How was the water colour? Was it reasonably clear?

Warehau should start turning up at the north end soon.

Thanks for the report.

Hi Paul

Water had good visibility (blue- green) when the sun was out, only noticed this when my mate dropped his rod over and we watched it disappear and the temperature was a refreshing 11 degrees. Never caught warehau, is there any secret to nailing one of these?
It is supposed to go southerly again today so imagine that will stirr it up again for a few days.

We catch them spearfishing.

I think the first schools arrived in Sep-October. They hang around the pinicles off the northern point and were often schooled up with Kawhai along the bolder bank.

Normally you could spot them from the surface, so about 5-6 meters down.

Im not sure what there diet was at this time as we never saw them feeding, but a mate reckoned they were munching on the large blobby jelly fish that turned up about the same time.

Did you get any Kingfish last season?

Paul , do seals scare the snapper out of the shallows down your way? Are there any snapper in the shallows to scare away ?

Jaffa Russ

That is a damn fine series of questions...

This summer I intend to find out.

Me and Lance did a bit burleying for snapper at a couple of likely spots this summer gone but only managed to attract humungus conger eels.

The line guys catch a handfull of snapper every year in the 20# class, but they all look like schoolies not the darker uglier kelpies that mooch around the shallows up north.

I think the key would be to set up a burly on a point that will get washed out to deep water by the current.

One nationals (they used to have them in Wellington) a guy got a 14# fish out of a school of 20 or so.

Also legend has it that some guys were gutting a kingi out at kapiti, and after jumping back over scared a school off the guts on the bottom.

Its hard, cause when the warm water arrives, we concetrate on kingfish, as we only get a small window when they are availiable to us. But the plan is to try and put some time into snapper.

My dad used to spear them up to 28# around Te-Tahi bay area, but that was 30 years ago, and I suspect you probably could'nt shoot your gun off without hitting one by mistake back then. He used to find them while looking for crays, they would be sleeping in open ended caves and often he would see the siloette.

5 weeks to daylight saving starts..... sweet!

Seals: Arnt too much of a problem, depending where you go. I had a real friendly seal out at Kapiti basically beg a butter fish off me ounce. Then he proceeded to swim with me for about 10 mins. No sh*t, he was begging like a dog, and took the fish real gently right out of my hand. When I saw those monster teeth I questioned the wisdom in hand feeding wild seals. But it was a pretty special thing.

Do you think the north east coast snapper would be used to seals tearing about the place? I think not. However I seen a charter report that says most of the schoolies have departed well wnd truly to the depths. Maybe that is the story.

Russ

During our trip at the Cavallii's there was a couple of seals hanging around the teapot area and the next island, saw several snapper including some quite good ones. They didnt seem to be to worried about the seals being in the same area, although burlying up didnt work at all.

Maybe if they are already lying up in a gut they are fine unless they are disturbed by the seals.

Cookie,

Good to hear about the water temp back in early September.  Been out since then?  How did you go?  What was the Temp?

We have quite a few groper spots near (well, probably not so near actually) Kapiti.  Generally the North Western coner of Hunters reef systems will produce.  About 90 to 100m deep around here, some real tiger country on the sounder is what to look for.

"Out Wide of Hunters" is our most consistent producer of groper.  The water varies between 90m and around 150m.  We catch most of ours in around 110m.  Look for the pinnacles, ridges and rises, most have produced for us.  As for location generally, head out 12nm from KBC on a heading of 135 and you will be in the area.  You will cross a deep valley 150-160m, then it will rise sharply to around 120m.  Any structure up on the rise is worth a crack.  If it is a nice day (which it needs to be to get there), there will be a number of other boats out there.  We counted 20 one day.  Great area for Tarakihi up to 3kg and blue cod of 3kg as well.  Had a couple of 30lb puka bitten clean off behind the gill plates oout here, so there are some good size bities around too.

Don't bother trying Hunters on outgoing tide, you will never hit the bottom current is so fast.  top or bottm of tide only here really.  Out wide you can fish the incoming tide no worries, but will have to back up while fishing.  Out going tide pretty swift here too, but fishable on a good day.

As for your gear, I have caught puka, tarakihi and blue cod out there on 15kg gear loaded with 50lb braid.  Take it a little easy on gear this light and you will have fun.

I have heard of groper been caught in close to the island near the SW point, but never had much luck there myself.

Cheers for that Matt

Havent been out since then, weather hasnt been that kind lately. Got off the beach here on the weekend and set a net. Ended up with half a dozen nice size dogs but the southerly dosent make for comfortable fishing.

Temp was up to just a shade under 13 degree's on Saturday.

It was lumpy out wide, and water was very dirty.

See full report under Spearo's corner.

Went out to Kapiti Island for a fish yesterday (8/10). Plan was to have a look for a snapper and shoot out wide for a shot at a few �puka if the weather allowed.

We had a look around for a snapper in The Raoterangi Channel, and had several promising looking returns on the sounder, some of which were starting to group up. Difficult to try and catch due to wind and tide, but we had a few drifts (with backing up), without any success (but with a few green ones over the stern) before running up north in search of a more pleasant spot.

Up the North End (on Tokahaki Reef) there were some really nice big green backed blue cod around, some kahawai in great condition, and a few small tarakihi, legal, but not worth keeping.

Water was very green, 12.9 to 13.1 degrees, poor visibility. We spent most of the day hiding from the weather, which was worse than predicted.

