Downunder New Zealand Report

[Wetspotnz]

Gidday from Down Under

Been a little while since my last post and I suppose im still getting over that great trip to Cairns and nailing my 1st, 2nd & 3rd Black Marlin and 1st Blue, soooo I thought I would keep you all updated on the start of the New Zealand season which has kicked off with a bit of a bang.

Our Primary warm water current which hits our East Coast every year has started to sweep in big time from the pacific and has brought some excellent runs of YFT, BFT, Big Eye, Striped and Blue Marlin and even a couple of Blacks have been hooked up in the North.

The Whitianga / Whangamata area in the Coromandle region South East of Auckland has accounted for the 1st Striped and Blue Marlin of the season and the 1st YFT with the largest I have recorded so far of approx 44kg / 97lb and nailed on a Stella 20000.



One of the 1st Striped Marlin weighed for the season was this nice speciman coming in at 101.65kg/222lb out of Tairua



And a 1st for angler Michael Fergus which was succesfully T&R with an estimated 110kg / 250lb





There has also been a Big Eye of 80kg/180lb landed out at the Aldermann Rise and the 1st of the Blues have been hitting the Coromandle area with fish being taken between 185KG and 275kg / 600lb and overall there have been reasonable runs of early YFT in the 20-40kg range with NZ's Tuna capital Whakatane duw to come on line any day.

Further up north off Karikari , there was a Black lost after an Epic 5 1/2 hour scrap on 37KG which was estimated at apprx 350Kg / 750lb.

Interestingly most fish have been taken in relatively Green water 19-20.5deg with the warmer Blue water just starting to show up off the coast and the early hot spot being the Coromandle east cost with the historicly renowned Whangaroa / Bay Of islands just starting to come on with good numbers of fish starting to show up and excellent bait schools.

For the West Coast, the Manukau has produced the 1st Striped Marlin and YFT of the season with only some rough seas holding boats and anglers back. Seems as though the Skipjack Tuna are in as close as the 100m mark of Piha /Bethalls which is only a sjort trip out through the nasty old manukau Bar.

All in all its shaping up to be one hell of a bumper season down under in New Zealand with the major hotspots for potential 1000lb fish like Waihau and Whangaroa still to see any real fish numbers.

Im sure that with the good weather of the last couple of days reports of more fish will come in over the next 24 hours so I will keep you all informed and hopefully with some more pictures.

Wetspot ZMY3868 "out"

[Anders]

Nice pics and thanks for the report, dang

[SeaBiscuit]

We appreciate the report and pictures. Keep 'em coming Wetspotnz!
SeaBiscuit

[HOLWACHAGOT]

New Zealand is on my dream list of places to go. Thanks for the nice shots and report.
Holwachagot