GAME FISHING MAYOR ISLAND

 There are plenty of big fish being caught around the Bay Of Plenty at the moment with HOT fishing from Waihau Bay to Cuvier Island a great time to get out there and have a go.
I found a log the on Saturday that had hundreds of Mahimahi under it wich provided the guys with some awsome fish to eat and is a great sign for the rest of the season.

Here is a couple of monsters from mayor Island in the last month caught on Fixation.

OUT DEEP

The fishing out deep has been epic lately with a great range of species getting hauled up form a range of depths between 250 and 400 Metres. I have seen some of the biggest Gem fish ever some over 10Kg and the most Rays bream and frost fish in years. The bluenose have been prolific but small in size with the odd fish over 10Kg but mostly pups around 4-6Kg still soooo tasty. I have heard reports of 18 degree water not far north of White Island and Skippie's off Cape Brett up north so hopefully the Game fishing season isn't too far away and we get to see some yellow fin this year.

CRAYS IN SHALLOW

The diving down around Town Point and Motiti Island is great at the moment and not too cold iether
heres a few crays found in 12-17meters

I had out 5 keen divers and they each got thier bag limit  telling me the big bucks are in close the boys said there were a few semi soft shell crays down there aswell and big snapper eating the legs off the crays as they were being put into the bag. Good to hear this as its November the snapper straylining usually takes off  about now so that will be plan A for the snapper for a while down to Town Point for a night of big snapper on the strays in 10-15meters 

Soft Baiting

There is some great fishing to be had at the moment on soft baits as I found on the weekend when the bait stopped producing the soft baits kept getting smashed.
On the weekend it was some of the hardest fishing I have had in a long time but still mannaged to get a feed and some nice fish and have a great time.

Heres a 15lb snapper caught on a home made softbait by my mate Justin was awsome to watch and a personal best snapper on your birthday MINT!

Justin also got this nice frostfish later on that same day on the home made softbait again

HAPUKA BLUENOSE GEM FISH

The weather gods have being nice for a change, in the last week I have seen some of the best sea conditions all year allowing me to get out on the Mayor Island Knolls and target some deep water tasties. Fishing 350-450meters of water and catching good numbers of Hapuka, Bluenose and gem fish.  

SNAPPER

The Snapper fishing has been exceptional the last few weeks with the numbers and size of the fish picking up dramatically.
I have found the best bite time regardless of the tide and moon to be between 9pm and 2am using both stray lines and ledger rigs.
The most productive bait has been Bonito and fresh Kahawai and fishing in 20-30 Meters on the sand just off good fish sign on the foul the fish will come eventually especially with burly.

Hers a 4.5kg snapper i caught on my new 4kg Tica soft bait set used as a stray line.

A bit of luck

Every year my mate Kelvin Johnson and I fish the opening of trout season and celebrate his birthday by catching a few fish and drinking a few beers.
This years opening was on Monday the 1st October as i woke at 5.30am and started anticipating the day ahead and waitng for Kelvin to turn up I thought to myself why not flick the fly rod off the jetty and see if I can get a fish before we head out WELL! I saw 3 fish rise and casted at 1 of them hooked up and by 6.30 had a 4.815KG (10.8lb) Brown Trout on the lawn.

What a start to the season and at the end of the day our team of Kelvin Johnson, Geoff Dadley, John Bell and Myself had boated another 12 rainbow trout and released another 4 caught jigging, harling and trolling.