Rock Fishing On Auckland- North Shore
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: Landbased & Surfcasting
Forum Description: From rocks or beaches, here's the place for the landbased fishos to share information
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=47272
Printed Date: 30 May 2026 at 6:00am
Topic: Rock Fishing On Auckland- North Shore
Posted By: ENP
Subject: Rock Fishing On Auckland- North Shore
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2009 at 8:49am
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Is surfcasting off the rocks any good in Aucklands North Shore? Also any spots that you can tell me?
I'm not exactly keen on going to Piha etc on the westcoast as I'm not very experienced and generally will go really early in the morning by myself to fish.
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Replies:
Posted By: cal25
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2009 at 10:20am
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hi, Heaps of places on the shore....take a wander on an outgoing tide, you will see the vast amount of exposed reef.
also...look at Google earth....should be able to tell where the exposed rocks are.
Browns, Campbells, MILF all have places that can fish well.
I usually head bit further North though.
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Posted By: ENP
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2009 at 10:21am
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I went to Norcross fishing store in Henderson and got one of their spot X fishing maps. It says a good spot is Red Bluff by Campbells Bay. Is this a good spot?
What gear should I use? Sinkers? Floating baits? Floating bobbles?
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Posted By: cosmo
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2009 at 10:37am
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you dont need to head all the way to henderson,check out hunts in milford,campbell bay all good,castor bay,right off milford beach,black rocks between takapuna and milford,whangaparoa army bay there are plenty of spots on the shore best trick is going for a walk around most beaches at low tide and have a nosey around just remeber most spots are covered at high tide.mairangi bay wharf theres some good rocks you can see up there ------------- i just want to go fishing..........amd ignore all my adult problems |
Posted By: Kenshin
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2009 at 10:58am
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Cosmos right.. visit Hunts store and you will get plenty of advice(as I did) with regards to fishing the North Shore, where and what gear to use. http://yellow.co.nz/whitepages/Milford,-North-Shore/Hunts-Sports-Store/101678524_BUS.html best of luck! ------------- Be patient and calm – for no one can catch fish in anger. –Herbert Hoover |
Posted By: nubjig
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2009 at 11:04am
| hi ENB, I would use a reasonable sized floating bait. Either half/whole pilchard, chunk of bonito or piper/squid. Pillys being my fav. on 2 x 7/0 mustad penetrator hooks. Depending on the weight of your main line you may or may not need a trace. Unless targeting something larger or i keep getting broken off i will usually just tie my hooks strait to the end of my mainline and ensure i have a big enough bait to cast it with no weight. |
Posted By: one leg
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2009 at 11:41am
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if you scroll back through the fourm pages i'm sure you will find of places mentioned about places to fish on the eastern side ,more of a matter of looking as you say you have allready brought the spot x book now just a matter of trialing out where they say ------------- woman who say they are equal to men ,show lack of Ambition . |
Posted By: Photofisha
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2009 at 6:04pm
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Dont just fish the low tides/rocks the sand next to the rocks mid to high will get you good fish especially if it coincides with an early dawn or late dusk high and a light northerly quarter wind. Mairangi Bay northern end a reasonable cast will put you over Pipi beds,not as many as there used to be 20 yrs ago but they are still there,and if you grab a few at the low you have perfect bait for piper etc
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Posted By: Goz
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2009 at 11:34am
So just to show that I really don't know anything  Should I be fishing at the low tide coming in? I grew up on the wharf as a kid only fishing the incoming tide close to high tide? I assumed it was the same LB, and that the tide had to be pretty close to full as that is when the water is the deepest  Can someone please explain? ------------- Total LB Fish Caught: 0 PB LB Fish: None :) |
Photofisha wrote:Posted By: one leg
Date Posted: 18 Dec 2009 at 12:37pm
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fishing works on all tides ,some places fish better over high (as at low there is no water there) and some fish better low so you can walk out over rocks to get in to deeper water (guts) etc only by trial will you pick up as the best time to fish certain areas ,if it was so easy to catch fish off the bricks all the boaties would be swamping the place..just keep trailing areas Gos and keep notes on how you do (time ,tide ,bait etc) ------------- woman who say they are equal to men ,show lack of Ambition . |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 24 Sep 2010 at 4:11pm
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Im thinking of going to try fishing off those black rock between takapuna and milford as i have seen a few fishermen ther in the past...
