Fishing Reports

The Espresso Report

The future’s so bright…

..I gotta wear, shades. Or so the song says. Have you noticed? How early the sun is up in the morning? The late afternoon? It’s dark no longer. Oh sure the wind is still cold, it’s wetter than I can ever remember...but there’s pollen on the car. There’s a hint of warmth in the sun recently, and enough UV already to search for the sunscreen on the boat. There’s a faint glimmer of hope that the abyss of winter is over. With this incredible leap of faith that winter will end and summer fishing will return in abundance I’ve spent another entire day sprucing up the boat. Well what else can you do? No lawns to mow. And so the antici…(as per The Rocky Horror Picture Show)……………..pation has increased. The boat has been made immaculate again and winter greeblies washed away. Which means thoughts wander and reminisce (by all means add your own blissful ingredients here):

A summer evening anchored in a picture perfect bay eating the freshest of shellfish on top of a freshly caught Snapper, washed down with beer off the ice...

Heading out into the early morning sunrise on mirror smooth seas, catching the fish that you’ll talk about with your mates for months, the one you’ve been after!…

Long afternoon and warm evenings with bite times that go on forever…

Sizzling BBQ’s and the fish smoker wafting in while some good mates arrive ‘round your place so the worlds woes can be put to rest, faces glowing from a day on the briny…

And with that in mind it’s time to appreciate what we have, protect our rights and the rights of our children. to catch fish. Had a mate succumb to cancer the other day. He lived life well, I admire him for his commitment to life. He lived it. Now he’s no more. So no matter what you’re up to for the rest of this year and the summer – make it one to remember. Plan for the future, live today, always an ace to pull when it’s 5kts variable, the lawns can wait.

How close?

The past few weeks I haven’t ventured out much mainly due to winds whipping up the sea state into a mighty meringue most days. But some smart fisho’s are around, smart or desperate? Doesn’t matter which…some have caught fish! Yep in just a few metres of water, around highly populated areas along Whangaparaoa, northern Kawau and NE Omaha for instance. And I’m not trying to hold back info – it’s just that the wind has been all over the place, so on Tuesday morning the north side reefs are the go with a southerly blowing hard, and by Friday – south side reefs with the NW smashing up the other side. Yet even the humble 12ftrs have been happily doing the business. Huge smiles and much refreshments to be had in ‘The Land Of Garage’ while going through in intricate detail of the days fishing conquest with a bunch of good mates. Back to basics. A little tinny, or a secluded rock, straylining pillies in close back in the burley trail towards Snapper habitat. Simplicity can be very rewarding. And if you're over eastern Coromandel - off the rocks is rockin' in some 20lbers!

My pick – close as you can, lots of burley, go the whole nine yards, fresh bait (and a SP outfit?) use these annoyingly high winds to advantage if possible, enjoy the hunt, and if it calms long enough a venture out onto the sand, it can come up trumps, it’s generally very slow going and very short bite times out in the Gulf right now but it's still possible to get big bends in the rod out on the sand drifting the Soft Plastics. I've had the best success with the stealthy approach of ultra light line, the small Catch Sparkling Anchovies and not much twitch...

Total Recall

Actually, even to a novice fisho like me this last summer was one of the best in my short memory. And you know what – the baitfish have been more prolific than ever. Mind you I don’t have any solid data on this, or maybe I’m noticing them more, but it does appear to me that there has been more fish food of various sizes in the Hauraki and Waitemata. This may be one of the reasons there has been good Snapper being caught right through winter. I mean really, there has been so many similarities between the outstanding summer of fishing we’ve had and the pretty darn good winter fishing overall. Drifting SPs and flasher rigs just a few nautical miles east of Tiri and north of Takatu in the midst of winter has been producing Snapper and Gurnard of good quality and size. OK so it’s not as ‘Mental As Anything’ like during summer but I tell ya, between fishos in the shallows, some drift fishing and the odd frenzied workup you can’t really complain too much.

Scallops are on the menu again, the Mussels, Pipis and Tuatuas around the place are mighty tasty (and really cheap if you want to buy ‘em in the shop). One of the last windy storms to hit the shores sure stirred things up. I spied a few Scallops washed up on a beach I never would have considered before. It’s not difficult to start dazzling the homes fires with some incredibly good tasting shellfish, fresh fish fillets (you don’t need many to fill the plates with shellfish on top), a refreshment and a grand night of culinary delight is assured – with it’s due rewards. Even the Squid of the edible kind from the shop the other day at just a $1.45 was a great change in the wok on the BBQ, hot Indian fish curry spices and...wow!

Looks like a weather window for a quick fish in a few days… so in my best Captain James T.Kirk/William Shatner impersonation….”Spock – we must, go, fishing”.