Biting Back in the Bay with Pinky Green

There were fairly large numbers of boats out in Western Bay Of Plenty waters over the weekend, but reports of large numbers of fish being caught or fishing big success stories were very few.

Russ Hawkins (Fat Boy had a very slow start on Saturday in the Middle Ground but as the day wore on the catch tally rose concluding with 40 tarakihi, two pan-sized snapper, seven large kahawai, and one john dory, for the five anglers .

Brett Keller (Manutere) headed out to Motiti Island and in the Middle Ground for much of the time contending with strong currents found it hard going.

However by the end of fishing regular anglers aboard had between 14 to 16 tarakihi each. There were also a few snapper catches and one red snapper.

Arch McTainsh (Enterprise) had an educational trip at the weekend taking the opportunity to do a little fishing and collect enough tarakihi at the Four Mile and the Middle Ground.

Among those small boat fishing a couple of anglers spent over four hours fishing around the Five Mile on Sunday, but caught no fish.

However, a couple of visiting anglers fishing at the South East corner of Motiti landed nine good sized snapper and two kahawai.

At Pukehina small boat anglers fishing close inshore late last Friday afternoon caught three snapper and one kahawai, and surfcasters at the Eastern beaches reported quite a few landing one or two snapper each last weekend.

Apparently the only Papamoa kontiki fisher having regular successes recently owes it to the fact that he is also the only one prepared to brave the early morning dark and cold conditions, which is when he says the fish are there.