Fishing Reports

Get Your Softies out…..

The water temps around Auckland have started to rise, signalling the annual influx of snapper in to our waterways. The sun has warmth in its rays and the trees are blossoming which is a sure sign the temperatures are on the rise.

It puts a spring in my step and a smile on my face when I know the fish are moving in. Its time to celebrate there arrival by getting your rods and tackle out of storage and making sure there in top condition ready to do battle with the arriving hungry snapper.

Generally the first fish to arrive are the males who bustle there way in to the gulf eating anything in their way. You can often find these fish around reefs or in close proximity to the reefs sitting on the sand in areas with good tidal flow.

Over the next few weeks if you find a school with large males in attendance you can experience fishing like you have never before. The memories can last a lifetime; this is the time of year to target a trophy snapper.

Often the best days to target these larger fish is the week leading up to the full moon.It’s not uncommon to catch multiple fish over the magic 20lbs in one fishing session. This time last year around Flat rock I encounted this situation and a lot of the fish were in the 15lb to 20lb bracket. We fished the area for 3 days catching many large fish.

Once you have restocked your larder it’s a good idea to let these larger fish go unharmed. A good way to maximise their chances of survival is to use soft plastics.

The fish tend to be mouth hooked when using soft plastics, instead of gut hooked when using bait. It’s an ideal time of year to use plastics as the fish are feeding up getting ready for spawning.

An ideal way to target these fish is to look around reef structure with your sounder, look for marks sitting just off the reef, hard on the bottom or sometimes off the bottom ,in the lower  third of the water column.

Often these marks can be snapper. Mark the fish on your chart plotter and set up a drift to fish your lures through the school. The schools can be smaller and tighter early in the season, it makes sense to use a rig that gets down quickly to increase your chances of getting your lure amongst the school before you drift away.Its often good to use short repeated drifts over the school .I  use 4oz of lead and a paddle tail or grub to get down quickly and accurately to the waiting fish.

I have been using the new creature baits and lizards to great effect over the past 10 days and the darker colours seem to be working the best. The 4oz Cyclops softbait rig with a 4” creature bait has been working well in the deeper water. Remember if your using 2-4oz of lead the idea is to use a lure with inbuilt action like a paddletail, grub ,crazy legs etc to make the wiggly bits really vibrate on the drop.

The faster your rig descends the faster the wiggly bits vibrate which creates noise to attract the fish. So get out there and start looking at places like Flat Rock, Horn Rock, Jimmies Foul, between Takatu and Little Barrier and around the Colville Channel and hopefully you will intercept a school of big spring males all excited and hungry barging there way in to the gulf.

PS: Latest news being the first wave of snapper have moved in closer, there are reports coming in of sporadic good fishing in the Auckland channels…..

Good Luck

Paul Senior