Ben Devereaux and his crew of Tara Iti greenkeepers enjoyed a great day out with us this week. Good to see locals out there and nice for them to see their beautiful golf course from the ocean side. The water was a beautiful blue, and we could see the immaculate green of the course as we looked back.
Everyone caught some nice fish, drifting baits in the 50m mark. They must have had a good trip as they’ve already booked the next one!
While backpacking around NZ, Rory had heard how good the fishing is out of Mangawhai Heads so he decided to charter Fishmeister in an effort to better his PB – to date this was a Mackerel caught back home in Scotland. No problem said skipper Mike! In fact the first fish caught was a large blue Mackerel which Rory was very happy about. Much to his surprise though the fish did not go in the bin but had a large live bait hook surgically inserted through it’s nostrils & sent back to the depths on a “search & seek reconnaissance trip”. Rory could not believe his luck when the Mackerel starting heading West at a phenomenal rate of knots. After putting the reel into gear & striking Rory realised that something big was on! 10 minutes later a nice kingi was welcomed aboard Fishmeister. Needless to say Rory’s PB record was smashed! Reckon the photo tells the story.
FISHMEISTER AUTUMN TIP – The Hen & Chicks this autumn has produced a lot of good kingis! Find the bait fish……berley up a storm…….catch a live bait & then send it down into the berley trail on reconnaissance & you have a good chance of converting that Mackerel to a kingi!!
More Fishmeister tips coming soon.
Francois treated the crew from Rural Design to a beauty day out at the Mokes on Wednesday. The kingis pictured were hooked up slow trawling a live bait & fast retrieving a popper through schooling Trevally. In the background of the photo is the Navarre rocks……one of Fishmeister’s favourite destinations at the Mokohinau Islands. The day also produced some good snapper straylining at Fanal Island.
Cheers to Francois……au revoir & a safe trip back to France. We look forward to seeing you aboard Fishmeister when you visit back down under!”
Took a great bunch of guys out to the Hen & Chicks on Sunday morning. They were all experienced fishos and brought their own good quality gear. We spent a pleasant morning catching kahawai, trevally and mid-size snapper. Next thing we know, Brooke is hauling a 26lb snapper aboard. Great celebrations all round and the snapper weight was confirmed by Doug at the local Top Catch.
Great day out guys – look forward to having you on board again!
We headed out to the Mokes yesterday with a team of four keen fishermen.
The morning started out tough with some challenging conditions – a nor’easterly swell with a 20 knot southerly chop on top made for a tricky crossing with windscreen wipers on to ward off the sea spray for most of the journey.
However the day came right for us and we had a great afternoon afternoon straylining in calmer conditions.
Among the plentiful catch were trevally, good size snapper and it was all topped off with a nice size kingi.
It was great having you on board guys.
What a great day out at the Mokes. The original plan was to spend the day at the Hen & Chicks, but the weather was so beautiful the crew voted to head to the Mokes. The fishing was superb with a variety of species on offer. Mark caught his personal best snapper, weighing in at Top Catch at over 21lbs. Our father and son team both hooked up at the same time, and managed to take time out to give us a smile. All round great fishing and great company – look forward to seeing you again soon.
We had a fabulous trip out to the Mokohinaus yesterday. John and his crew have been on Fishmeister before. Last time we went just to the Hen & Chicks – this time we had beautiful weather so headed straight out to the Mokes. Although some good snapper were there to be caught, the target species of the day were deep water reef fish – particularly grandaddy hapuka.
We were treated to an abundance of good size deep water reef fish – check out the photo of the proud angler holding up his grandaddy hapuka!
Thanks John – great to have you on board again.
This was tough winter fishing. Not a lot of fish about but those that came on board were absolute beauties. Estimated weight of this trophy snapper was in excess of 8kgs. This was caught stray lining with one of Fishmeister’s hire rods, the Shimano Thunnus, floating pilchard with no weight and Jason did a great job to land this fish.
We tried to release this beauty but unfortunately the struggle was too much for him and he wouldn’t have survived. Instead the plan was to send him off to the smokehouse for everyone to enjoy.
All in all a great day out.
This weekend saw some beautiful sunsets out on the water following a warm almost-summer’s day. The fish were jumping – with plenty ending up in the chilli bin – and the hen was looking at her best. Check out the sunset photo as we leave.
Ted was hot on the rod with the catch of the day – well done.
The big treat for us yesterday was a hump back whale travelling right alongside us for a while. Unfortunately out of 4 cameras on board, no-one got a decent shot so you’ll just have to believe us!!!
Looking forward to a great summer of fishing. The water is warming up and the bar has been treating us well. Come along and find out for yourself.
Winter fishing has been challenging due to weather conditions, cold water temperatures & less “bite times” which has meant catching less fish overall. That said there are still plenty of good size fish for those that are prepared to put in that extra effort. Some good fish have been caught drifting in deeper water but the best results have been in close with lots of berley & large floating baits on stray lines….. in particular out at the Mokohinau Islands which seems to hold good fish all year round. Pictured here is young Ben & Lewis who had their first trip ever out to the Mokes & did well to pull some good snapper out of the shallow kelp beds on the eastern edge of the main island.
