Fishing Reports

‘W’ ups

A dozen dolphins, a whale or three, an orca or two, a load of gannets and bulk lots of assorted baitfish and the gulf w’ups are on, just, certainly not up to full speed yet but the ‘open for business’ neon sign is starting its electrifying hum and with it the fast paced action of this style of fish hunting is sparking in to life once again. This combination is real ‘Survivor’, and watching Orca tail all of this activity is something very special to see if you’re lucky enough when out doing your own fishing, although when these toothy critters at the top of the food chain are around everything shuts down, freezeframe, while we all wait…

['Work' is a 4 letter word ending in k and should be on the banned list ‘round here anyway  ]

Silver Bullet

Acres of skippies are still blipping all around the Hauraki Gulf, north of the Noises and you can just keep heading out till you’ve reached a barrier or two. When it’s calm you’ll see them surface feeding for miles and miles. A small feather type lure trolled around 6kts is a great way to small game fish, or stop and try your hand at casting with fast retrieves using soft plastics, either way the initial strike and run is blistering!

This big lone ranger of a skipjack put up a great fight on a light spin rod retrieving the Catch Piper on the Torpedo hook, you can’t out-wind one of these fish, so fast retrieves of streamlined lures (so the lure stays stable and doesn’t rotate/spin in the water) on light spin rods are the go. Use enough weight to help your cast distance, and retrieve your lure back on, or just under the surface.

Kingfish are also still in abundance out there, mainly schools of smaller models are cruising the gulf looking for action so at any time they can hookup as often they will chase and bite at something ‘swimming’ or retrieved fast, sometimes even taking squid dangling on flasher rigs just hanging there.

It’s easy to get fooled by the size of the Kahawai out there too at the moment, some initial runs by these fish replicate a kingie, hard, fast and all the way back down to the bottom in 50m’s easy. And if you have a metal jig – definitely worth targeting the bottom fish and then a fast retrieve to the boat to grab hold of any kingies attention in the vicinity. The faster the retrieve the better, you can’t out-wind a kingfish either!

Snapper Workout

What’s tending to get the best snapper results at the moment is to drop the soft plastic beside the boat, with a bit of drift happening the soft plastic is quite well out the back by the time it gets to the sea floor, then a slow wind in up several metres from the bottom, and freespool back  - be ready for a strike just above the sea floor on the drop as this is when they’re mostly hitting. If you are getting smaller snapper hitting you, it probably means the big guys are around, but without Mother Nature saying its O.K. to eat, the bigger snapper will wait until told to do so.

When it’s dinner time, it’s all on! Some of the snapper takes have been several metres off the bottom on the first of each drop, simply attacking the SP on its way to the bottom. When they are feeding hard use a bigger SP something like a Glowing Gecko, a Zman paddle tail or a 7inch Gulp Crazy Legs. Use heavy weights, say 2 and 3 oz deep water rigs when out in 30m+, aggressive vibe on the drop and many glowing flappy bits seems to alert the snapper below to a potential feed on its way with free delivery service. Make the most of the time as it can be fast and furious but over just as quickly as it started, especially around this full moon.

When the bite is over, swap you gear straight away…back down to just 1/2oz even in say 40m, (a good area to be in right now  ), minimal drift needed via calm wind and/or big sea anchors, light braid and leader…waft the little SP down the water column..be ready about 5m up though as most takes will be hard and super fast from snapper rising up to greet the little anchovy look-a-like (or whatever you are confident using) and chomping it with open snapper-jaws.

The snapper condition is excellent – the water temps are dropping and the feeding mode is on full alert as the snapper turn tail and head out deeper, although the inner harbor channels are still holding excellent pannies with the best SP technique being a ¼ to ½ oz jighead, also well out back behind the drift just hopping along the bottom behind. The bulking up stage of the fish’s autumn bodybuilding is the main aim of the program now so having a couple of rods/setups ready for the bite is ideal.  I prefer light spin setup for when the fishing is slower or requiring stealth mode technique, the overhead with deep water rigs and stronger braid/leaders as the bite comes on stronger.

Wahoo!

What a woman catching this big skipjack tuna with a Catch Bleeding Pilchard on the retrieve. These chrome plated torpedo-fish are fantastic fun on light soft plastic tackle, they simply go ballistic, this one just couldn’t resist the temptation, and this month’s Catch Pack prize goes to Wahoo Woman for this great shot, well done.

Keep an eye on the weather a few days ahead as there are some excellent fishing days coming with crystal clear skies, mercury seas and hungry fish waiting below…