Manukau/West Coast Fishing Report - July 23, 2020

  • General Saltwater, North Island West Coast - Kaipara to New Plymouth

There are two things that put me off fishing our patch at this time of year. First and foremost, it’s the weather. Plan a trip based on a good forecast and you’ll most likely be let down by the fast-changing conditions. When the weekend ahead is looking dismal and you plan other stuff, the predicted wind will disappear and the seas will be flat. The second reason is that you can count on sharks and other toothy critters doing their best to drive you mad. While the harbour has its share of spiny dogfish and barracouta, things progress to a whole new level of bad once you get outside the harbour.

Stay in close and you can expect sharks to be a major nuisance. Move out to deeper water around the 60m mark and, if you’re lucky, they won’t feature as often and you may well find some respectable snapper and some solid gurnard.

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Things are a little different inside the harbour with some mega-sized gurnard being caught recently. Snapper are rare and kahawai will turn up if you deploy a little surface berley, should you want to get a few for the table.

I expect that targeting trevally in shallow water over shellfish beds will also result in a successful day out. I generally target trevs using 4/0 hooks on a lightly weighted strayline with a small squid, pilchard, skipjack or shellfish bait. They are a huge amount of fun on light gear and it pays to net them as their mouths are delicate and the fish will often fall off if you try to hoist them directly into the boat.

Scallop season starts on the first day of September but please learn and obey the rules. If you know of someone fishing illegally, 0800 4 POACHER is the number to call.

 

Take care out there

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