Fresh Bay of Plenty Fishing Reports

8th November 2025.. this time of year is usually hard on the fishing front as we are bang in the middle of spring and summer, with algae blooms everywhere and cold water still around but this November so far is different with the offshore water clear and blue and teaming with hungry snapper! My crew of 3 heading out to the Aldermen Islands in search of the normally elusive November snapper and upon reaching the islands it was clear there was very little current and a breeze from the south which usually spells disaster on the fishing front. We moved around to afew different locations until we the slightedt bit of flow out the back of the boat but thats all we needed with the 1st baits getting snaffled up not long after hitting the water. The next few provided much of the same with solid fish coming aboard consistently throughout the morning. Everyone taking home a good feed with many, many nice fish released to fight another day...

Italian angler Libero and his wife Sonia booked us for a honeymoon fishing adventure and what a great day it was! The plan was to fish solely with lures so off we set with a full arsenal up in the rocket launcher. 1st drop onto a deep reef produced the biggest fish of the day, a 40 pnd kingfish smashing the jig on the first drop, another big fish hitting the jig afew drops later that pulled alot of line before pulling the hook. Next a sizable barracouta before we headed into some shallower ground where we caught multiple snapper, pink maomao and even a big squid. At days end we headed in with a thousand casts behind us and memories made for life..

Will Barnett from San Diego USA only had time for a short half day morning trip but his dream was to catch a 40-50 pound yellowtail kingfish. Bait was a little hard to catch but we manzged to secure about a dozen jack mackerel before hesding to a reef that holds some nice kingfish at times. Sure enough 1st bait in the water nails a nice little 15 pnd king that grts returned quickly back home. Next bait hooks a monster of a kingfish that steamrolls Will into the reef leaving us dussapointed but also excited. Next bait again hooks a large kingfish and as the fish comes into view a 400pnd bronze whaler shark comes out of the depths to engulf our kingfish before our eyes! Running low on baits and time we move to a spot 2 mins from the boat ramp and upon putting the bait in the water it immediately gets monstered by a yet unseen fish. Lucky we were still over a sandy bottom with no chance of getting reefed so after a battle of 15 mins the huge kingfish comes into view and what a monster it was! Making the decision to keep this one fish we hauled it aboard. The smile says it all! Well done Will!

Its that time of year when the Snapper start there migration to the spawning grounds and spring is a great opportunity to take advantage of there good numbers on the open ocean beaches. On a recent trip with an Aussie client we unfortunately had much windier weather than the forecast suggested making fishing tough but looking at the Simrad electronics there were certainly plenty of fish showing. We caught fish in the inclement conditions and left wondering how we would've gone had the conditions been in our favour!

We've done so many trips since our last report its hard to nail down one great one because there has been so many! These fish are just a small sample of some lovely fish that have hit the deck of Strikezone over the last few months. Spaces are starting to fill for the coming summer so get in now so you dont miss out. Cheers Capt Jason Strikezone Sportfishing NZ

After getting busted off by some big kingfish our Australian angler did well to stop and hold onto this beast estimated at 30-35kg! It was nice to see it swim away strongly hopefully giving another fishermen to catch it again and experience the same thrill...