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From surfing to fishing

Posted on by Fishmeister Nice catch boys

 

We recently welcomed Blake, Noah and Jackson on board Fishmeister for a trip to the Hen & Chicks. These Tara Iti guests have previously been out surfing with our local surf school but this time decided to try their hand at fishing the local waters.

It was typical winter fishing with lots of small snapper keeping us busy throughout the day. After lots of berley we were able to land a couple of trophy resident snapper and the boys were able to feed the family.

We really enjoyed having you on board and would love to see you back another day!

25lb snapper – yahoo!

Posted on by Fishmeister Brian's personal best

The salty sea dogs from Mangawhai Fishing & Boating Club came out on Fishmeister this week. Day 1, we headed out 110km north of Mangawhai for some deep sea fishing. Awesome to have the weather for this and beautiful to share some sea bass with friends. Very hard work though dragging up sharks from 380m deep, only to send them back again! Big thanks to Johan from Saltwater Connections, Whangarei, for putting us on the spot out wide and providing all the bait.

Day 2 was the Mokohinaus with another gorgeous day. The snapper were hungry and angry, and just got bigger and bigger. The catch of the day was caught by Brian, long-time stalwart of the Mangawhai Fishing Club, at one of Fishmeister’s favourite stray lining spots at the Mokes. This was Brian’s personal best, with an official boat club weigh-in at 11.24 kilos (almost 25 pounds). Congratulations Brian – we will soon see this fish mounted at the boat club.

Fishmeister cleans up!

Posted on by Fishmeister

Well it’s a long time since we’ve posted. Mike has finally recovered from his knee replacement and is back in action on the water.

Yesterday was the annual Mangawhai Boating & Fishing Club Easter tournament and Mike took a few locals out aboard Fishmeister to enjoy the day. The Hen & Chickens were at their absolute best and Mike managed to get the crew quickly onto some good fishing.

Ben Leese came home with his personal best kingfish at 970mm – 1st prize in the kingfish category.

Dean Bright picked up his personal best snapper, winning first prize with an impressive 10.35kgs.

Thanks so much to The Waterboy for their generous sponsorship and to the fishing club organisers for a great day.

As you can see, the fishing is awesome at the moment so join us on the water soon.

Kingi for Christmas

Posted on by Fishmeister Christmas Kingi

Stephanus brought his family and friends out for a day on Fishmeister yesterday. A challenging sou’wester meant we could only fish a few of our regular spots on the hen.

Despite the weather, we managed to get onto some good size snapper, some really good size trevally and all topped off with a couple of kingis. The one shown here weighed in at over 10kgs!

These great fishermen are all soon to be locals to Mangawhai so welcome to the community team! You’re off to a great start.

Napier visitor very happy with winter snapper

Posted on by Fishmeister plugs 14lb snap

We ventured out both Saturday and Sunday this weekend with visitors from Napier. These guys couldn’t believe the difference between fishing down in Hawkes Bay open waters to the beautiful islands and scenery just off Mangawhai Heads. They were even more impressed with the large resident snapper we brought on board as all they’ve been catching down there lately is gurnard.

Saturday was a bit rough going with the winds still high and the fish not biting. We were so glad we made the effort to get out again on Sunday. The weather was still a bit blowy so the lee of the Hen was the perfect spot for us. Stray lining the berley trail with no weight and whole pilchards was the most productive for us and we managed to bring some beautiful snapper, the best one being 14lbs.

The Napier boys said they’ll be back!

Sometimes the fish win…

Posted on by Fishmeister

With a break in the weather finally, we headed out on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the southerly was still blowing at approx 20 knots but we managed to tuck in behind Taranga Island.  Unfortunately the water temperature had just dropped to around 15 degrees which seems to have made the fish lethargic & difficult to bring on the bite!  There were plenty of schools of juvenile snapper around so after giving them a good feed we decided to try something different.  Although only a half day trip was planned, we stayed out for the full day & ended up stray lining the shallows which ended up producing some nice pannies which made the day worthwhile.