Does anyone know any best spots along these rocks and at what tides? I will be going at the craka dawn when the right tide suits...im thinking of trying near the little white sandy beach known as minnihaha to the locals. Any advice? |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 24 Sep 2010 at 4:16pm
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otherwise if any of the other spots stated above such as cambells bay and browns bay are better than these black rocks please let me know...
This time of year is bloody hard to catch a fish ay...caught 1 kahawai over the last 5 sessions...other than that only bait fish.
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Posted By: cal25
Date Posted: 24 Sep 2010 at 5:54pm
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hey bud...use burley too...just chuck a burley bomb in a burly bag, toe to rope and chuck it in.
it can be hard to catch fish at this time of the year tho...persistence is key...and if a certain spot aint working...try another one.
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Posted By: Photofisha
Date Posted: 24 Sep 2010 at 8:37pm
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A certain person P.R has been catching nice fish between Mairangi Bay and Campbells Bay and done in relative shelter during the past week of Westerlies! You only have to walk along there at low tide to figure out a spot or too for all tides. Big baits and no weight.
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Posted By: cosmo
Date Posted: 26 Sep 2010 at 9:19pm
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dk have had some success off the rocks at the southern end there or up campbells and night fishing at campbells on a full tide can be quite good also ------------- i just want to go fishing..........amd ignore all my adult problems |
Posted By: shaneg
Date Posted: 26 Sep 2010 at 9:54pm
| Fished Campbells tonight -3 snapper all a bit small and one kahawai -but saw another guy catch one about 35 cm down southern end this arvo while out for a walk with daughter. We fish there usually a couple of times a week. Odd reasonable fish if you put the time in. |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 26 Sep 2010 at 11:54pm
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Thanks guys, Campbells bay definitely sounds like the go, if your catching snapper there at this time of year its gotta be a good sign ay?
Do you think it would be good fishing ther in the early morning on a high tide aswell? Or best at night? Also what about a low tide? Any markers on the rocks of a good casting point? Or is it just good in general off the rocks on the southern end of campbells? Have to get specific haha I really want a fish!! |
Posted By: Bungel_
Date Posted: 27 Sep 2010 at 3:46am
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just try it out... learning is most of the fun.. i have fished most of the spots around campbells bay, and they can be very hit and miss but thats just like all spots. Get out there on low tide, and try to make your way out to the furthest spots, then just work your way back as the tide comes in... there are a few general areas there that you can fish for a good few hours on the incomming provided you set your gear up on the higher rocks. Dawn and dusk are the times to fish... but lots of fish to be had on a late incomming tide if your up for it. ------------- here fishy, fishy fishy..... |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 27 Sep 2010 at 7:59am
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cheers mate,
ill go and give it a go 2moro morning low tide and post how it goes |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2010 at 11:37am
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went fishing yesterday but didnt end up getting the chance to try campbells bay so me and a couple of mates just tryed our local birkenhead wharf for the first time in a while...got there at about 7.30am and fished the incoming and only got little bites, the guy next to us and he caught really small snapper but we didnt get anything hooked up... so we moved spot, went to a little rock spot we know between chelsea sugar works and kauri pt and again only small bites...
cant wait till the real fish show up! mite try campbells bay next time |
Posted By: fisher
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2010 at 11:42am
| Dk I know the B.head wharf can be much better in the summer when the snapper move up the harbor. It will take a few weeks for that to happen. search this forum for upper Waitemata spots and you'll be able to see how people did at various times of the year. |
Posted By: JK
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2010 at 12:35pm
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Yeah suspect you are 2-3months early for fishing up there. Saw 3 boats on stanley point hole yesterday but doubt they would have got too much this early on. ------------- LedgeNZ LBG |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 7:26pm
| Anyone know if any of the land based spots around whangaparoa are holding fish at the moment? |
Posted By: Photofisha
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 7:35pm
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Mate Whangaparoa has fish all year round scored some nice snaps in the middle of winter and there are kingies cruising the reefs as well just need to get there for the bottom of the tide. Id give Army Bay a go for sure tides are good for a walk around to the right from about half tide out. Dont forget to take some berley and strayline is the way to go.
