Fishing Report
It’s 9:00 am on Friday, 11 November, and I am sitting here in Tairua writing my monthly fishing report. It is currently raining heavily and has been doing so since 9:00 pm last night with more to come. A check of my diary shows there have only been six ‘fishable’ days, two of these only marginally so since my last report.
Last month I described fishing in our waters as ‘going gangbusters’ with some very good catches recorded. Alas, this month due to the heavily decreased effort, there is little to report even though our waters are warming to around 18 degrees wider out. However, crayfish are about in good size and numbers, in shallow water along the coastline between Tairua and Hot Water Beach.
One welcome exception with sea conditions occurred during the Labour Weekend Snapper Hunt which was fished on Saturday, 22 October and Sunday, 23 October. With 38 keen anglers heading out early Saturday morning by 9:00 am, most were back in the harbour, victims of a very brisk northerly breeze, which one contestant described as a “dirty north westerly swell of two meters”. Sunday was much better, with near perfect conditions and a Swell Map score of 8/10 and by the close of the day at 4:00 pm, 47 snapper had been weighed. The winner was Peter Millen, fishing on Xtreme with a fish of 4.93kg; second was Lance Williams, fishing on Peanut with a fish of 4.575kg; and third prize went to Stuart Bell with a fish of 3.415kg. Our commiserations go to Club Co-Patron, Arthur Larsen, who weighed a snapper of 5.5kg on the day but had not entered the competition due to the fickle weather.
The new concrete boat ramp at Paku has now been in operation for a month and reports are that it is working well. The next competition, the Anniversary Grand Slam commenced at 6:00 am on Saturday, 12 November and will conclude at 4:00 pm on Saturday, 10 December. Contestants will be required to weigh seven different species - blue cod, gurnard, john dory, kahawai, snapper, tarakihi and trevally (with a maximum of two fish per species per contestant over the duration of the competition). There will be cash prizes for first, second and third heaviest, and a special prize for nearest to average weight of each species, and the very sought-after Anniversary Grand Slam Trophy will be awarded to the contestant with the greatest aggregate weight for their heaviest of all seven species. If there be no contestant that weighs all seven species, then the trophy will go to the contestant with the greatest aggregate weight for any six of the species. Contestants can join the competition at any time during the duration of the competition but must do so no later than the evening prior to commencement of fishing. The entry fee is $30 for members, $35 for non-members and $15 for juniors. For more information, or to register online go to TPSFC.co.nz.
Fish of the month for November is John Dory and current leader is Tim Evans with a fish of .815kg. As John Dory are a species in the above competition, I feel Tim is going to need to do a lot better to get his hands on the one litre bottle of Black Heart Rum, sponsored by Asahi Beverages. Fish of the month for December is Yellowfin Tuna.
Tight lines
Wayne Barnes
Tairua Pauanui Sportfishing Club (TPSFC)