Hauraki Hotspots

Motuihe to Waiheke

By Bruce Duncan

The area from the eastern side of Motuihe to the top end of Waiheke offers a wide range of fishing opportunities – from fishing in huge rips of current to stray lining. One of the advantages of an area with such a strong current is that even if the wind is opposite to the tide, your boat will sit with the tide and is easy to fish from.

From as early as October right through to May, many hundreds of tons of snapper pass through this area. Like all areas, the moon phase, tidal run etc. will always play a part as to where the fish will be and how they will be feeding. The good thing about this area is if the fishing’s not too good where you have stopped, you generally don’t have to move far for another spot.

From north-west of Waiheke right through to the Eastern Beach area, the bottom is mainly sand with the odd bit of low foul. If you look at a chart and note how big an area it is from the island across to the eastern beaches, you get a better idea of why so many fish feed and transit the area in summer. All this sandy area is covered in crabs, shrimps and wriggly things as well as shellfish – even scallops — if you know where to go. So in my language, this area is one huge smorgasbord table that takes a lot of grazing.

It amazes me to see the amount of boats that fish the area; one beautifully fine Sunday I counted over 100 boats that I could identify, and there would have been at least another hundred more in the distance. If each boat had an average of three people on board and they each caught only two fish, that’s a hell of a lot of fish. But the likely tonnage of the fish caught over the whole summer blows me away.

Because of the range of fishing conditions in this area, not one type of bait or rig is best, so you really need to cover your bases when you head out there for a fish.

Area 1, the Middle Ground: This is the area of open sand out from Owhanake (Waiheke) to a line east of Home Bay (Motutapu). There is less of a tide rip here and as there are no reef structures, I put my Lowrance sounder on ‘4x zoom’ and keep a sharp look-out at the bottom for fish marks. When on zoom, your boat speed should be around five knots only to get the best picture.

If the wind is not strong, I prefer to stay with the school fish. Drift fishing here lends itself to a ledger rig or a Jarvis Walker flasher rig — lethal. Bait up each hook with a piece of squid and then add a small piece of a pilchard. Once the snapper rip off the soft pillie, they are in a feeding frenzy, and if they haven’t already hooked up, they soon do on the squid. Using straight pilchards you often lose your bait too quickly.

If the wind is too strong to drift-fish, anchor up and put a weighted berley bag down near, but not on, the bottom. The berley bag will help to hold the fish close by. Anchored up, flasher and ledger rigs still work well but I personally prefer to use a running rig as I get a real buzz from feeling the hook up. One of the tricks I use in places like this, is to rig up a whole pillie and, while holding the bait, slowly lower the sinker to the bottom. Once the sinker reaches the bottom it’s a fair way astern of the boat and I then let the bait go. The pillie slowly floats down to the bottom way back in the berley trail where the bigger fish tend to be. This trick often works best if the fish are shy on the bite on small tides.

Area 2, the Matiatia Hole: If you look at your chart you will see a 24-metre hole showing and as this is close to Waiheke, a fair bit of tide roars through. With that amount of tide and the wakes off boats and ferries, it is not the sort of place you want to drift fish unless you want the rum rolled out of your coke. If the conditions are right and you don’t mind fishing with a lot of weight, you can get some good fish here. Use a running rig but experiment with the length of your trace. When the tide’s at full blast, a 3-metre trace will easily out-fish a short trace. The reason is that the long trace will float the bait about more naturally, whereas the short trace causes the bait to spin about. Long traces are a bit of a pain in the arse to use, but the results are worth it. Mullet, kahawai and squid cut as strip baits hang on well in the strong rip, especially when also using a keeper-hook rig.

Area 3: This middle area is a place where you will find your sounder plays a big part. Zig zag (or zag zig if you prefer) across the ground with full zoom on at about 4 or 5 knots until you find fish, then go down-tide of them to see how big the school is. Anchor up in the middle of them and use a running-sinker rig with a trace about 1 metre long. Once the fish stop biting, pull up the anchor and go looking for them again. You never seem to get any more than half an hour’s good fishing at one time. If the conditions are right, a drift fish with flasher or ledger rigs is worth a go, but you can lose a bit of gear as there are patches of foul in the area. Make sure if you anchor that you are clear of the cable. The last bill needed to repair it was $75,000!

Area 4, The big bay south of Matiatia: Carefully tucked in behind the small island and straylining back into the kelp can produce a few nice snapper. The snapper come in to feed in the muddy bottom, which is heavily populated with crabs. Use small half baits and let the fish run a bit before you strike them.

We have even caught a few nice kingfish here on a livebait, as the bay holds a fair amount of baitfish. The holding area is mainly mud but can be very good, so can be a desperation place to fish if the wind is strong and out of the east.

Area 5: If you study your chart of the area you will see that at the south-eastern end of Motuihe a reef runs out from the headland. You will see that the bottom drops off to a 9-metre channel, which rises to 4 metres on the other side. This channel is like a gate for the snapper to pass through when heading into the Tamaki Strait to feed. The tide roars through this channel so you may need up to 8oz on a running rig. Vary the length of your trace according to the strength of the tide. A strong bait such as squid, mullet or kahawai hangs on the hook better than a soft bait, which can be taken without your knowledge.

This area can also hold a lot of kingfish. If the baitfish are about, use a nose-hooked livie set on a long trace down on the bottom well astern. Use a soft drag setting to allow the kingfish to take the bait down, but be warned – some huge stingrays and sharks cruise this area and bust offs with these brutes are not uncommon. I have always found that fishing the incoming tide in this area is best.

Area 6, Snapper Bay: This is the name of the last bay on the eastern side of Motuihe where the reef runs out from the headland. This bay is great if you are going to spend the night as it fishes best at dawn and dusk. The bay edges have a lot of kelp-covered rocks and are often full of fresh bait. A fresh piper, lip hooked and set out well behind the boat will nail any kingfish cruising the bay. The key to fishing in the bay is to use floating lines with a hook just tied to the end of your line and casting as far out as you can behind the boat. Cast a pattern of baits astern and you will soon see where the strike zone is, as at times the fish will largely be in one area.

This bay still produces fish on even bright, sunny days, but you really need a lot of berley to make it happen.