Biting Back in the Bay with Pinky Green

There were very few fishing in the Western Bay of Plenty during the last week.

However occasionally a few anglers decided to ignore the stories and forecasts of bad or impossible conditions and rely on their own judgment. Then sometimes it did turn out to be an acceptable day both in the conditions, and the availability of fish.

Brett Keller (Manutere) last Thursday fished around Motiti and picked up a ‘not too bad' quantity of tarakihi with some snapper and trevally. Saturday in the same area but different spot the tarakihi fishing was ‘quite good'. They had been ‘consistently doing well' - it was just a case of looking round for the good spot, Brett said.

A private party of anglers last week went out to the Mayor Knolls searching for any of the hapuku species, and did land some bluenose and a good sized bass. They also did reasonably well fishing for tarakihi, and rated their fishing as ‘quite good enough'.

Small boats and kayaks off Papamoa and other beaches have been making reasonable catches of tarakihi, snapper, and John Dory. Saturday two kayaks together brought in four John Dory and eight snapper.

Our regular Papamoa kontiki fisher last Thursday battled a strong current trying to get his kontiki out, struggled even more to bring it back in, and caught nothing. However another regular kontiki fisher last Friday night brought in four large snapper with the heaviest at 3.6kg, and Monday this week another Papamoa kontiki fisher in one set brought in two kahawai, one snapper, and a stingray.

At Pukenina Beach a cruising seal just offshore got the blame for any local fish shortages.