Fishing Reports

Well it looks like winter has finally started to arrive; the days are starting to get a little colder, not too cold but just a little nippier than of late. The fishing however still seems to be firing well, with good numbers of pan sized snapper in the channels, and the bigger fish starting to bite well on the deep outer reefs.

Rangi Channel
The shallows up along Rangitoto Island have been fishing very well, plenty of burley and small cut baits have been working exceptionally well.

My favorite rig here is a single hook stray line rig. This consists of some light 30lb leader, a small ½ ounce ball sinker with a 4/0 mustad long red hook.

I find the long shanked mustad big red the ideal hook when using a single hook like this with cut baits, with the hook threaded well into the bait the longer shank holds the bait on better. The fish have been extremely hungry and will take just about any thing you feed them, they are in good condition and great pan sized fish.

Thumb Point
Has produced the odd kingfish recently. A good strong current and lots of bait have resulted in the area holding some good kingies. Best rig is to slow troll a bridle rigged jack mackerels on the gannet rock side. The fish seem to be biting best on the out going tide with the current starting to run. Also worth a try is speed jigging on the bait balls once located.

Horn Rock
With the new moon behind us the deepwater reef structures around horn rock, this area is a prime location to locate that trophy snapper. Cubing pilchards is the best way to attract these big fish and follow this up with big baits floated down the trail. As little weight as possible none if you can get away with it.

With big snapper it’s a patience game, you have to keep the burley going and check baits regularly to make sure they have not been picked by the little fish, with a bit of patience the big boys will show.

Middle Ground
The middle ground has been another area that has fished well (area between rangi and whangaparoa), Drifting this area has resulted in some great pan sized snapper and the odd double figure fish as well.

This area will fish well both tides and is great just drifting around floating baits down and fishing flasher rigs as you go. Flasher rigs are a great option here; you can add a variety of baits and find out what the flavor of the day is.

Once you locate a solid bite of fish you can simply deploy the anchor and away you go.

Offshore
The puka have started to move into the shallow reefs with many of the offshore reefs in 80 to 100 mtrs starting to fish reasonably well along the east coast. In particular the reefs of Curvier island and the foul of the back of Stevenson’s island up north.
Game fishing has slowed a lot, even with some reasonably good water close to the coast.

The garden patch up north still has mahi-mahi on it and also reports of spearfish, which is amazing for this time of year. , Marlin are still lurking around this area as well, with water temperatures still above the 20-degree mark.

The three kings is fishing extremely hard, the water has been cold and green, and when has gone blue its still struggling to reach the 17 plus degree mark, Plenty of bait is in the area and one can only hope the fish are still along the coast and are yet to make their run north with the warm water as it moves offshore.

The bottom fishing is fabulous though, good catches of bass, kingfish, are certainly making the trips there worthwhile.

With winter here and it’s a great time to get all your tackle serviced and ready to go for those big snapper missions or ready for the game season. So get it down to your local store now.

All the best & tight lines, bent rods

Terry Williams-King