With the weather being all over the place its restricted me to target areas close to home, so with that and only needing a couple of fish for a feed I have going to oddball places just for the hell of it. The great thing about being under no pressure is you tend to look at things from a different angle making you think and experiment which is all part of the learning curve. I have to admit that having a Furuno TZ touch gives me a massive advantage in that I have it set in ACCU fish which shows me the length of any fish that go directly through the middle of the transducer which is a huge advantage in shallow water. With a lot of fish now in the inner harbour they are feeding up big time to put on body fat reserves for the winter, in fact I can't recall snapper being so full of fat at this time of the year and it maybe a sign that we are in for a long hard cold winter.

So often when heading out on a mission we take little notice of the sounder till we get close to the target zone but now I have been focusing on areas such as Gardeners Gap, the barges and from Rangitoto wharf down to Islington bay in 8-10 meters of water with soft baits.

Gardeners Gap and Administration Bay area at this time of the year should be full of anchovies but for some reason the numbers of schools are way less than previous years. In saying that there are a lot of pannie sized snapper in the area as well as a number of legal kingfish. On the western side of the foul that divides Gardeners Gap and Administration Bay right up at the head of the bay (it surprises me how few boats you see fishing there) there have been a few small work ups yet I am surprised at how many snapper are lurking underneath and close by. Two casts with a white/clear soft bait had all the fish I need so off to try some where different.

The foul and reef structure in the middle of Administration Bay is generally good for a few snapper and the last time I was there we landed a couple of reasonable kingfish and got a severe spanking from a much larger fish. This time nothing not a bloody thing even tried a few baits but they were ignored.

Off to a little spot I have at Awash Rock that never fails, well I damn near had to pour me a wee Captain Morgan to steady my nerves as there no sign showing at all, there has to be a reason so looking at the tide strength moon phase and the bottom of an empty glass there had to be a few fish lurking on the edge of the foul near a small headland close by. Took a while and the snapper where soft on the bite but we hooked into a few and even managed a couple on soft baits (they were every soft on the bite) while at anchor.

Round the corner to test the shallow water off Rangitoto wharf, the sounder was showing quite a lot of fish well spread out so being a sand/ mud bottom on with a brown soft bait that looks more like a dog turd, reason being a lot of small flounder are on the mud and Parkiti close by in the kelp. The down side to fishing in this area is the wash from ferries and big launches which at time could roll the rum out of your coke but its worth the grief when you hook up on pannie after pannie which put up a hell a scrap in shallow water.

Well team now is the time of the year when its worth getting out thinking outside the square and trying something new, what have you got to lose before long it will be wet and cold and then you will have something to bleat about.

Bruce Duncan