Fishing Reports

Welcome to the first of THE FISHING SHOW’ fishing reports. Every week I’ll be talking to my mates ‘in the know’ around the country to find out where the fish are biting and just what techniques are working and the info will be put together in a weekly report.

Don’t forget to catch the THE FISHING SHOW tonight at 8.00pm on Sky sport 1. There has been a lot of guys (and gals) kicking themselves when they get to work on Tuesday morning and hear from their mates that THE FISHING SHOW last night was awesome!

*Now if you do miss the show it will be replayed on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights – check your listings for details. WHAT YOU DON’T HAVE SKY?  - Don’t Panic ‘The Fishing show goes Free to Air every Saturday at 2.30 on Prime’.

Tight lines……  Matt Watson

Snapper.

Well now is snapper time, the Snapper will be feeding hard to put on condition for the spawn that happens over November and December. So all the spawning grounds like the Firth of Thames, the middle ground in the Bay of Islands and around the 30 m mark on the west coast will be firing. Look for sign on the sounder around the 20-40 m depths and any sort of foul that might provide food for the hungry snapper. If the conditions allow try drifting the spot with pillies or squid rigged with a ball sinker on top of the hook just enough to keep the bait bobbling along on the bottom. The other alternative is to anchor up on areas with good sign and get some burley down on the anchor. But there will also be some big snapper in shallow around the rocks, these guys need more food and they can get it in the form of kina, crabs and shellfish in the kelp beds. So don’t discount the shallows just yet.

But please remember that these fish are spawning and only take what you can eat. It can be quite easy at times when you get a patch of big spawning fish to catch 6 or more fish around the 20lb mark, please don’t be like some senseless anglers and take the lot. Taking out the big breeding fish defies logic, it would be like a farmer slaughtering all his pregnant stock – he wouldn’t be a farmer for long!

Waitamata harbour - Rangitoto Channel

The Fish are moving in on the worm beds, there’s not a lot of sign or structure here so patience and burley is the key. The best results have come from dusk till a couple of hours after dark, Pilchards and mullet the best baits.

Tarakihi

The Tarakihi are in shallow up in Northland but they are more a common by catch than a species that can be targeted in the north at this time of year. The B.O.P is and east coast is firing for Tarakihi at the moment out on the deeper foul around 100m. Shellfish baits are the way to go so gather some pipi’s or mussel before heading out.

Early arrival of Gamefish??

Last week end Bay of Islands charter boat ‘Major Tom 2’ skippered by Geoff Stone made the game fishing fraternity take notice when he caught a Striped marlin out from the bay of Islands. That’s right a Marlin in close in early November! But then again there was a sailfish caught in a small bay just over the hill from me in August, so nothing comes as a surprise any more. I would urge restraint on those keen on game fishing before they go charging out looking for marlin. What we have at the moment is a tongue of warm water pushing in from out wide bringing with it some marlin, that water could be gone tomorrow and with it the marlin. A few years back (2001 I think) there was MahiMahi and spearfish caught off cape Karikari in October when a patch of warm water pushed in, “An early season” every one cried. The first marlin wasn’t caught in Northland until the middle of January. The moral of the story is, steady as she goes, wit until the marlin become more consistent on the coast before using up all your days off work.

For more on Major Tom’s marlin catch check out Geoff’s report elsewhere on this site.

Kingfish

The kingfish are making an appearance in the Bay of Islands with Steve Butler on Earl Grey getting consistent catches of kingfish around the usual haunts of Percy Is, Bird Rock, the 71 metre rock, and rocky point. When live baiting the deeper rocks try dropping a bait deep to the bottom, this is the time of the year that the Hapuku move in as one angler fishing on Earl Grey discovered with a nice Puka of around 30kg from the 71 metre rock.

Kingfish usually fire up in the north a little earlier than the rest of the country so some of you may have to wait a few more weeks before breaking out the live baits and jigs.

……Speaking of Kingfish

Check out this week’s episode of ‘The Fishing Show’. We have a go at trying some techniques on Kingies that I would never have considered if it were not for a certain Australian we had on board with a passion for catching Kingies’

For more on ’The Fishing Show’ check out our website