Tasty as well.

All the best in your new chapter Macskipper Enjoyed reading your outer harbour reports all these years. Make sure ya pop in here from time to time and let us know how the Nelson fishing is going.

Some nice conditioned fish around at the moment,feeding up hard & not too fussy on what bait you use.These are a few from yesterday morning,taken just after the turn of the tide on skipjack cubes.

Any recommendations for an uncrowded land-based fishing spot west/manukau?

Cheers banana, those are some awesome videos. 

Best wishes John

Was out 645-1045 this morning Armour bay
It was a 400m trudge thru the mudflat to fish the outgoing spot, had to stop a few times to get my breath back, when I stopped, I sunk to ankle deep mud, almost lost my balance twice trying to get my feet out to move on, it was hard going
Paddled to my spot in 2m, no current, didn't feel right, went to the channel edge in 4m, no sign, didn't feel right
Low tide 830ish, running out of time..... all I could think of... a few days ago, we invited friends over for a fish dinner tonight... so I txt the boss, better get a lamb leg for a roast instead
Sat in the main channel in 8m, nothing, altho saw a bit of sign
So headed over to the banks, got there just on 8am, bit more sign in 5-6m, nothing happening on salted pillies
Thru out squid bait, fish on, then a good 20min bite that stopped right on low tide... txt the boss to cancel the lamb
Explored around & marked some spots to try next time out. Went back to where I started, a bit of sign there, thru a bait out & got a kahawai for the smoker.... had enough of fishing by then, paddled in, scaled some fish for tonights dinner
Just 1 snap on salted pillies, rest on squid, water temp 17.7deg
Interesting tho, the snaps were picking away at the pillies which I thought were mackerel bites on the banks, the squid were getting wacked
37 39 42 46 48cm snaps & a kahawai all on straylines with 1/4oz sinkers... bloody good day out, I honestly thought I would get skunked today
About 4 pillies cut to half baits & 6-7 squid.... the second time no undersize snaps

Opening morning for duck season, so what better thing to do with a forecast like this but go fishing 
Very similar story to BananaBoat (minus the mud!). Out from Cornwallis 6:45-10am. Out to our new favourite spot in ~7mtrs annnnnnd not a lot happening. Was also starting to think we might get skunked.....
Then a trevally took my straylined pilchard, (and managed to get tangled round the anchor rope ). Caught a little KY, and sent him out as a livie (no luck). Very quiet..... 
And then the switch was flicked and it was fish time. VERY few small snapper, just good 40, 45, 50 + cm fish. 
I managed to catch another really good trevally on a softbait - went 50cm. Such a good fight on the light gear! 

Kept 5 really good snapper, 3 nice kahawai and 2 great trevally. The water looked clear (for the Manukau), and there were birds everywhere. Plenty of small bait fish in the harbour, the kahawai we caught were spewing out little fish.
What a stunning morning out and surprisingly not very busy on the water.

As far as gear goes - I only fish with straylined pilchards over the change of tide. We have another rod with a Gurnard rig that has squid on. Softbait ready to go, usually for Kahawai. Never use burley. Been a loooong time since we've come home empty handed (tempting fate now).

Not a huge fan of keeping large snapper but this girl swallowed my secret Gurnard rig whole in 6m up the tail end of Ropers yesterday. Only managed 1 small Gurnard as the snapper were just too aggressive on the outgoing tide.

Bigger is better from a sporting angle but I find they don't lend well to my style of cooking/preparation so prefer to return them to fight another fight when they are viable. Each to their own I guess.