Bream Bay Fishing Report 280417

  • General Saltwater, Auckland and The Hauraki Gulf

With the recent rains creating less than ideal conditions, it is good to report the fishing at the weekend was back to its productive best.

Despite a bit of a south-easterly roll with a bit of chop on top, managed to launch off the beach at Waipu Cove on Sunday and get among some nice snapper in just 14-15 metres of water on soft- plastics.

----- Advertisement -----


The water was still a little dirty, but the fish were on the bite. Took a couple of friends, new to soft- baiting, out and they had a ball. Pink and white and any soft-bait with yellow in it did the business with the smaller 5” baits – paddle tails and shads - producing better than the larger ones.

The drift was quite quick – up to a knot at times despite a decent sea anchor – so three-quarters and one ounce weighted jig heads were the go.

The snapper were not huge, the biggest 55cm, but with most 40cm or bigger, it didn’t take long to produce a plenty of great eating fillets.

Friends fished the same area the previous afternoon, drifting both cut baits and soft-baits, the latter proving to be the best producers.

There are still plenty of jack mackerel lurking over the patches of foul off Waipu and the southern end of Bream Bay. Take out a sabiki rig and catch a few and set them back down for a john dory, of which there have been good numbers in the area for some time now. Jack macs as fresh cut and butterflied whole baits are deadly on snapper when combined with a decent berley trail.

As I am writing this it is the school holidays. Take the kids out on a jack mac catching session then free flow the catch in the freezer – for an inexpensive and effect winter bait supply.

The previous weekend – Easter – reports were varied. The annual Camp Waipu Cove ladies contest did not produce any monsters. Fishing is confined to inside a line from Bream Head south to Bream Tail and the winning fish was only around the three-kilo mark.

While we struggled to find fish, others spoken to at the ramp had done okay over Easter with the foul around Uretiti and over the sand in front of the golf course and Ruakaka, producing some excellent mixed bags.

One crew fishing just inside the Frenchman at the harbour entrance managed some nice trevally to five kilos while another, straylining at Three Mile Reef, also came home with a bin full of snapper to four kilos.

A report came in this morning (Monday) from two crews soft-baiting and drifting whole squid baits off Ocean Beach over the weekend, taking several snapper in excess of 10kgs in 15 metres of water.

If tarakihi are among your target species, I would be looking at the small areas of foul close to Bream Head. I have found the best results to be at the top of the tide, anchored up.

Grant Dixon

NZ Fishing News

Rate this

Comments

Post a Comment

Required Field

Fishing bite times Fishing bite times

Major Bites

Minor Bites

Major Bites

Minor Bites

Latest Articles

Gear Preparation for Marlin
March 2024

Ben Brown shares his tips and tricks for prepping gear for marlin fishing... Read More >

One-pan Tomato Poached Snapper with Leek Recipe
March 2024

A one-pan tomato poached snapper recipe is shared... Read More >

How Social Media Is Influencing Fishing
March 2024

Social media is changing people's perception of fishing, writes Sam Boothroyd... Read More >

Raymarine Axiom Pro Fishfinder/Chartplotter and Cyclone Radar Review
March 2024

Nick Jones Reviews the Raymarine Axiom Pro Fishfinder/Chartplotter and Cyclone Radar... Read More >

Brent Condon - Fishing Art
March 2024

An artist profile on illustrator Brent Condon... Read More >