Snapper fishing steady rather than spectacular

Harder fishing and smaller fish heralding the change of season has been the trend reported by many Bream Bay/Whangarei Harbour anglers.

Fishmeister Charters’ skipper Mike Leese suggests the fishing has been steady rather than spectacular. He has been putting his clients onto some of his deeper spots out from his Mangawhai base.

If you are prepared to go wider out to the Mokohinaus, bigger snapper are mixed in with the trevally schools.

“Getting through the trevs to target the snapper below has been the hardest part,” Mike suggests.

A bit closer to home, Mike has had some success over the sand in 20-50m out from Te Arai, mainly fishing baits.

This general area has produced well for us over the last month or so, seeing us return most days with our bin full of snapper with the occasional gurnard and trevally thrown in. Last Sunday we changed direction and fished the eastern end of the Hen where we struck a good patch of porae among the snapper.

While many turn their noses up at porae as a table fish, its firm flesh makes it a great candidate for red or green curry, and they are great scrappers on lighter tackle.

Many anglers treat this species with disdain but their firm flesh is ideal for red or green curries, and we occasionally put them through the smoker. When I used to do a lot of diving we encountered porae in big numbers around the Tara Reef area when hunting crayfish.

Steve Martinovich had been taking a bit of time away from line fishing to have a crack at one last billfish as part of a solo angler competition. He says the water temperature has dropped dramatically to below 19 degrees this last week.

Steve says he “struggled” on all three snapper trips last weekend both at the Chicks and the Hen.

He says there were heaps of “throwbacks” and he was unable to target some of his more exposed spots thanks to a strong SE wind. One of his most productive sessions was near the Whangarei Harbour entrance where his clients produced a good snapper catch numbers wise, with the snapper all around the 35cm mark.

Steve says there were huge schools of small fish in the Parry Channel that the trevs and snapper were enjoying. Prior to last weekend, the anglers aboard Sumo produced a great bag of snapper in the deep off the Chicks, but the school didn’t stay in the vicinity long.

Reports from landbased anglers has been very much like their boating colleagues with mixed results.

Keen surfcaster and rockhopper Kadin Williams from the Waipu-based tackle repair specialists The Reel Clinic says he has not had much time to get on the water due to the volume of tackle coming through for servicing. He has been managing one or two snapper each time on the beach and says the gurnard are overdue in making their appearance.

May 2024 - Grant Dixon

New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.

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