Fishing Reports

Some good winter fishing

With the longest day now well and truly behind us, we can look forward to the spring and summer fishing. With some settled weather occurring a little more regularly, fishermen have been having some reasonable rewards for some effort and time on the water.

The trick seems to be to locate the fish and then show some patience. If you hang out and keep a good steady burley trail the fish will eventually come on the bite. And when they do you have to be ready, as it often can be very short and sharp.

The deep foul around the AHAHA ROCKS is holding some reasonable sized snapper at present; the fish have been generally biting on both the incoming and out going tides, but the bite has been very short, some times as short as 30 min.

Best rig seems to be a two hook aussie stray line rig – sinker on top of swivel as opposed to being on top of hooks, drift this down a good steady burley trail (best results have been on top catch bait and tackles salmon burley sausage), we have also found my old analogy of - “fresh is best” - to be the preferred bait. After your burley has been going a while the jacks will quickly show up, these seem to be the best baits for picking up some reasonable good sized snapper.

If you find them a little too lively trim their tail fins to slow them down a little. When the fish start biting you don’t have to wait long for them to be consumed by some good sized snapper. All you will feel are a couple of bumps and then the spool will start dumping line, give it a bit of time to get it down, then strike and hold on.

The wreck at the back of RAKINO ISLAND has also been holding some good number of fish, particularly on the out going tide, unfortunately though this area is best fished on the drift, a sea anchor is often advisable here. The fish have been very hard to get to bite a will try your patience, but again a little perseverance will see some nice fish enter the ice box. The wreck has been fishing however very well for John Dory; drifting jack mackerel on a single hook ledger rig over the wreck will result in some good catches of these very divine table fish.

CHANNEL ISLAND has also been fishing very well at the moment, and the fish stocks have been kept reasonably untouched with so much adverse weather over the last month. How ever when it does allow you to venture there, it has been magical with some very big snapper been taken of the foul on the western edge.

Several of Auckland’s smaller charter vessels have been venturing up the top, with most reporting some excellent sized snapper, again the area has been fishing well with a two hook stray line rig, unfortunately the strong current and heavy weight needed, can some times make feeling the bite a little difficult at times, but you need not worry to much if chasing the big fish, they will just pick your bait up and start the line peeling out from under your thumb.

A suggestion is not to use too much burley here at present, with plenty of those tackle shop breed - “Barracuda”, have been making a nuisance of them selves, and will cost you plenty of tackle.

Well done to those who have been out, and good luck to those who do venture out over the next week.

Safe boating and happy fishing

Bent rods

Terry Williams King
“Helping you catch fish”

From

Terry Williams-King