Fishing Reports

October 22, 2008

Arnold Schwarzeneggar

He said he’ll be back, and so it has come to pass – well the Snapper are back and in force! No more waiting, no more anticipation – the time has come. And to the winter blues I say Hasta la Vista Baby! The Snapper are zeroing in on the mega bait-schools out there, the Pilchards and Anchovies are currently not congregating together much, but they’re certainly within range of the keen recreational Fisho.

Massive bait schools are blocking out the sounder just 30ft below the boat, making for easy pickings for most of the marine life, but more on the up’s and downs of this shortly. Winter doesn’t seem so bad, now that it’s over! The recon’s have turned up trumps with plenty of big Snapper ready for action around the Gulf battlefield, the Hauraki Gulf that is.

This week, limits of 9 - 15lb Snapper every day I’ve been out have been readily achievable, all within a few short hours. Thoroughly exciting and enjoyable in every way!

Clint Eastwood

The Big Red fighting fish make my day alright! And although giving them a fighting chance by using my brand new ultra light custom built Kojak rod specifically made to fit (it's for my 1lb setup), I certainly feel lucky.

I back this up with the big gun (4lb braid) just in case and when it’s really going ballistic scull-dragging a few up from underneath workups with the 6lb weapon has its place in the armory too. It pays to be prepared because when the bite is on, it is unbelievably incredible.

Massive workups with almost every participant of the food chain lining up. I say almost because workups can be misleading with so many baitfish to choose from, this means when you know what you’re looking for, the workups with no Snapper in attendance are generally easy to pick from a distance and simply not worth chasing.

Chuck Norris

Sometimes it’s a bit like being Chuck out there – the fish just seem to want to knock themselves out clamoring to smash your hook. And a brutal and exciting fight ensues. Fishing rapture. Whales, Dolphins, Gannets, Snapper and us Humans last in line.

Some excellent new terminal tackle has made its way into the Catch stable and these will be released very soon – here’s a sneak preview from a fisho mate/researcher Rob with of one of these hard hitting devices combined with the remains of a Catch Red Cray, basically big Snapper like this solid 15lb specimen just don’t stand a chance!

And yes, yes, yes, I know the state world economies is just too scary to really consider, I mean the amount of wealth that has been lost recently is absolutely mind-blowing, but balance in all things gives rise to the simple art of fishing and enjoying our pastime when we can i.e. weather and work dependant.

The Catch Patch

This is where I tend to head to start the fishing day – just out into the wide open sea areas bordered by Tiri, Kawau, Little Barrier, Coromandel and Waiheke, just to get a feel for the fish hunt of the day. Watching, listening – getting in tune with what the sea-signs are, is my preferred method.

No Spot X, just basic hunting skills – oh and some Random Drift Fishing too. This seemingly random method will often bring home the bacon before I have to think about chasing workups or looking for reefs or schools of fish or whatever. Just stop, drop and drift the open areas (40-45m is working well right now).

Well after all that’s where Snapper feed a lot of the time, on the sea floor, in the Gulf. And since I rarely use my sounder to find Snapper – this method has worked so many times with using Soft Plastics…I’ve watched guys hoofing it all over the place looking for fish, chasing birds, all manner of ideas.

But to me, dropping the stealthy fish look-a-like SPs entices some seemingly invisible Snapper to strike out and come aboard. I have been compiling this information and will be able to share it with you in more detail shortly, stay tuned.

John Dory are prolific north of Tiri. It’s just a matter of either targeting them e.g. drop down a Sabiki rig into the bait-schools, then drift or anchor with the livies down. Simplicity works. Drifting with the Soft Plastic in the capable hands of Rod Holder works well too, often outperforming ‘expert’ human input.

The commercial haul of these fish has been in full action for a while now, you can see several boats working the open areas just north of Tiri most days but there are a lot of JDs out there and waiting - to me these are some of the finest eating fish available. Catch Blue Anchovies have been working well with the Dory.

My Pick

Lot’s of choices here…firstly closer range stuff is highly possible even with the wind quite strong from the SW…anchoring in as shallow as 15m between the East Coast Bays and Rangitoto has been turning up some amazing hauls, limits of up to 10lb Snapper to be exact.

Good solid male fish (we’ll all have to wait a little longer for the females, typical!). Burley up and stray-lining Pilchards or a Flasher Rig with dangling Squid has been coming up trumps over this past week. Chasing workups in the Gulf  has also been going off - but you have to be very quick to get there and get to the right ones!

How to do this is covered in the new Catch Snapper DVD, which will be released later next week. Random Drift Fishing has its place even this early in the season – there are Snapper slowly spreading out from the bunched up schools under workups, not a huge amount but certainly a little further out around the 40m mark it’s worth a shot, smaller Soft Plastics like the Sparkling Anchovy have been working very well over the past two weeks.

Take note of Bill Hohepa’s bite times and be out there ready an hour before peak.

Cheers!

Grant Bittle