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.