Fishing Report - Issue 920

Your Weekly Fishing Report- Bought to you by The Mercury Bay Informer, Wayne Barnes, and Mercury Bay Marine.

With the first of the true sea breezes arriving three weeks ago, it won’t be long before our waters begin to get warmer. Fishing in general is picking up well with large snapper in the deeper waters around the Aldermen Islands and Sugarloaf, and abundant tarakihi in depths of 60m plus. In our recent Gull competition, we weighed a total of 60 snapper with 37 of these in the 2kg to 5kg range, perfect eaters.

Congratulations to Geoff Flyger on Dopamine for landing a southern bluefin tuna of 89.80kg on 60kg tackle.

Our next competition is our Labour Weekend Snapper Hunt, to be held on Saturday 24 and Sunday, 25 October with cash prizes for the first to fourth heaviest snapper and the average weight snapper. Lines in from 5:00am on Saturday and lines out by 4:00pm on Sunday. Weigh-in from 4:00pm to 5:00pm on each day of the competition, one fish per angler per day and one prize per angler. Members and non-members are welcome to participate and may register at our clubrooms between 5:00pm and 7:00pm on Friday, 23 October or pre-register any day prior at the clubrooms from 4:00pm. The entry fee is $30.00 for members and $35.00 for non-members.

Prize-giving will be held on Sunday 7:00 pm. For more information, contact Damien on (027) 309 3719 or Keith on (027) 475 8729.

Saturday is also the day when Matarangi, Tairua-Pauanui, Whangamata and Whitianga square off for the largest snapper of the day, with the winning club taking the Kilwell Sports Interclub Trophy (currently held by Whitianga).

On Saturday 21 and Sunday, 22 November the Tairua-Pauanui Sports Fishing Club will be formally celebrating the 40th anniversary of the formation of a “standalone” club (previously we were a courtesy weigh station for Whitianga). As part of the build up to this event, we will be running a new competition, the 40th Anniversary Grand Slam. Commencing on Saturday, 31 October and concluding on Saturday, 21 November, participants will be trying to catch seven different fish species - blue cod, gurnard, john dory kahawai, snapper, terakihi and trevally - with cash prizes for the heaviest three of each species. A new trophy, the Anniversary Grand Slam Trophy will be awarded to the angler who catches the heaviest combined weight of all seven species. The competition should be a lot of fun. For more information check out our website.

Our Fish of the Month for September was tarakihi and I was lucky enough to win this with a fish of 1.690kg, taking home a 40oz bottle of Black Heart Rum sponsored by Independent Liquor. Our Fish of the Month for October is yellowtail kingfish.

Tight lines,

Wayne Barnes