B) Went to Ohiwa last Saturday morning. Arrived on turn of high tide and did a drag for two flounder and then set the net for another three as the tide ran out. Ohiwa was relativewly free of weed and the grandson learnt a fair bit, which was the general idea anyway. As they had to return to Hamilton, we could not stay the night to use the lights and spears but we had an enjoyable morning. The tides look good for tomorrow to we might go back. I think we could have caught more fish if we had done some plonking in the channels uptream of the net. The mud was quite deep and would have held several hiding fish. Saw 2 kayakers fishing the main channel near the entrance to the harbour but do not know how they got on.

Cheers.

thanks for the update.
wonder if the kayakers were fishing for flounder. I always wanted to try spearing flounder from a kayak. Not so sure if it would work though.

No. Those kayakers were set up with rods and had been fishing a deep hole in the main channel. However, I have seen blogs where kayakers mounted lights over the side or through the hull and speared flounder while drifting over the mudflats on an incoming tide. I tried this once from my punt, but unless the flounder happen to be right near your boat, and on your side you cannot reach them with the spear, so I found wading allowed better coverage. Wading and towing the boat is a good safe way though, in case you step into a deep hole or channel.Lighting will be no good this weekend because of wind.

yeah I thought it might be difficult from a boat cause of the limited mobility.
Towing the boat seems like a good idea. Last time I didn't dare to go to some places because it got a bit too muddy and deep and I was afraid I might get stuck somewhere. Had I towed my kayak I probably could have gotten there.

Back into the upper reaches of Ohiwa on boxing day. Caught 20 flounder and 1 Parore in 2 sets. There were a lot of Kahawai feeding on low tide in the eveneing as well. I will take some spinning outfits over there next time!

Went out from Mt Manganui on 4th Jan. Caught several Albacore as we trolled toward Motiti Island, on a bleeding mackerel skirted Sperry "Little Shimmy" lure, and when we arrived about 1 NM off the SW end og the island, set a longline and caught some nice snapper in small patches of kelp. It was the first test of the new small boat in open sea. It is a Kingfisher 4.3 built by Kim Bertelson in Mt Manganui. Powered by a 30hp Tohatsu. We did 36nm this day on 24 litres of petrol. Very happy with the boat and motor so far.
The weather has not been suitable for open sea work for us since, but weather permitting we might do some harbour fishing this weekend.

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Mid 2011 we (wifey and me) did a couple more trips to Motiti Island catching some nice nice snapper each time.:)
Last Thursday 5th Jan 2012 we went to Ohiwa estuary. High tide was about 0430 and we set our net up a small side channel by 0645. Quite a bit of Kahawai activity wherever we looked. Lifted the net at low tide and took 6 medium sized yellow belly flounder and a fat kahawai plus a few gilled yellow eyed mullet. Released a couple of undersized flounder. Resest on dead low and waited till 1645. Quite strong wind had developed so had to kedge the boat on long rope so net could be retrieved into our boat without turning it inside out. Lifted another 7 good flounder. A worthwhile and very pleasant day out. Full grown flounder were not present so I think they will run in from the open sea as summer progresses. We will go back when the present rotten weather improves.:)

We love our Kim Bertleson built boat; ideal for our inshore fishing, longlining and netting.

Back to Ohiwa yesterday. Sert net 2 1/2 hours after high tide and hauled out an hour before low. 7 good flounder.
Went snapper fishing remainder of day and through next high -low turn. no snapper , and none to anyone else either. Something did take one bait and chewed tyrough the trace. No idea what it was. Apparently a few snapper and kahawai were caught Thursday.
Cheers.

Was perhaps a shark that chewed through your trace.

This year's snapper season is really slow going.

Had some good action in December during their spawning - but at the moment its very quiet out there. Hope it gets better in February.

At least you got yourself a couple of nice flounders. I gotta go and spear some - love flounder taste and prefer them to snapper. Snapper fishing is more exciting though :-)

Have you ever tried to catch some flounder with rod and reel?

Felt like a soft snapper take. The line was cut above the sinker, so may have been a competing fish.
I am sure the snapper are in there, but very shy. Next time we will take a good supply of burly and concentrate on a couple of holes.
Thought about fly fishing for flounder but usually there is too much ripple to spot them in daylight. Will give it a go sometime in calm weather.

The tides are better in the next few days. maybe i will go back.:P

I'm quite interested in catching flounder either on a fly or with lures.
Tried with softbaits - but no luck so far...

Good luck with the snapper fishing. Really slow going here in Auckland too.
But should get better over the next few weeks.