Bay of Islands Fishing Report 3Oct24

Isla, fishing with her dad Manny, caught and released this beautiful snapper.

Back in the Bay! And its alive with whales and dolpins. Fantastic day had observing bryde’s whales on one side, common dolphins on another and a pod of bottlenose dolphins – all at the same time. There were a few birds around but nothing really fired up however we did a few drifts at varying depths and caught enough for dinner. I currently have a hunger for tarakihi so when the snapper fishing is slow we head out to 60-65m and find the blue fuzz sign near the bottom. The trusty old black magic tarakihi terror ledger rig is my go to and accounts for some nice sized tarakihi destined for the table.

With the school holidays a number of families are staying and enjoying the great fishing. Manny reports he caught a very large snapper at around 60m depth, which was released. He was in such a hurry to sink the fish with a release weight that he forgot to take a photo but his daughter Isla verified it was big! I believe you Manny! Isla, not be outdone by Dad, is catching some crackers too!

Local fisher people have been doing well with Ryan catching a nice 68cm snapper off his kayak. Craig and Carl report some insane bites but it’s a matter of being in the right place at the right time as they seem to be very short lived. With fishing, you never know what you might catch. I was retrieving the lazy 7” softbait at the 60m mark, when I felt something hit it which then went slack then tight. What a surprise to reel in a frost fish!

A Frost fish on a softbait – that’s a first for me!
The most satisfying part of running a fishing tackle store is selling and rigging a combo, then having the customer return to tell how they caught a nice fish with it, particularly the kids! It’s a shame that the weather is not playing ball so fishing opportunities are somewhat limited for the next few days. Time to check the gear, retie some Fluro leaders and get ready for the next weather window.