There have been some really good yellowfin landed already, and there’s also good yellowfin and marlin action underway on the east coast of the Coromandel too.

We’re sure we spotted a school of skippy only seven miles out in some beautiful blue water, and that means it’s well and truly worth throwing out the trolling gear now.

The yellowfin landed already seem to be in the 40 to 60 kilo mark, so really good-sized fish for sport and eating alike, with the fishy zone spread along the contour lines from directly east of Mayor Island in a line to west of White Island.

Without doubt as more boats are out trolling about the areas that are fishing well will become more apparent.

There are plenty of comps and events on run by the Tauranga Fishing Club if you care to participate HERE

And also the Whakatane Sport Fishing club HERE

The harbour is fishing really well at times now, with plenty of good sized snapper being caught quite shallow on the banks by the harbour entrance.  The temp is up to 19 degrees and this gets the fish pretty active.

Also fishing off Matakana and Town Point has been very good with some real stonker fish amongst the hauls, including 1 fish that looks to have broken the 30lb mark which was returned.

Change of light is often the key to a good session but that means getting up pretty early nowadays though!

Snapper fishing off all the beaches is almost at its best time of year now, as fish move in with the warmer temps, so small boats, kayaks, drone fisho's and the like can enjoy some good action off Papamoa etc.

We have been out a bit, and the kingies are about chasing jigs off most of the popular reef systems, including a couple of miles out past the Astrolabe where we were getting them, and plenty of good terakihi fishing in the 66 to 86 metre zone straight out from the harbour entrance.

Bites were pretty aggressive on the baits and dropper rigs using blue mackerel and skippy baits.

The water quality is really good and we had a great dive out at Motiti and got some nice crayfish 15 metres to 18 metres deep.

There been some ok bluenose fishing with fish around 12-15 kilos out at the Mayor Knolls, and having a deep drop is often worth a crack while the tide is slack, before heading out with the game gear to troll further eastward as the tidal movement picks up.

We usually try around March – April for bluenose as they are spawning and feeding up harder.

There has been a bit of publicity about the number of juvenile white sharks off Bowentown this year already, so if you are fishing here maybe reconsider the use of berley.

We look forward to enjoying a bit of decent fishing over the summer and hope you all have a great Christmas.

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Cheers

Russ

RUSS HAWKINS ...OWNER/SKIPPER FAT BOY CHARTERS

PH 5755986 OR 027 2863638

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