Sunday looked more promising with the wind easing up so out we headed out again. Fishing the deeper water was easier due to lighter winds so we did manage to bring some bigger fish on the bite this time although they were still playing hard to get.  Stray lining in close to the mainland again proved to be the most productive with several good size snapper and a lot of fun with kahawai on the light gear.  All in all pretty damn good considering the cold southerly blast we’ve just experienced!  Winter fishing should get better & better from here on in.

Soft baiting still works in winter…

Posted on by Fishmeister Winter soft bait

Yesterday we fitted a new sonar module to Fishmeister so headed out across the Mangawhai Bar to test the unit. Although we hadn’t planned on fishing, we just couldn’t resist the temptation to flick a quick softbait over the side. Within a few minutes this large panny willingly hopped on board. It just goes to show that soft baiting can work in winter. On this day the water temperature was 15.8C and the fish was caught just outside the Mangawhai Heads sand bar. We took the opportunity to catch a few kahawai to round out dinner. The kahawai at this time of year seem to be a lot smaller than in summer, but they were prolific…and very tasty!

A quick after-work fishing trip

Posted on by Fishmeister Quick after work fishing trip to the Hen and Chicks

Today a local builder and electrician downed tools a bit early to join us out on the briny. By the looks of things, there were plenty of other boaties with the same idea! The forecast was good so we headed out to Taranga Island (the Hen) and started out at the far eastern point. Here we put down the anchor and got a berley trail underway. Within minutes we had some good kahawai in the bin and shortly afterwards found a massive school of trevally – lots of fun . After 20 or 30 minutes we started to catch some reasonable snapper but the nor’easter kicked in and swell started to make things a little difficult. There are so many options out here it wasn’t difficult to go to plan B. Off we headed to the sheltered western end of the island where once again we put down the anchor and got another berley trail underway. This time the target species was snapper and that’s what we caught – and plenty of them.

What a great way to wind down after a day at work. We finished the day in flat calm conditions while watching a beautiful sun set over Bream Bay. The journey home just after sunset was easy with a relatively flat calm bar.

Swarms of snapper

Posted on by Fishmeister Snapper and kahawai caught at the Hen and Chickens with Fishmeister

Sun and awesome conditions made for a top afternoon out in a combined sightseeing and fishing trip for a group of guests, with a keen photographer on board.

After a glassy smooth bar crossing, we headed up the coast to take in Anderson’s Cove – only accessible to the public by sea – then out to see Sail Rock up close, the first time our passengers had been out on the water in this area.

Time to get fishing and we found ourselves a sheltered spot on the northern side of Taranga Island, where there were swarms of baby snapper that went on to swim another day!

We got the burley going to attract some bigger fish and that did the trick, resulting in a good haul of snapper as well as a kahawai. Turns out we had a big enough catch that nobody wanted the parrot fish who was keen to come on board, so he went back as well!

It was a fast trip back to Mangawhai and the breeze had come up just a bit so our passengers got to see waves over the bar in action before heading home with bags full of fish.

All in all, an excellent afternoon out in one of our favourite fishing spots.

Ocean going kahawai

Posted on by Fishmeister

We took advantage of a break in the weather on Wednesday to take a quick trip to the Hen and Chicks. We decided to try out some new spots.

As usual, plenty of good snapper and an abundance of large ocean going kahawai which were a lot of fun on the light soft bait tackle. We had difficulty reaching the snapper through the huge schools of kahawai! The kahawai were particularly voracious, taking pilchards, squid, soft bait and lures. So we took the opportunity to have a bit of fun – catching large, strong kahawai on light tackle is always great fun.

We rate kahawai as one of the best fish, both from a power to weight ratio, making them fun to catch, but as a great eating fish both fresh and smoked. Although we were only out for a few hours, we managed to bring home plenty of food for the family.

Nice to have had a break from the windy weather to get out there. The bar was fairly tame and the sun was shining.