We launched just before 05h00 on Saturday and the sea was gorgeous, it was flat like a lake with a mirror finish, there was a light wind and the water surface temperature was 21.1 deg C and it slowly increased through out the day until 22.6 deg. C.
Initially we trolled some strip baits close in-shore but we just kept getting shad and so much time was wasted preparing the baits that we decided to go deeper after we finished a box of sardines. Out deeper we managed 2 small Kawakawa and 2 small Yellowfin Tuna and got back to the Marina at 10h30.
By 11h00 I was on my way out again with a new load of guests and the fishing became tough whilst the sea remained simply stunning. On this trip we were fishing drop shot and we really struggled and only managed to land 1 decent size Garfish. It is so frustrating when it is like this. We got back to the Marina at 15h30 and by the time I had cleaned the boat and was pulling the cover over the rain came down and so I just missed getting wet.
There were some Southern Right Whales around, and we were privileged to see a Manta Ray close up as he came right passed the boat, we also had a logger head Turtle come very close by and we saw a lot of Dolphins around.
On Sunday we got going at around 06h30 and again the sea was gorgeous with a light NE wind and the water surface temp was 22.1 deg. C. We went out deep looking for Yellowfin Tuna, whilst out in the deep we came across several humpback whales and one of them was sticking his tail out of the water and we saw some others breaching which is truly magnificent to see. There was not even an enquiry and so we decided to make our way closer in-shore.
We had just started heading in when the weather changed and a strong SW wind started to blow and the sea got very choppy, then the rain came. This also caused a change in barometric pressure and all over a sudden a reel screamed and we landed a small Kawakawa, and so we decided to stay out a little longer as I suspected that the fishing would improve which it did and although we did not find Yellowfin Tuna we managed to land 3 huge Bonnies all over 8Kg which gave us some real good sport.
By this time the sea was really choppy and uncomfortable and so we went into the sheltered area North of the harbour and fished drop shot where we caught some nice Sarda Sarda and had a lot of shad chasing our lures.
