Interesting morning in the harbour

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    Posted: 16 Dec 2017 at 1:22pm
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Titanium
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Was long overdue to take my son out for a fish to try out the baitcaster he got for his recent birthday, but flat out at work so said if we are at the boat by 5.00am we can fish until 10:00 and I can get back to do the work I have on.

Promptly at 5:00am (son more awake than father) we are loading the gear into one of our boats at Z Pier and off we go. High tide around 7:30ish so had a plan to work the tides. First off a quick drive over the Stanley Point hole but nothing showing so headed off towards the mouth of the harbour further and dropped the pick on not much sign but a normally productive area when the fish first hit the harbour. Small fish straight away and then a bunch of Snapper in the mid 30's to mid 40's. Told son that once the tide dropped we would probably get plagued by small fish and sure enough by 7:15 it was time to move.

Back to Stanley Point for a look and slow drift on the slack tide produced one mid 40's fish and a couple of small Kahawai. Once the tide picked up we shot back to the first spot and grabbed a few more in the high 30's until the tide was ripping too hard there. Tried a quick drift along the Bayswater shallows for (surprisingly) nothing and then shot across to a slightly deeper area where I thought the tide might be a little slower. Got the tide strength estimate wrong and it was ripping so hard that 18oz's wouldn't hold 10kg nylon on the bottom.

Was thinking about heading in but remembered something we learned last year about fishing heavy tides in the harbour. Borrowed sons rod with the light braid and tweaked the rig. Straight into a 40cm fish and then a couple more similar before we started being plagued by small fish. Time to head in.
I guess we might have used 15l - 20l of fuel on the 31fter and back around 10:00 with a dozen nice pannie Snapper and 3 kahawai.
Got to love Auckland's Summer fishing when you are short of time. 



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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Dec 2017 at 1:47pm
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That's a nice catch Tagit! Your write up reminds me of Manukau fishing - using the light gear. Polar opposite to what most people do Wink but it works eh?

Those quick trips when you get a good catch are some of the best trips. It's not all about catching monsters.
Best gurnard fisherman in my street
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Tagit Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Dec 2017 at 2:19pm
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From now until probably next May I won't leave the harbour just to catch a feed. Will go out for a change of scenery and to target some different fish but once you get the harbour dialed in it is an awesome fishery. 

Normally can head out and grab a bunch of decent pannies on a couple of cupfuls of gas and almost no time wasted travelling. When the tide is just right I often leave work at 5:00pm and am back at the dock by 8:30pm with 5 or 6 fish and use $5 in fuel. Some mornings I do an early start like today and am back cleaning fish before my clients come down to go out on the boats. 

The interesting thing I have observed is how the heavy tidal flows drive people out of areas where there is enough structure to hold fish but where they can't catch them in the big tide flows. Son and I had a session at Kauri Point a couple of seasons ago where I started experimenting with heavy tide techniques when all the other boats had been driven out to the shallows by the big tidal flows. Caught 9 fish between 40cm and 50cm in around 40 minutes by getting a bit creative with the rigs and technique. Suspect it might just work on the Manakau as wellWink. Today was the same setup, but will be trialing something a bit different next time out so will see if there is a new harbour story to tell sometime after Christmas. Meantime, there are good numbers in the harbour now for those that fish it.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Snappa Geoff Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Dec 2017 at 6:14pm
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Nice feed there for the family Tagit. Great to see plenty of snaps about in the Harbour....
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Steps Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Dec 2017 at 7:58pm
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Very nice..
it doesnt rake much thinking 'outside the box' a little to catch fish when the going is meant to be hard..
Sort of  " I if I was a fish, hell bent on balancing between fighting a current, using a lot of energy, and getting a good feed at the same time"  Then relating that to eating a hamburger in a gale.. one tends to look for a little cover..even  if is  little.. and that 'cover is not always on the lea side.. there is a pressure area or edie, close in espec where a gut maybe, filing up with food.
 The to rig a weighted stray line in a manner so as to float the hook into that eddie
 Little bit of imagination and thinking thru and not afraid to just try something different, so often gets the results...

And like the pic.. shows off the catch very well, something I have trying to get right on limited room benches, and laid horizontally..vertical looks good.