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Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 7:39pm
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By the way, yeah i think I have to agree with you fisher about bhead wharf....bit too soon, was there again couple of weeks ago and caught my first snapper for the spring lol but it probably weighed in at about 20grams!! haha tiny
---So yeah any spots that are holding fish at the moment would be great if anyone has had any luck somewhere...?
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Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 8:05pm
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Thanks photofisha....didnt think there would be many kingis in that close. Sounds good tho! Any tips on how I can hook one of them up? Guessing best shot would be with a live bait sent out, do u use balloons to get urs out far?Never fished for kings b4, but super keen on catching one 1day! |
Posted By: Photofisha
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 8:15pm
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[QUOTE=dk78] Thanks photofisha....didnt think there would be many kingis in that close. Sounds good tho! Any tips on how I can hook one of them up? Guessing best shot would be with a live bait sent out, do u use balloons to get urs out far?Never fished for kings b4, but super keen on catching one 1day! You dont have to use a live bait but it is preferable. They will cruise in close to the ledges looking for a feed you can get yourself on a ledge around there thats got a good 3m at your feet no worries. The secret is to take a big berley tie it up and just put enough holes in it so you get a nice slow trail leaking out. That will bring the baitfish around and often that in turn will attract bigger predators including Kawhai and Kingfish. If you can get yourself a medium size KY or large yellowtail send it out back hooked under a balloon with a 1.5-2m 80-120lb trace as long as its deeper where your fishing so it cant get to the bottom and snag up in the weed etc. Or you can just buy some piper and float one of them out under a small balloon dont have to have them more than 20m or so out and watch out for gannets as they will take a small bait floating and can be a handful to release if you hook em up. |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 29 Oct 2010 at 3:31pm
| lol alright mait I will give that a go and yeah hopefully catch no gannets haha although that would be pretty crack up! I could then attach a long line to the gannet and get it to take my line out to the depths....?? Jokes lol |
Posted By: feijoa
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2010 at 10:16am
| certainly fish around whangaparoa atm. last weekend i was pulling out nice 35cm snapper and medium kahawai straylining in about 2-3 m of water, casting only about 3-4m from where i was standing. half pilchard |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 15 Nov 2010 at 3:18pm
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hey feijoa,
have you ever fished at a ledge in shakespare regional park? its at the end of bruce harvey drive aparently...im just wondering if you could describe to me where exactly the ledge is, coz the guys at top catch just gave me a brief description...is it in the te haruhi bay or do u walk the path to the east?? cheers |
Posted By: feijoa
Date Posted: 15 Nov 2010 at 3:27pm
hi. sorry i haven't fished there - i don't go up that far. usually stop around the stanmore bay/army bay area (but those 2 are not where I fish). Here's something caught this past weekend off the rocks in 3m of water, at low, just straylining so very close to rocks.  |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 15 Nov 2010 at 5:25pm
| can you cast into stanley point hole off the rocks?? |
Posted By: rockinnz
Date Posted: 15 Nov 2010 at 6:28pm
go to the end of bruce harvey, park in the park and go for a walk over the low right to the point, or even further around and youll see some good fishy spots. |
Posted By: pure--lure
Date Posted: 15 Nov 2010 at 6:32pm
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looks like good territory aye, might have to do a recon up there ------------- http://www.facebook.com/groups/hibiscus.coast.fishing/ |
Posted By: pure--lure
Date Posted: 15 Nov 2010 at 6:33pm
------------- http://www.facebook.com/groups/hibiscus.coast.fishing/ |
Posted By: feijoa
Date Posted: 16 Nov 2010 at 11:59am
| Yeah... was getting dark so just pulled it in and legged it haha |
Posted By: pure--lure
Date Posted: 16 Nov 2010 at 2:38pm
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Yeah cant say Ive had much lck with squid ova whangaz if the boat yeah but not rocks ------------- http://www.facebook.com/groups/hibiscus.coast.fishing/ |
Posted By: feijoa
Date Posted: 16 Nov 2010 at 5:00pm
| I was using bait string & half pillies but they were getting pulled by small fish. just flail out a full squid and get it going - worked!! |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2010 at 4:48pm
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went to tip of the peninsula other day on a point at end of pink beach. parked up at end of bruce harvey drive and went for a lond walk there. burleyed up and casted off the rocks at full tide, attracted heaps of mullet (i think they were) caught heaps of them chuckd a livie out but no luck..and as the tide started to go out and it got closer to dusk started getting strikes also heaps of piper and stingray startd coming for a feed on the burley..caught a decent snapper, and my mate was reeling in wot we thought was a kahawai and it got stolen by something big and fast on the way in, took the fish and shot off, would put my money on a kingi.
