Hello everyone, I been out like plenty of times since December to coromandel. Every day has been great cept for there isn't many snappers to keep, mainly because of kahawai keep stealing the bait, they seems to be everywhere in coromandel crazy and feeding on anything baits, lures, poppers, floats and plastic spoon lol pretty much everything that's on the surface.

Just want to know how's everyone else doing out there? Any tips how to catch snappers more effectively? I been stray lining all the time using pilchards, getting a lot of nibbles if it reached the bottom but only caught like 4pannies after all these time.. getting a bit tired going out that way from Auckland and going home with just kahawais.

Have you tried using Kahawhai for bait??
Can use the head whole, or half it, and use the fillets as long strip baits.
Pillies can be a bit soft and yep KY love them.

Here is last years report,same problem

I'm not too flash as a land based fisherman, mainly because I don't do much of that and when I do I target kahawai. I don't have much experience in your area either. Lures are always going to be kahawai magnets. If I was in your position the first thing I would do is to try and establish if the area holds snapper. Is it remote where you are fishing or is it easily accessible? If it is easy to get to and a lot of people fish there you won't get too many big snapper, they are wary fish.

When a snapper sets up shop he's probably going to stay a while whereas kahawai are just passing through, making them easy targets.

Get somewhere remote with a good wash going on and cast big baits such as an unweighted kahawai fillet out past the edge of the kelp. Don't leave it there too long or you won't get your gear back. A good berley trail will help, but it will bring in kahawai so big baits especially at this time of year may help.

What baits, hooks etc are you using and where are you fishing? Whole pilchards atre just too easy for kahawai to resist.

How did I go land based experts?