Fishing Reports

Well we're well into summer now. The fishing is hotting up with superb catches of all species turning up on both coasts, from all the usual inshore species to some great blue water captures.

AROUND THE GULF
If you want to catch a kingfish , there's no better chance than now. The gulf is full of kings from various sizes - Curusoe has some great schools of kings patrolling the southern end. The fish are of reasonable size averaging around the 12kg mark, but beware there are some bigger models around , so don't go to the gun fight with a pee shooter, you will come out second best.

 All the channel markers are holding fish of varying sizes , you may have to visit two or three before you find one with legal fish. These fish are all great fun on varying techniques. We have been having great fun casting soft baits at the markers, cast just forward of the maker let it sink a bit then retrieve varying the speed. Have found the bigger berkley gulp soft baits or blue fox 6” baits have done the damage. Other areas of note for kings are the Ahahas  and Anchorite rock. Several boats have reported mass schools of kings on occasions , and many baits struggling to get through the schools.

SNAPPER
Has had some in different fishing over the last few weeks. Often having to move from mark to mark before you find a feeding school. The deep water around Rangi light has been producing some good catches of snapper in the evenings. The fish are feeding really well in the dying light. Best baits are mullet and small anchovies , and aussie strayline rig is working a treat – this is where the sinker is placed above the swivel opposed to the usual strayline rig of sinker on the hooks. A fairly long trace, and as little weight as possible.

Big work ups are appearing in the outer gulf areas , with mass schools of bait been schooled up by dolphins and whales. The gannets have been gorging themselves until they can’t fly and the snapper are crashing any thing that goes near the mid water to bottom. Jigging has seen some fabulous catches of big snapper. Most of the jigs not even getting close to the bottom before been devoured by big fat and hungry snaps. Most of the action seems to be in around 35 metres of water out the back of Kawau island down to Whangaparoa.

Great Barrier has again started to fire , especially now most of the holidaying boats are back, with the pressure of some areas the big snapper have come out of hiding. The Broken Islands in particular have started to produce some great snapper catches. Big straylined baits in to the kelpy banks have produced snapper up to 12kgs , a magnificent specimen caught by angler Darren Clark on board Kotare..

OFF SHORE
The west coast when conditions have allowed , has fired up in rather spectacular fashion,  the fish have shown up on the west side from Raglan to Hokianga.
Good numbers of big stripies have been harassing anglers. Most of the stories have been of small jack macks being eaten by the skippies, and the skippies in turn eaten by the marlin. The popular colours seem to be black and purple, in particular the moldcraft wide range in black purple silver belly, and aussie gold , in both the hollowpoint carbo killa head and black magic pursuit pusher styles.

East coast has also seen a great start to the season, congratulations to the team on Silver Fox on there magnificent 361.4kg black marlin, outstanding effort from the boys on there way for a snapper fish! The fish have been  biting hard on the queens buoy area of the cape brett again black and purple the go, also the top end of the inside trench at the back of the poor knights, lumo has been the go ( as always ) and fruit salad. Further south Whitianga has been humming since late December , with the club having an outstanding catch of yellow fin tuna and marlin. The action is yet to filter further in to the bay area with only average catches of yellow fin and marlin.

Till next week all the best, good fishing and tight lines

Terry Williams-King
Helping you catch fish!