im going out tommorow before the sh!! weather hits and putting the bait net out there as well...The boss gave me the day off to go fishing

got a 20metre piper net, a lot easier than catching them by hooks !!

Could you post a pic of what they look like.  How about those plastic bait catchers...are they any good?

Do you kinda use it like a flouder net?

LOL yea that one looks much easier! Do you fish Eastern beach much? or was that just a one off? I never really thought of eastern beach as being much of a spot for catching bait fish...If I was to go down there on Friday is there any other method I could use for cathing bait fish?

If you go left coming in to eastern beach and go down to the end.  On a low tide (you have to do a little wading in about waist deep at the worst) you can walk out to the foul and small reef system.  In summer that spot teems with bait fish.  We've seen kingi's out by that pole in summer as well.  I haven't been down there for a few weeks but was flicking my flies in during last light around there awhile ago lots of fish but no takers.  Burleyed up early there one morning on an incoming and had lots of piper and mullet show up.

You can also get pannies drifting baits there if you cast to the "bigish rock" that's further out.  But you have to watch the tides and I haven't fished that spot that way for years.  You can also get pannies out there on a high if you drift baits off a kayak.  Lots of skate and flounder at times to.  Just watch out for the tax men they come in closre then you think there more so in summer though.

Cheers John...Thanks for the help mate! Ill try catching some bait fish on Friday then head up to Whangarei On sat or sun and do some real fishing! Any other good bait fish catching spots in Auckland?

Cheers mate, ill head down there 2moro avo and see if I can catch a few!

Yeah mate up at leigh off the rocks.  Still got the skills took 1 munted cast to get back into it.

How ever the net was a let down.  Not eoungh weight, lead rope not long enough and because it doesn't have the sliding net thing that closes the opening the bloody fish have time to swim out because it's not sinking fast enough.

So will add a healthy amount of split shot to and lengthen the rop.  I also think that the swell was forcing the bait fish down deeper then so was not ideal conditions either.

Dandy wrote: How about those plastic bait catchers...are they any good?

You get one of them, tie a weight to it (or put a rock in it) in the middle so it sinks horizontally (sometimes you'll have to put it on the bottom yourself or it will fall down vertically and then you're screwed).

Go to Eastern Beach and put about 15 tiny pieces of bread (no bigger than 1cm each) in it, or oats, I think they work well also. Walk it out about waist deep and drop it down (make sure it is on the bottom). Leave it for 10-15 minutes then either pull it back in by the rope or better yet, walk out and pick it up with a hand covering each hole (this way you wont lose any fish).

This is such an easy way to catch bait fish, and it works an absolute treat. You can also go to Bucklands Beach at high tide and do it off the car park/boat ramp where the yacht club is, if I remember correctly from when I was a kid we used to catch sprats at Eastern, and sprats/piper at Bucklands.

We once brought one of those plastic paddling pools down to Eastern, filled it with water and then filled it with bait fish in about 30 mins. We would have had a good 100+ of them.

I'm not sure if this method works in winter, as i've never tried it and i'm guessing there arent too many bait fish around at the moment. But when it starts getting warmer you won't believe how easy this is. Also, i've found it doesn't work well on a rough day as the bait catcher moves around too much in the water, it needs to be relatively calm.

Anyway, hope this helps...you can see me at Eastern Beach in the summer doing exactly this also.