THREE 'O' EIGHT FISHING LTD
Fishing charter out of Kawhia, North Island, New Zealand

Season update:

Well the spring snapper spawn is once again over for another year. It has at times been a most frustrated season what with the weather and at times the lack of a consistent run of good West Coast fish.

The month of October was a good one weather wise and the fish seemed to be moving in from out wide and some good spawning fish were caught on the trips which we did. We then looked forward to the month of November as fishing wise it was shaping up to be a very good month

Then November came along with our charter book for the month nearly full and the weather gods just seemed to turn their backs on the West Coast and the month turned out to be a bad one for a charter operation such as ours and a good one for the snapper. May be this is why our snapper stocks are so good. Any way I think we had about 27 days booked and we only managed to do 9 trips for the month. Three of those days were in my view marginal conditions but our groups said if you can get across the bar we will fish what ever the conditions are. Thankfully the fish were biting and they came home with some good fish in the bin.

December was a great month weather and we had some great days on the water. But at times the fishing was slow then suddenly they would bite and it would be all on, with some really good fish being caught by some very happy crews. We took our last charter for the month on the 23rd and then we shut down for the Christmas and new Year break.

Looking back on the snapper season it was not the best that we have had due to the weather and at times an on and off bite time during any particular day. I think our worst day was only 6 snapper caught by about 8 anglers. That was a bad one, the pressure was on. When we came back in to Kawhia we got the scallop dredge out and got them a good feed of these tasty fish. Then we had days where we were back at the Kawhia wharf by mid day and with our limit bag. We had days where only double figure fish were caught then the very next day a lot of small fish came on board. Just one of those seasons.

Winner of the free days game are as follows. Syd Uerata, Roger Mita, Darren Quaife and Brent Spyve Well done guys you all caught trophy fish and I look forward to taking you out for a days game fishing. I think none of the four have done any game fishing so they are in for a great day.

Some of my mates and I went out after some Bluenose and Puka just before Christmas. We pulled in this 74.5 kg Bass. What a fish. Just goes to show you what is swimming around in the deep water off Kawhia.

We now look forward to some more Snapper and Kingfish charters and of course some serious Game Fishing charters. I have done two trips for Marlin so far and both trips we have hooked marlin only to have the hook pull and the fish swim away to fight another day. Some may say it is a bad start but it is early days yet. Hopefully we have a great season as all the signs are there for a good one.

Stop Press

We are one the board as on the 18th of Jan we Tagged and Released this nice Striped Marlin at the Mokau Trench. Same angler who caught the big bass a couple of weeks before so he has had a couple of good trips out wide. Well done Kohi Te Kanawa. Also some nice Blue Nose caught in the dead of night in the middle of the Mokau Trench on the same trip. Skipper Paul Cleaver holds up a nice 28 kg Blue Nose.

Striped Marlin	Blue Nose

Winners of the competition we have been running over the snapper season are as follows:

Alan MacDonald, Taumarunui	Greg Booth, Auckland
Kelly Russell, Tokaroa	Brett Turner, Te Kuiti

Based out of the Kawhia harbour Crazy Horse is a 12 meter custom built walk around game fishing boat. With its twin 300 horsepower motors, it will have you cruising at twenty knots to any of the fishing hot spots out of Kawhia or beyond.

Crazy Horse is fitted out with the latest Raymarine chart plotter, fish finder and radar electronics. Fishing tackle is all the very latest Okuma products. These are for you to use free of charge which will cover any fishing adventure you wish to undertake on Crazy Horse.

Crazy Horse is surveyed for ten passengers in-shore fishing and for four passengers for your game fishing off-shore adventures.

The West coast fishery off Kawhia is relatively untouched due to its isolation. All species of fish abound in the area at certain times of the year from huge spawning Snapper, xos Kingfish, massive Bass and world record Striped Marlin. Crazy Horse is well placed to give you the ultimate fishing or any other adventure you wish to put together.

Have fun looking through our website and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

David Donald, Three 'O' Eight Fishing Ltd