Last week was a very good one. Monday we worked around the Lab and had a good day on the tarakihi.

Friday we started in close, but only small snapper and not very many, so we tried around Motiti and got onto more good size tarakihi.

Then an overnighter to Mayor and while the evening fish was ordinary, a dozen snapper or so, the Saturday was exceptional with big tarakihi everywhere we tried and lots of them.

Another o/nighter and after one fishless stop we anchored at Mayor and the guys had an excellent night fish, snapper, tarakihi, porae,trevally all coming up until about 1.30am. Sunday morning started slower but also picked up and ended up as good as the Sat. A bonus was a freejumping marlin seen both days [about 20m from the boat on Sunday].

The common denominator has been a lack of current compared to previously and the tarakihi are feeding harder as it gets a bit closer to spawning time. Very good to see.

The other things that have been noticeable are an influx of skippies and dolphin, both of which we normally see in Dec/Jan and right through the summer in quantity but not so much this year. The real bonus, touch wood is that the barracuda finally seem to have gone as the others have come in.

Just another demonstration of how much every season varies from year to year. People seem to think that one year's much the same as another, but the reality is that the variations from season to season are much greater than most realize, and catching your limit at spot x at high tide on the 27 Nov. is not a gaurantee that you'll do it next year.