We covered a heap of ground - started at a few spots where terns were north of Rangi - out further to Tiri/ spots between Kawau and Coro and then back towards Waiheke. Came across a bunch of gannets on the water and dolphins - we witnessed a couple of work ups start near us and by the time we got there it was all over - literally within 20-30 seconds. Nothing underneath them anywhere even where they previously were.

Only managed one good gurnard in the bin and threw back small snapper when we found fish. 

We stayed overnight at Motuihe and fished a few hours around Sergeants and Waiheke yesterday but again only small fish.

What is going on out there and what is with the very quick work-ups? We were using fleas/ sliders and chucked a few live baits down. Guys back at the ramp had similar average fishing.

Perhaps need to berley up in close?!

Cheers,
Jason

If you see a little Surtees 495 called Little Blue out then say hello.

 

We have been out a few times lately and found it overall quite hard but always come home with something. At present, there no massive bite, just gradual accumulation using different techniques and trying different spots. The weekend before last we caught nine keepers but used five different techniques to catch them - live bait, flea jigs, soft bait, dead bait and kaburas. Just had to keep trying different things. The highlight though was catching blue koheru at the Aahas. They are so much fun to catch and the best sashimi around. Last Saturday we took a visitor out, picked up some jack macs in Sargeant Channel, then some small kahawai out towards David and Maria Rocks. On to Aahas, which is where we like to go when the weather plays ball. Just three snapper over several hours of hard slog. Saw blue koheru but couldn't entice a bite, however hooked some XOS sweep on the sabiki and those came home to be filleted and smoked. It's not all about snapper, other species are damn tasty as well. 

We haven't bought bait now for nearly two years as we target jack macs on the way out, and always keep an eye on the sounder in case a school comes by and for birds in case there are kahawai nearby, so we can stock up on salted kahawai bait. Saves a fortune and works well.

I have been having a lot of fun with a tiny flea jig that has languished in the bottom of my tackle box for years. I gave it a try a couple of weeks ago and had a ball with admittedly mostly undersized snapper but also landed a nice 42cm specimen. Last weekend gave it another go and it caught the biggest of the day - all this while softbaits were untouched. Great fun, and really effective so going to use it more often. How much old stuff do we have lying around while go out and buy the newest latest and greatest.  We bought G Bombs recently and they were extremely effective at catching baby snapper - great. 

Here is the bin from a couple of weeks ago with a nice fat tasty blue koheru - the first one always goes in the bin for us.

All caught on fresh/frozen mullet. Nothing touched the SB nuclear chicken. Gutted and full of mussel/crabs. Filletd a couple and fat on knife,so maybe improving with coler water temp,still 19.5c surface temp.

Fingers cross weather plays ball for Easter Sunday as boy wants to do a manukau trip.Hes tired of eating snapper.

Thoughts?

I fillet fish that size but I also smoke them. I know you ran out of time but big snaps smoke up so well

works well for groper , cant see why snapper would be different. I actually was recently wondering if blue cod would work steaked up , save a lot of mucking about . Probly not so good for wee kids ,,,,,bone wise .