Reports suggest the east coast is the place to be. One keen fisher has been putting his Pocket Sled kite out in the evenings off Orewa beach and taking home a couple of keepers every night.

A good return for an evening on the beach and a 3 hook rig run from a boat rod.

Orewa has also been producing fish for the boat longliner. Stephen Johnston & Nick Honeycomb put their boat longline out over the past weekend and caught their bag limit just off the beach.

Fish up to 10lb were caught using a Paul's Fishing Kiteslongline.

Auckland based fishers who are experienced with small dropper rigs like the flexiwing and Pocket Sled rigs could do very well on the south side of Whangaporoa in the predicted north westerlies on Saturday.

The big snapper are in very close. A 17lb and 12lb snapper were taken last weekend in water less than 2m deep, and only 300metres out, on the western end of Shakespeare Bay. Several kingfish were also hooked and lost. If you don't know how to rig your gear for intermittent foul these areas are best avoided.

There are a few sketchy reports coming from Pakiri Beach, but I have no details at this stage. I would be keen to hear from anyone fishing off Pakiri to let us know what is happening on the kitefishing scene.

As it looks like we might get a few westerlies nearer the weekend it would be good to have this information to share with everyone next week. So please send in a report if you go.

A visitor to our shop in Onehunga decided to buy a boat longline for his friend and they decided to try it out at Bowentown. They couldn't believe their luck, fishing in 40 feet of water they managed to catch snapper up to 10lb. The best set returned 18 fish off 25 hooks set. Certainly enough to take fish home for family and friends. The boat longline was rigged with the new Seaguard Longline Target Hooks we have available. I would think these fishermen won't be using any other hooks from now on and it's good to hear the Bay of Plenty is fishing so well.

Talking of Target Hooks, they are also working well off Rangitoto lighthouse. A snapper of 7lb was caught by one lucky angler while the rest of the crew on the boat were busy throwing away small fish. Don't waste your precious fishing time and bait, use the Target Hooks and you will be doing yourself and the fishery a favour.

Meola reef, off Kauri Point seems to be firing on the incoming tide. Don't think you have to be miles out, the upper harbour has been fishing well for a while now. Try early in the morning or evenings. Good fish are being taken in only 4 metres of water, so give it a go.

Tony Talbot from the Kitefishing Club was fishing at Mangawhai over the past weekend. He reports the snapper weren't huge, up to 2kg, but were still worth the effort considering he was catching when 8 or more on every set.

Apparently there was another kite fisherman nearby who put his dropper rig out about 500m offshore and got a good haul of snapper as well.

The Kitefishing Club have their monthly meeting this coming week, Tuesday March 5th. Go along and learn something new, where it's all happening and how to catch fish. Club night is the first Tuesday of every month at the Manukau Cruising Club, Orpheus Drive, 7.30pm.

They would be more than happy to share their knowledge with you.

The good news is the game fish are running on the west coast. The West Coast Tournament was held over Friday and Saturday last weekend. Although the weather wasn't that flash the keen fishermen were out there beyond the bar trying their luck. On the Friday two marlin were brought into the weigh station, a black marlin of 188 Kgs and a striped marlin of 114 Kgs. Saturday saw two yellowfin tuna weighed in at 38 Kgs and 37 Kgs. Ray Everson was out west in his boat taking 3m waves over the top in an effort to win the tournament. He had two marlin up to the boat, one in amongst the lures and the other free jumping off the back. A couple of mako sharks showed up but never took the lures offered to them. Not wanting to come home empty handed, Ray and his mates landed a few nice albacore up to 11 Kgs. These fish are beautiful smoked or fresh. Ray smoked a few and also cooked one albacore with onions, garlic, ginger and coconut cream. By all accounts this is a delicious way to eat albacore. Ray is no slug when it comes to fishing, he hooked and landed a 30 Kg kingfish out of Destruction Gully a few weeks back, so the kingfish are in the harbour as well as out on the coast.

It can only be a matter of time before someone will land a marlin or yellowfin tuna from the shore with the aid of a kite on the west coast. If anyone is targeting these gamefish landbased on the west coast we would like to hear from them.

I haven't had any reports of kitefishing on the west coast this week. Any fishers with information to share, I would be happy to hear from you.

Trish Rea
Paul's Fishing Kites