All in all a little disappointing, but a good day on the water and we came home with a nice feed. Gotta be better than working.

Matt
Got home last night and looked out towards the island and wouldnt of picked it for that kind of day. Me and a couple of mates are heading off the beach after work to see if the snaps have come in yet, weather seems alot better here today with alight northerly and we should get the change of tide a 6pm.

Looking forward to hearing how you got on Cookie.  If successful, please be specific on bait and advise general area.

I had Wednesday (9/10) with the kids (2yrs 9mnths and 1 yr 4 mnths), so took them out to see if we could catch an early season snapper off aeroplane island in the channel.  We came across many promising shows on the colour sounder and fished many of them.  Absolutely sure there are some snapper there, but could not get them to bite.  I caught snapper there in June last year.  We fished over the end of the flood tide and start of the ebb, but this was the middle of the day.  I have never had much success with snapper during the middle of the day.

Thinking about a change of bait too.  Squid and pillies good when they are feeding strongly, but don't seem to entice them when they aren't hungry.  We didn't have any fresh kahawai (my fav), will try some crab soon.

Matt
Fished on wednesday 9/10 off the beach in 20m, wind and tide all in our favour and a top evening as well. Mate of mine crab fishes and were using his crab burley, if any thing is going to fire up the snapper it is this stuff, but to no success. Caught a dozen top nick Kahawai and a few dogs, so still a top day for troops Tea. water temp was 13.5 so on the way up. Mates caught a haul of gurnard a couple weeks back but nothing at our end. Back on land at 8.00pm and hoping this northerly keeps going for another week or so. 

Alas, the Southerlies will be upon us again this weekend.

Tide times look really good for Raoterangi Channel next week for an evening fish.  Hope to get out then.  Weather might be OK too.

Cookie, do you use crabs for bait as well as burley?  Much success?  Snapper in the channel normally full of small crabs.  What do you find is the best way to rig them?  I have used crabs about 100mm across the shoulder of the shell.  Never very satisfied with rigging, tried heaps of ways.

Anyone trying the boat city spring challenge this weekend?

Matt
Can't say I have used crabs for bait, Guy I met the other day suggested stuffing a squid with tuatuas, as you do with a pilchard, so keen to give that a shot. We have used pipis for a ground bait off the back of the boat and seems to be fairly successfull and cheap. Just open the shells and send them over and lay a good patch.

Hi Paul

you asked if there's a secret to nailing warehou. Can't thnk of any . Often a by catch of bottom fishinf but the commercial guys usually set net 2-3 metres off the bottom to catch them.

Telltale sign of when you have one on thugh is if it takes off you make have yards of line to wind in before it catches up as speed is a strong point of these guys.

If shorebased you never get a strike these guys unless winding flat out with a lure on 4:1.

On the Westcoast probably peak in numbers around March-april with the snapper.

Lance

Fished on Sunday in the sprigtime challenge.
Started off aeroplane island and couldnt get a legal size fish to save our selves. Moved around to half a dozen other spots with the same result.
Come 1.00pm and not one keeper and the mood on board was getting fairly tense with all jokes now being taken personal. Had lunch and parked up on the south side of browns, for the hour each side of the top of the tide. 
Finally the first keeper on board a nice 320mm terakihi and away it went. Next hour and a half we bagged 25 terakihi in all and a nice 2.8kg trevally.
Entered 9 fish at the way in between the 3 of us and split the rest up for tea. No snapper caught this day of the competiton but with the weather the way it was over the weekend, just bloody good to be able to get out.

 

Cookie,

We haven't gotten out for ages.

Did you try for a snapper?

Where?

Water temperature?

Things are looking good with respect to tide times later this week.  Hope to get out for an evening fish using really good bait at the change of light. 

The snapper are there, I have seen them on the sounder, I just can't get them to take anything.  Thinking that if I offer up fresh kahawai, crab, squid, pillie, and perhaps mussels or even paua, they will take something.  They have to eat when it is cold too.  I would like to try prawns, as I reckon they would be all over these, trouble is I am too and they cost too much to use as bait. 

as much as people dont usually want to pass on their fishing spots. we are new to the area and wondered what surf casting is like down here. Can anybody point us in the direction of a couple of spots to try from??

Many thanks

Saus,

I am not a shore fisher, so don't really know what the hell I am talking about  on this one...... but, from what I know about boat fishing around the place, it may help.

Your best bet is to get a boat.

Likely shore based spots between Waikanae and Pukerua Bay are:

Near shell fish beds - there are some really good one along the beach in Raumati.  Look for the number of shells on the beach.  Near low tide there may be some gutters between the bars that are fishable.  I would use tuatuas or crab as bait.

Near fishermans table - this is roughly where the sandy beach transitions into the hard shore.  I know snapper are taken from the beach here, a quite a number from boats arond about there.  There are probably heaps of spots around this bit of the rocky coast.

Try the Fishing News map guide in any baot shop and mos gas stations.

Matt B

I just read the news article Eric was on about.

Wicked.... I never heard about that....  about bloody time they did something about Pukerua Bay, its been strip-mined for years by certain people who shall remain unlabelled but let me say that make up a big proportion of the population in Porirua.  And before you call me a racist I've seen it too many times for it to be a generalisation.  I'm just telling it how it is.  And yea I have called MoF. 

Good on Ngati Toa and the residents I reckon! 

Top marks.