Fishing Reports

I write this just after a nasty weather bomb has come through Coromandel over the weekend and it is followed by another one that isn't quite as bad but even still is dumping plenty of rain causing flooding.

When all this calms down we should be in for a treat as the fish holding out deeper that are not currently feeding because of the storm but will be ravenous once it is all over. Coromandel continues to fish exceptionally well for the time of year, this being when the weather allows you to get out amongst them and we are still having some real stunners.

On the west coast the islands out from Papa Aroha and Amodeo bay are fishing well at present and some others fisho’s have been doing quite good down at Deadmans Point. The mussel farms can give mixed results but generally there is a lot around in the farms.

The fishing in general has been patchy on both the west and east coasts of the peninsula with mixed results for some, while others are having plenty of success and this is sometimes down to your ability to find the fish on any given day. As always change of light times work the best so perhaps if you plan your day to allow for other activities such as diving, this way you will find yourself fishing at the correct time instead of wasting your efforts for very little return.

The snapper are doing different things depending on what has been happening with the weather patterns we are experiencing. These habits can change regularly and range from hanging out in the deeper water to twenty five meters due to large ocean swells and rough sea conditions through to being close to the shore line in the shallows, where areas like calm quiet bays offer shelter from rough conditions. As we are now in full blown winter the snapper are less willing to feed so you need to change tactic’s to suit these conditions.

Some anglers have been trying to claim that the soft bait style of fishing isn’t having much success now that winter is upon us and I personally have found this to be untrue. While out soft bait fishing on the Coromandel side of the Hauraki Gulf just recently the NZ Fishing Coast to Coast editor Mike Rendle found exactly the same while here about one week ago on the new magazine boat.

They caught fish mostly in the four kilo mark and clamed that they absolutely nailed them at places like Shag rock.  In fact soft baits have been doing extremely well and will often trigger the predatory instincts of fish when they are normally quite slow and unwilling to attack normal bait that has very little action.

Often you can find fish hanging in the thermo cline part of the water table, so using soft baits on the lighter weighted jig heads such as the one sixth and one quarter ounce will help to aid in the slow decent rate which helps to further entice them giving the fish more time to react. Using these lighter heads can take a bit to get use too but if the conditions allow you give it a try I recommend you do so just make sure you let them sink for a lot longer time than you are normally use to.

Because the fish are less willing to feed over this time of year it is worth trying to match up your lighter jig head with an appropriate sized soft bait like the smaller four inch minnow and swimming mullet types along with the correct colour to match the light conditions over head and by doing this you will further increase your chances of success.

For example the brown and darker type colours will work well on the darker days. One bonus that this time of year offers is big moocher snapper and large trevally which come in to the shallows and can be very close to shore suiting the stealthy kayak angler extremely well. What ever you do don’t underestimate any of these areas and you will be pleasantly surprised.

The bite times can be rather short at this time of the year also so it is very important that you are ready for this. While fishing on the east coast just prior to the recent storm hitting on the weekend I got out to fish in the afternoon and when the fish did come on the bite it only lasted for about half an hour which enabled us to land some nice fish to four and a half kilos, followed by the odd smaller thirty five centimeter fish caught here and there.

The kingfish are also changing their habits to suit and again depending on conditions can be right up in the shallows with some large specimens hanging and hunting in these areas. Still around in good numbers and readily taking soft baits at most times is the john dory with plenty of larger kahawai also present on both coasts.