Game fishing on the west coast is starting to fire, with marlin and tuna being hooked from small boats all the way up the coast from Raglan to Hokianga.
Off Auckland a large black marlin was reported from the area directly out from the Manukau Harbour, while boats fishing out of Raglan are hooking up four or five marlin at a time in "pack attacks."
As so often happens with this type of fishing, getting the marlin to stay on the hook is another question and most are lost.
The first marlin of the season was weighed at Raglan about 10 days ago, and as long as the conditions remain favourable for trailer boats to head offshore, there will be a lot of boats off the west coast this weekend.
"There are albacore and skippies everywhere, and the snapper fishing has been good," said one local angler. There have been few boats fishing off the Kaipara Harbour, but this weekend should see more heading out for a look.
In the Bay of Plenty marlin are being caught off Red Mercury Island and at Whakatane the annual tuna tournament started on Wednesday with 670 anglers on 170 boats looking for the tuna which have been elusive in the past week.
After the first day tuna up to 54kg had been caught, but most fish weighed were under 20kg. However, large numbers of marlin have been reported off Whakatane and a blue marlin of 315kg was brought in by a Rotorua team on Wednesday night.
The marlin and tuna are reported to be in close in water between 30m and 60m.
Three marlin in five days of fishing earned the winning team in the Bartercard-Furuno Game Fishing Challenge 2000 tournament at Tutukaka last week $80,000 in cash plus other prizes.
The Black Watch team of Craig Torckler, Graeme Pritchard and Tony Kinzett tagged two striped marlin and weighed a blue marlin of 203kg to head off 190 other teams in the tournament. There were 15 marlin, 24 sharks and 10 tuna landed; and 40 marlin were tagged and released.
Snapper fishing has slowed over the phase of the full moon, but the next week should see an improvement. There are still a lot of juvenile snapper in most areas, and in bright sunlight these small fish are more likely to be hooked.
The best way to avoid hooking and hurting the baby snapper is to use larger hooks and tougher baits like squid or mullet. When a small fish is being released, holding it upside down will stop it wriggling and make it easier to remove the hook without damaging the fish.
If it has swallowed the hook it is better to cut the trace close to the mouth and release it, rather than trying to twist out the deeply set hook. Most hooks will rust away in time and the fish has a better chance of survival.
Trout are moving into deep water in the deep lakes at Rotorua and Taupo, and on Lake Rotorua the cold water stream mouths are starting to fish well.
Anglers fly fishing at night at the mouth of the Awahou Stream are hooking what are believed to be big brown trout which are proving difficult to stop, even with heavy trace material.
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