 

Nelson-Marlborough by Tony Orman
Ph 03 577 7875

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