Raewyn Ensor Blue Ocean Fishing Charters

On Sunday, August 12, the reef fishing in the Bay of Plenty was running hot. Weather conditions were perfect so skipper Scott headed out to one of his favourite spots anticipating targeting some nice winter tarakihi.

Low and behold someone had beaten him to it and they were happily anchored up, catching fish. ‘Oh well, there are plenty of options’ thought Scott, so they carried on to the next mark in about 70m. Anchoring up, the lines went over the side loaded up with tasty tuatua and squid.

Everyone hooked up on fish straight away, which caused an excited buzz around the boat. There were sinkers hitting the deck, calls for the gaff and chilly bins quickly filling. Tarakihi were definitely the flavour of the day with a gurnard, some snapper and a surprise catch of a small hapuka. The guy who caught that fish had been told by a friend to use trout for bait for hapuka, so he brought some out to try. To everyone’s surprise he was successful. The fishing is definitely improving in the deeper water and the tarakihi are moving shallower. There were plenty of double hook-ups and some triples as well.