Fishing Reports

The King of Fishers

Seeing a Kingfisher I was told as a young boy is a sure sign of pending rain, this little one took shelter at my place this week, probably either too tired to continue flying in the howling wind, or just too wet? Winter has won over and it’s 5 to 50kts on any given day.

And sure as eggs while out fishing in the gulf now on – you’ll have that stunned moment of weightlessness on the line from a mere tap, yes it’s ‘couta time, they have arrived and are right down into the Firth already. I was desperately in denial for the last few outings even with the telltale shred along a few traces, but now after eyeballing them boat-side, the chrome look is here to stay a while.

Speaking of kings and fishing the kingfish out in the gulf are still full of surprises, inquisitive in their momentary appearances while retrieving kahawai and snapper, with a few kingies hooking up now and then testing everything from knots to patience. Such stunning colours and sheen to these fastest of fish, most of which need to be returned to the sea after their nitrous-like burst of power as they’re mostly the smaller pocket rockets but exciting nonetheless. Throwing down a few big long jigs and/or surface poppers to target them and their bigger brothers around the pilchard schools is great fun – and some of the huge kahawai will surprise with their strikes and initial runs too, they are BIG!

It’s breathtaking to see the swirling masses of pilchard bait-schools hugging the boat with kahawai, kingfish, gannets and dolphins all eager to cash in on the action within a few metres of your rod tip. Yes the workups have been manic at times. It seems as if the sea is 50:50 water and kahawai in the 30 to 40m depths at the moment, out further respite can be found along with some very good snapper.

The ‘Pros’ of these upsized kahawai:

Action a-plenty, easy to catch, very tasty when smoked, exciting aerials, good kid thrillers, great on a slow snapper day.

The ‘Cons’:

So many they can completely prevent you catching the big snapper beneath, tangles when anglers forget to follow the fish around the boat (no angle, no tangle)

The kahawai are big, bigger and biggest out there and feeding from surface to the sea floor 45m down is impressive. O.K. so they’re a bit of a hassle when it comes to trying for the red backs at the bottom of the scrum which can be annoying…but on a quiet day out there, well a few kahawai can provide an excellent interlude.

The Local

It was a particularly good reminder the other day, as I was recovering from a trip out into the wider gulf which required a certain amount of resolve as the swell and sea state produced a bit of a thump to the outward journey let alone the cost of fuel, but having a chat to a good keen fisherman down the road, as you do, and on the same day he’d launched his dinghy, zipped over there just a few hundred metres away and proceeded not only to catch his limit of nice pannies he decided to try soft plastics for the first time. Using the expertise of our ever-present fishing companion, Rod Holder…no doubt the burley and baitfish presence forwarded the chain letter invite and eventually included everything from snapper to kahawai to trevally and a 30lb kingfish obliged by snaffling the dangling piece of plastic, all within sight of home, classic simple inshore fishing success using less than 1L of gas!

Big Mac

Along with the big pilchard schools, big kahawai and big reds are BIG mackerel – easily a foot long and if brought to the boat gently (because of their soft mouths) they can be readily targeted with a little inchiku type jig for instance or a sabiki rig with good hooks and then you can decide to:

1.       Send one back down as-is with a big hook and a few ounces of lead for snapper and kingfish

2.       Butterfly and send back as a fresh big snapper bait

3.       Keep a few to smoke and eat, delicious smoked with a brown sugar rub

If you find the bait schools whether on sounder or watch the rippling sea surface of pilchards especially on mirror calm evenings, stop drop and roll i.e. drift fish soft plastics or real bait underneath – lots of big reds lurking in wait down there, especially when the man in the moon and mother nature agree on bite time – it’s a bin filling battle zone.

The Catch Patch

Kevin Power Editor Bay Fisher Magazine gets this months Catch Pack of goodies for this shot of a hefty snapper caught using a Catch Bleeding Glow Squid on a 30z Jolly Roger deep water rig, the Bay of Plenty living up to its name once again.

In the Hauraki Gulf mid to late afternoon has been the best time to be in the middle of the puddle after snapper but early morning bites are best in and around the shallows/islands/channels.

Bait to use: Pilchards – real or artificial

*30m for loading up on kahawai, with some good snapper underneath

*Move out past 45m for reduced kahawai numbers but good sized snapper e.g. north of Anchorite

*Early afternoon for workup chasing, general drift fishing for snapper

*Thermals and sunscreen on the same day

Enjoy some excellent winter fishing as soon as you can.

Cheers