Slow Start to Spring Snapper Season 

While 16.4°C is recorded online as the local Sea surface Temperature, divers reckon it’s only 15°C below the surface. Still, warm enough for the schooling snapper to get interested. According to local reports, both Cape Brett and the outer Ninepin region are showing some large schools of snapper en-route to the Bay. Purse-seiners are expected to give these schools a hiding before they reach shelter inside Red Head and behind the islands.

The current easterly wind pattern which looks likely to hold for another week or more bodes well for improved fishing. Warm winds from this direction not only warm the water but also blow warmer off-shore tropical waters towards our coast. Expect a good degree improvement in water temperatures over the next 10 days. And it’s worth remembering that 18°C is the minimum temperature generally required for snapper to spawn – so we’re not that far off.

Snapper landed from the outer flanks of the Bay show a huge variation in readiness to spawn. Some have full egg and milt sacks whilst others have skinny sacks. Expect a mixed season with average fish size down on last year. A recent 18lber landed within the Bay was a bit of a fluke with most schoolies landed so far typically in the 4-6lb range. And in case you need reminding, all deep-water snapper grounds are also holding substantial schools of tarakihi. Fishing the bottom with flasher rigs with 1-3/0 hooks will produce both. I was a trifle be-mused when a cousin landed a 10lb snapper the other week with a 1/0 tarakihi terror. 

Advice from Graham at Kerikeri’s “Hunting and Fishing” is to either fish the 50 mark with pilchards on snapper flashers or to follow the birds. Whilst gannet work-ups have been few and far between, there have been some pretty large work-ups of shear-waters. And surprise, surprise; for the canny fisher, both snapper and kingfish have been found lurking below. If you have the patience, skill and the technology, following working birds is usually the best chance to get in on the action.