Fishing Reports

Amazing what a bit of nice weather does, the fish were biting as well , and the sun was shinning most of the weekend, good to see boat ramps with empty trailers in them as the owners of their boats went in search of a feed.

AHAS
Some great evening snapper fishing here, with several good winter reds taken in the double figure mark. Best area was around the NNE tip of this rock area, with one boat reporting a limit catch of good snapper in a couple of hours an Saturday. Best baits were squid and big strip baits of bonito, fished on a two hook sliding strayline rig, worked better with sinker above the swivel, the fish were very aggressive and bite well.

MATAITAI HOLE
Another area that fished well on the weekend, flasher rigs were the go with small cut baits of pillie or squid working best. Fish were very consistent here all weekend and Monday , no big fish but with good pan sized snapper that were in great condition and very tasty. Jigging is also well worth a go in this hole -  lightish line around 6kg with a 60g blue silver Jensen slid jig my favourite for this area, if the current is strong a drogue is a good idea to slow the drift.

INSIDE OF RANGI LIGHT
The shallows on the city side of the Rangi light has produced the odd good catch of snapper over the last week, fish are in very shallow - less than 3 meters of water at times. Use long strip baits cast into the shallows under a good berley trail with next to no weight at all - just the bare minimum to get you to the bottom. Circle hooks are often a good idea here, either a long 7ft rod and a baitrunner or spinning style reel, fish light line and the rewards will be good fishing and some excellent scraps as well.

SHAG ISLAND
Producing good catches all weekend - nothing hugely big but good amounts of snapper with the odd JD as well. Worked best on the deep hole on the Coro side if the island. Don’t use to much berley here or you will be plagued with spiney dogs and other sharks. Unfortunately they are great at fighting  - similar to a big snapper and will often leave all on the boat disappointed when they come to the boat and aren’t the target species. Best rigs here are deep water strayline rigs or black magic XXL fisher or gamakatsu 8/o Whippa-snapper. A good bait to try here is mullet gut has often produced good XXL snapper for me in the past

SADDLE ISLAND
Reports are there are some great trevs there at the mo , and they seem to be biting best on the slack tide. They will take unweighted squid heads and even soft rubbers. Let them sink for a bit then wind a little, sink again and wind repeating this process. Some good trevs have been in there as well , with Darryl Flavell landing a nice 3.5kg specimen.

A COUPLE OF TIPS
When re-spooling your reels for summer, once you have removed the nylon, apply some lanolin grease to the spool before you spool the reel up. Often the salt water will soak through your nylon and lie at the base of the spool , especially if you fish deep water where you are letting a lot of your line out. The salt water will crystallise on the spool and corrode it, the lanolin will help prevent this happening.

When catching bait fish with sabikis , most brands often have 5 or six hooks in a line, this can cause the biggest tangles and often mean they are chopped up and thrown away.  Try cutting them in half before you use them, as this will reduce the chance of tangles and also give you a spare rig for next time, especially when the bait are coming onboard thick and fast

Foregrips on rods will often go hard after a few years use. They then become a bit slippery especially with with wet hands when you are fishing. To get that soft feeling back use a bit of 800grit sand paper on the grip this to remove the hard outside crust leaving the grip soft and comfortable again.

‘Till next week tight lines and bent rods