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Fish with Bish Newsletter
February 1999

Well, what a Xmas break down here in our little corner of the world – magic weather – magic fishing – fresh or salt – just brilliant – we don’t know how lucky we are.

In fact ‘lucky’ could pretty well sum up my Xmas – as the new article will show – I sure as hell was lucky – nearly as lucky as I was stupid – read on….

New Article –
Little Things Mean a lot
The distance between disaster and delight can be a very short step indeed. A case in point………

The Jury is Out
While fishing at Lake Otamangakau over the Xmas break I was lucky enough to coincide my trips with the Cicada Hatch. Now this is something else – cicadas all over the water and fish gobbling them down, but it can be frustrating. The big O has a well deserved reputation for being a hard place to fish – plenty of fish, but plenty of feed.
There will be an article on this type of fishing coming soon in a NZ Fisherman magazine near you. But here is an interesting fact from my diary….
I caught 15 fish in 3 trips up to the Lake, including a ten pound Brown and several Rainbows over 7 pound.
I did not catch one fish when using a Cicada imitation on its own, but when I used a Cicada with a little nymph suspended a foot or two below the Cicada I caught fish. Interestingly enough 7 of the fish were caught on the nymph, 8 on the Cicada. You figure it out.

Information Please
For some time now I have tried to get information on the principles behind the efficacy of Tuna Circle (a.k.a recurve, JAP, or longline) hooks. These shaped hooks have been around for aeons, but I can find little info on why they are so effective at hooking up.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Back to Little Things
I got into some hot snapper fishing up at the Bay of Islands recently. I caught a couple of good fish and despite the fact that the leader had taken a bit of a hiding, ‘buck fever’ took over and after the second fish I hooked up another big bait and fired it out.
Almost immediately something grabbed it and took off.
After a few minutes I could see a big (very!) snapper in the crystal clear water below the boat. The rod bucked and I watched the snapper bolt for the bottom. Unfortunately it bolted away without any hindrance from me or my gear. Winding in I found the leader had broken not far above where the hook would have been.
Silly boy! For the sake of a few seconds to renew the leader I lost a very big fish. Yet again that old adage, little things mean a lot, bounced back to haunt me.

Great Fishing
We seem to be having a great season – big numbers of snapper and kingfish – the marlin and tuna are in with a vengeance – and the hot weather is providing some excellent dry fly fishing for trout – and it can only get better.

But remember, keep safe out there!

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