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote rowboat bob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2017 at 10:10am
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With so many fish in the harbour , what do you think they are feeding on? I assume that they are not just there for the pillies and squid ( bait ) but that the ecosystem is surprisingly healthy. Any thoughts and have any divers had a look around? Cheers
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Tagit Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2017 at 11:04am
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They mostly come up loaded with crabs and small shellfish, but you do also get schools of bait (mackeral, whitebait etc) in the harbour and there are plenty of other juvenile fish to feed on.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Redfinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2017 at 11:16am
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I heard the harbour apparantly has a very healthy supply of those big imported (came in on ballast water from overseas ships) mantis shrimps. Fish i catch in the harbour invariably spew up orange tinted shellfish / creataceous matter. Maybe they home in on these - been same last 4-5 years now.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote rowboat bob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2017 at 2:19pm
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Interesting. I've heard that the Kaipara is also full of Mantis shrimps. I'd like to put them on the menu too. Not sure how to go about it. Probably a very fine mesh trap.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote smudge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2017 at 3:06pm
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There are also some native mantis shrimps around. I'd never heard of them till I saw a post on here. I've only seen one in the Manukau Harbour but it was a small thing about 100mm long
Best gurnard fisherman in my street
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Redfinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2017 at 3:24pm
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Yes Smudge we have native ones that are quite a bit smaller than the larger imported versions - possibility the native ones could get over overrun.

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote pjc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2017 at 3:41pm
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Remember seeing a person at Mangere Bridge with a flat steel mesh net catching shrimps,when he saw the mpi van he gathered his stuff up and ran,I believe mpi showed an interest in him because he tied a bait to it to attract the shrimps.About 2 yrs ago
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote rowboat bob Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2017 at 3:42pm
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Yeah even more reason to catch these big exotic mantis shrimps and eat them!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Muppet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2017 at 3:59pm
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Can you not bait nets to catch shrimp pjc?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote pjc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2017 at 6:24pm
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Originally posted by Muppet Muppet wrote:

Can you not bait nets to catch shrimp pjc?
apparently not,you can put  burley out to attract not bait trap. That was my understanding from officer.   No matter what I tried to search via mpi site cannot find any rules governing traps. Does mpi have a hidden set of rules?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Muppet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2017 at 6:59pm
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I dunno seems strange we always baited crab pots and lines in the UK only seems fair if you are targetting crabs, prawns or shrimps. No harm IMO as long as undersized fish are put back. 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Clutch Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Jan 2018 at 8:37am
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Went out yesterday on the slack at around 11 and caught a few pannies off Kauri Point. Plenty of fish around although many undersize. After an hour we went over the north shore bay....5 mins away for a picnic and swim then came back for another swim when the tide was roaring out. The missus packed it in shortly after we got there so I used her rod one last time to clean up the bait and caught the biggest fish of the day.
With light sinkers knowing when you hit the bottom was critical.
As I live in Tat Nth it was great to see the fish there..... I used next to no gas!

Surprisingly one girl who came out with us caught a small Hammerhead shark.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote Tagit Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Jan 2018 at 9:33pm
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Shot out for a couple of hours this evening to do a couple of tests and a Scallop dive on a new boat. Had a small technical issue so canned the tests & dive and stopped out towards Bean Rock for a fish instead. Just stopped on a small bit of sign so not a lot of effort went into the fish hunting as it wasn't really meant to be a fishy outing. Anyway, a couple of hours at anchor produced over a dozen snapper in the 33 - 45cm range, an XOS Kahawai, a 50cm+ Trev, and an eel. Didn't take a lot of bait but ended up with plenty for the 4 of us so all happy.
Interesting thing was only a couple of undersized fish and the reasonably large Trev which I didn't expect to get in the harbour. Other interesting thing is that version 2 of my 'secret rig' produced at twice the rate of the best of the other rods and the latest tweaks have made it work a bit more how I thought it should originally. Almost ready to declare some success with this. Maybe one more trip where I get someone else to fish the 'secret rig' whilst I fish a standard one to see if we get the same results. Who knew that snapper fishing in the harbour could be so interesting (and productive).
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote pjc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Jan 2018 at 10:57pm
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Bonus "Tagit" trevellyThumbs Up50cm fits nicely in a portable smoker.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote Tagit Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jan 2018 at 8:01am
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Sushimi and raw fish. Need to get the benchtop Bradley working again thoughso I can do a few snapper.
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