Fishing Reports

The Espresso Report

Whoa– slow down, Dancer, Prancer how did that happen? Christmas – again so soon?!

Yes it’s that great time of year when everything about going fishing can be so easily justified, with weather on the improve (even if slowly), school holidays, time off work, sunshine, enjoying the summer sun out on the water and around the beaches. Not to mention the snapper schools ever so closer within reach of everyone, land-based to mega launch, it’s all good really so bring on the summer.

The past few weeks out in the Hauraki Gulf have seen mako’s flipping out, orcas hunting, brydes whales enveloping great swathes of baitfish, dolphins surfing, snapper kingfish hungry-as, and then in an instant, absolutely nothing ______ same day.

The range of action on any day is anywhere from enjoying a leisurely coffee ‘cos there’s not much else to do to absolute fishing mayhem with everyone hooked up battling big hard charging fish.

Western shores of the gulf are providing some XL snapper around the shorelines, just beyond the breakers of beaches, on the sand and shallower reefy areas like Tarapunga rock/Kawau. 5-10m is holding well – let evening stealth be your friend as these guys are pretty wary and quite cunning.

Many schoolies of the 40-50cm kind are spread around most of the gulf now, the snapper seem to be moving around a lot along with the various bait schools.

For example the yellow tailed mackerel schools have been getting hounded by kingfish in the 35m depth, not far out at all.

The juvenile kingfish are stunning to look at and a blast to do battle with – look after them carefully with a net and put gently back they’re good to go but don’t hold up by the tail –this can dislocate their vertebrae apparently.

Kingfish are everywhere there’s a workup (or surface kahawai school) so throw down the gauntlet like a big jig, or a small/medium kahawai livie, or a mackerel…well everything will nail that!

You will have no idea what you might hook up…a mako, a thresher, a snapper, a kingfish…who knows but when the action is hot it's blistering! Just north of the Noises and directly east of Tiri outside the No Fishing Zone has been a go-to for a few weeks now, and should continue to be successful for many boats in the 5m range on the good weather days.

The Catch Piper on fast retrieve nailed this kingi on nice 'n light 6lb tackle last week.

King Hits

Yes the kingfish are quite prolific around the baitschools in the gulf and a ‘by catch’ when fishing away from a workup, by away I mean say several hundred metres. Often the key to catching bigger fish and more variety is to let workups move away from you.

You will catch less kahawai as they tend to feed right in the middle and some bigger snapper say around 15lbs are hanging back along with schools of kingfish.

If you see a whale surface, take care and move over to the general area quietly, turn your sounder off, drop a line down and hang on there’s often some target species hanging with the big boy. If you have a live mackerel, send it down for a recon’.

Kahawai – these fish never cease to amaze with their sheer strength and pure low down grunt all the way to the boat, they never give up. A good looking streamlined fish when streaking around the boat as you try in vain to slow them down. Many people mistakenly deride kahawai, me - I think they are brilliant and worth treating with respect like every other fish out there (O.K. apart from ‘couta, but there has to be a bad guy right).

Great to see the bigger kahawai around, aggressively feeding at times from surface to sea floor, and to be honest they are particularly good to make smoked fish pie and pate’ extraordinaire for the pre-BBQ beer accompaniment. Worth catching and keeping a few, icing-down immediately helps maintain the best flavor. Big schools of them surface feeding just off southern Flat Rock and just east of the Ahaa’s lately.

It Aint Half Hot

Hot as hell fishing on most days this past month and the bin-filling possibilities have been numerous. When the fish are feeding they are absolutely ravenous. Workups are still short lived and fast moving due to the inability of the predators to round up and hold the various baitschools. But no matter any surface action spotted, stop drop and roll as they say.

Anything sitting on the surface like any type of bird - drop a soft plastic like the little Catch Anchovy and get ready, it’s amazing how many times this works when the vhf is crackling with grumblings of the fish not biting, or try a flasher rig with a whole anchovy bait. Match the hatch holds true. So when it’s all ‘not happening’ the drift and everything is slow,

I tend to go to my little spin reel and a ½ to 1oz Torpedo hook with a small Anchovy or Glow Squid...let it waft down the water column to the fish hugging the bottom – presentation is the key and a gentle tug at the line to show ebbing life and struggle means CHOMP! Surprisingly how big the snapper are that annihilate the little anchovies – the better and more realistic the presentation, the bigger and more fish.

Clean and easy peasy…oh and a helluva fight too! Check the bite time, use your eyes to scout surface activity and sounder (if you have one) and if there are lazy gannets, birds and dolphins in the area, don’t leave they know something you don’t.

Big flappy lures like the Glowing Gecko and Red Cray (or whole real pilchard baits) are the choice when snapper are biting well, you’ll tend to get the bigger fish in this situation when you use them. When it’s all gone quiet change out to a little Catch anchovy, you can even add Secret Sauce into the special body cavity flap of the soft plastics if you wish.

Gamers

Yes the big game guys are chomping at the leader – the tuna and marlin swim ever closer to within reach of the recreational fisho, great news for those of us afflicted with the big game virus. This year should be good again looking at the sea currents already, here’s hoping the first recreational marlin is officially landed in the next few days and many of us get our Christmas wish of monster marlin boatside over summer.

Maybe even one from the Hauraki Gulf this year? Let’s hope the Skipjack tuna survive the trawler gauntlet and make it into the gulf again this summer, time will tell.

More Good News

The inner channels around Rangi have been slow to fill with fish, but just this past week with the easterly winds and warmer water creeping into the volcano environs the fish have picked up the pace and just announced their arrival both sides of Rangi, the Motuhie channel and in towards the bridge. Good sized snapper are ready and waiting for the 12ftrs to get right in amongst, nice and close to downtown and North Shore, some good catches reported off the Devonport wharf too!

While the water has struggled to get up to temp, an 18 degrees it finally is, the breeding has just started by the looks and feeding habits of the snapper, lots of bites/scuff marks on them and their hunger is intermittent, so when it’s on it is ALL ON, the feeding frenzy is ferocious. Similarly when the feeding is off, it makes for very picky fish with other things on their mind.

Merry Christmas

The Catch DVD, Harpoon and Anchovy Special has been a resounding success, thank you for all the support and enthusiastic comments, certainly appreciated, cheers.

The DVD is filmed and fished in the Hauraki Gulf on how to catch fish simply on soft plastics – no guru’s with ultra-techno speak and gear, just me a rod and some real ‘how to’ footage for you. Here's the intro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIlO3CKebnI&feature=player_embedded

Here's the special offer to you for a Catch Snapper DVD with hooks and lures. Merry Christmas!

http://www.instantfishingsupplies.co.nz/Special%20Offer.htm

And finally those inspirational Youtube clips from this past year for when you’re not out fishing, enjoy. www.catch.org.nz