For what its worth did a trip yesterday. Launched yesterday Cornwallis 1.5 hours before high. Motored along and settled in along the papakura.
Fished two spots 4 & 6 meter. And beyond the austere shadow of the ranges , looking southward to the restful green hills of Awhitu i fished. And waited and waited. Current was right,wind was almost zero. And waited.
Current began to ease. Not a touch on tasty small chunks of Skippy.
Was hoping for trevelly and gurnard. Zilch. Eventually as tide began to near slack the rod bounced ,curved. Something on. Before long a nice rig,or spotty dogfish was in the boat. Very attractive bronze fish with small white speckles. Almost a meter long. Was a male. If it was a female in pup it would have gone back alive. Shortly after a Kahawai. Medium size but very fat. Then another rig around a meter also.. Then another Kahawai.
Before long tide began to run out. Moved to 4 meter. Not a bite. Current soon became strong. Up anchor and across the banks to purukau. Less current,fished around 3-4 meter. 1 very small Kahawai.
The gurnard and trevelly alluded me.
Bled and cleaned Kahawai on spot,onto ice. Trunked the rig very quickly as well. Interesting to see what they had been eating.
Rig fill of small crabs and what looked like sea centipedes.
Kahawai full of whitebait. Thin translucent fish with tiny black specks for eyes. Certainly looked like whitebait. But what would they be doing in the Papakura. Back to ramp just before half tide out.
One thought. I read somewhere recently that the Sewerage ponds are now releasing large quantities of fresh water into the Purukau channel. Could this possibly dilute the salinity of the water ,effect the food for fish and even the fish. Dont know how much water is released or how often.Given the vast volume of water in the harbour would be unlikely to effect the salinity and keep fish out. But who knows.
Hope your luck is better Smudge.