That's right. It's a big call, I know! The fishing over the past few weeks has been some of the best Snapper fishing action I have seen in the Hauraki Gulf. The Middle Gulf is fully loaded with big, fat snapper. Without a word of a lie, sometimes it's like fishing in a barrel. Some days we have seen fish sign on the sounder for miles and miles.

 

The Snapper are thick on the bottom and sometimes they're way up off the bottom feeding in amongst the baitfish. We are fishing with a variety of soft baits, jigs, and slow jigs at the moment. Lures rarely make it to the bottom and rods are bent over within seconds of dropping the lure over the side. Our captains are working frantically netting fish, removing hooks and re rigging lines. It’s absolute pandemonium when everyone on the boat is hooked up to solid fish at the same time and grown men squealing like little girls with excitement. Our customers have huge smiles on their faces and want to come back the next day. We are bringing home bag limits most days and the fish are generally big with 15 pound snapper quite common. On our last trip we caught three snapper around 18 poun! ds and a lot around the 15 pound mark.

 

It's a great time to test gear for durability. For those of you that don't know, one of the Wave Dancer captains, Paul Senior, designs and manufactures rods and tackle, and as a busy charter operation, we need it to be durable and last, and we hate tackle and lures that break. The latest lure from the Ocean Angler stable is the Jitterbug Inchiku Jig. We have been tweaking the hooks and testing different types of the rubber octopus skirts in amongst the very angry snapper. Testing is now finalized on this amazing jig, and Paul has selected small strong hooks and rubber skirts that are tough yet supple. Watch out for the Jitterbug Inchiku Jig that will be in the market late Novemember.

 

Back to the fishing, we are finding workups just about every day. They do move around a bit, however having our two identical boats out fishing most days, we are able to keep tabs on them and can generally hunt down the action in the typical Wave Dancer fashion..fast. We tend to fish out wide at the moment, often driving past the work ups closer to Auckland in favour of finding work ups which tend to have bigger fish and fewer boats. We like going wide out deep, using Wavedancer boats speed to get us out to where the big ones live.

 

Lastly, we are getting lots of calls from clients wanting to arrange end of year work function fishing trips, and often ask for a complete package that may include dinner, awards, and an extra element of fun. To meet this demand, we have started a new company called Buzz Events. We have packaged up 12 different events (2 of them feature Wave Dancer), so if you are looking for an awesome end of year function, check out www.buzzevents.co.nz

Bookings for charters are coming in thick and fast, so to avoid disappointment, either book online at www.wavedancer.co.nz or call our new booking coordinator, BJ, on 021 880 464.