Fishing Reports

We have been waiting for the seasons to change and the fishing to go off as the water cools down, but amazingly this year the snapper fishing hasn’t stopped yet. After the best fishing season any of us can remember, the fishing is still very rewarding for those anglers who have not put the boat away for the winter and are still fishing, and most anglers have not had to go far to catch a feed of snapper, and there have been some nice John Dory captured as well.

We are getting reports from all over saying exactly the same thing, if you put your boat in the water and invest a bit of time looking, particularly in water around 20 metres plus deep you will get the results.

Up North

There are good hapuku in water around 70 metres, anywhere with a bit of foul and the fish get better as you go deeper, last week a 42 kilo fish was taken in 300 metres, there have been some good kingfish taken in Whangarei harbour at slack tide times.

Auckland

Has been fishing very well in deeper water with many anglers headed out to 40 metres and finding great snapper fishing under the work ups, spring has started early in the Outer Gulf, and we have had some reports of snapper at Crusoe Rock mostly pretty small, and the bottom end of Waiheke casting softbaits into structure, wash fishing essentially, one of Half Moon Bay’s customers has been regularly catching some big kelpies from 6 to 8 kilos on nearly every trip.

West Coast

Out of Raglan is still fishing superbly if the weather allows with double figure snapper caught from 15 metres out to 40.

Tauranga

The snapper are thinner on the ground out of but there are plenty of tarakihi in the middle ground in 30 to 40 metres, but the best fish have been coming from 70 to 80 metres north of Motiti.

Coromandel

Continues to fish well with the Mussel farms at Deadmans and Waikawau still producing some very nice pannies, flasher rigs with cut baits are doing best, but softbaits as well, and the reefs in 20 to 25 metres around the Cow and Calf also firing.

Fishing Tip

When you are fishing with softbaits give a bit of thought to the Jigheads you use. In our experience shorter hooks (1/0 to 3/0) on jigheads work better than longer hooks (5/0 to 7/0), as they allow the softbait more movement. It may seem appealing to have the hook placed further back along the softbait as often fish will strike at the "Guts" of the softbait, but if the hook is placed too far back the softbait is restricted in its movement, and movement is important.

by Joe Dennehy

Top Catch World Wide Exclusive – Tested!

Top Catch have secured a World Wide Exclusive - the first shipments of Gulps new soft bait called “Squid Vicious”. Prior to its arrival I got hold of three tubs in the Nuclear Chicken, New Penny & Orange Tiger colours to test.

What is really exciting about these new baits is that they are in the shape of squid & we know how our fish love squid.

I tested these new baits a couple of Saturdays back at 2pm in the Gulf in 20 metres or so of water, low tide was at noon, I love that middle two hours of the outgoing tide when the current is at its strongest. It was blowing about 8 knots of NW wind and with the outgoing tide I was drifting NE, my first cast was hit by a nice 52cm snapper (2.4 kilos) which gave the tackle a good work out and the next hour or so was much the same.

I was most impressed with the new Squid Vicious softbaits, they look like a squid and worked really well as everything in the sea likes to eat squid. I wasn’t quite sure how to fish with them, but the first 3 snapper took the bait on the way down as I cast 40 metres or so in the direction I was drifting so that I caught up with the bait and eventually passed it and dragged it a little way before casting again, then after the fourth cast made it to the bottom I learned that jerking it around didn’t work, but but dragging the bait with slow and steady movements was deadly, I caught the John Dory as I wound the bait in ready to re cast after 6 winds of the reel.

I got another half dozen snapper all smaller than the first, between 36 and 44cm, lovely pannies and a nice fat John Dory of about 2 kilos, which I was really happy to have aboard, that was dinner sorted out.

By way of a control, once I had 3 fish to keep I tried the jerk shads I had been using recently and although I got a few bites and touches I didn’t hook one single fish, so I tried a “Nuclear Chicken” squid bait and wacko, I got the JD and the rest of the snapper in a couple of drifts through the zone.

The secret to their success is probably the extra long tentacle tails that mimic a swimming squid.

I had the boat back out of the water by 3.30pm, it’s hard to believe that its late winter as the fishing hasn’t stopped at all, it hasn’t even slowed down.

These new baits are fantastic and if you want to try them Top Catch has an exclusive on the Gulp Alive Squid Vicious range till the end of the year.[click here to order online]