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Posted By: pure--lure
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2010 at 7:03pm
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20 minutes Is a walk in the park mate, think I dont have many under 20 minutes that catch frequently
------------- http://www.facebook.com/groups/hibiscus.coast.fishing/ |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2010 at 7:20pm
| true that...but with a couple boxes of beer, burley, bait, rods and other essentials that someone like me would bring along thought i might just give the warning. but ur right, walk in the park! |
Posted By: SufixRockMan
Date Posted: 19 Nov 2010 at 11:50pm
squid condoms are where its at! slip a full pilchard into a squid tube n hiff it out 
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Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 25 Nov 2010 at 12:07pm
| Anyone fished off campbells bay rocks before? Any tips... |
Posted By: pure--lure
Date Posted: 25 Nov 2010 at 6:43pm
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squid eew, my 2 favourite baits arent even in a bait freezer lol ------------- http://www.facebook.com/groups/hibiscus.coast.fishing/ |
Posted By: Bungel_
Date Posted: 26 Nov 2010 at 1:12am
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Make sure you give that pilchards belly a good working over first though Havok.. every bit of extra 'love' can make all the difference... pillies sometimes are best left for berly, but what better way to berly up than to have it stuffed up a nice solid squid and let it sink down and the fish find it pretty easily. What are your two fav baits Keep on Fishing??? I have always liked blue macs, bonito, piper, squid and pilchards from the normal bait shop... but love the KY fillets, live yellow tails or dead.. piper alive and live squid. Have even done ok on the odd occy still twitching. ------------- here fishy, fishy fishy..... |
Posted By: one leg
Date Posted: 26 Nov 2010 at 7:32am
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On the 5th of Dec from 10am-2pm at Waiwera Bch there is going to be TUITION DAY for rock and surfcasters .with words from Billy Ho ,topcatch also there ,as well as a bait supplier offering tips , day put on by NSSC club with members offering tuition for anyone and a bbq going all day .
I've found blue mow mow with a side missing works well for bigger fish . ------------- woman who say they are equal to men ,show lack of Ambition . |
Posted By: pure--lure
Date Posted: 26 Nov 2010 at 9:21am
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blue maomao is fantastic butterflied but my 2 secret bait not that I care to tell anymore
Fresh farm killed chickenn cotton on a big slab to hook
Salmon offal from woolworths ------------- http://www.facebook.com/groups/hibiscus.coast.fishing/ |
Posted By: pure--lure
Date Posted: 26 Nov 2010 at 9:21am
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As in a head split in half ------------- http://www.facebook.com/groups/hibiscus.coast.fishing/ |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 30 Nov 2010 at 9:49pm
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chicken for bait? asain fullah was having some good luck at birkenhead wharf with bits of prawn for parore, said he uses whole prawns for snapper
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Posted By: pure--lure
Date Posted: 01 Dec 2010 at 8:09am
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yeah prawns work well for trevally aswell
------------- http://www.facebook.com/groups/hibiscus.coast.fishing/ |
Posted By: Del Fuego
Date Posted: 01 Dec 2010 at 5:52pm
| Prawns are awesome... when you can get 'em on special |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 02 Dec 2010 at 10:20am
| get em from the asian supermarkets heaps cheaper or the seafood markets downtown auckland |
Posted By: B razz
Date Posted: 13 Dec 2010 at 11:52pm
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my secret bait is seagull heads. |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 14 Dec 2010 at 9:18am
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hahhaahah ------------- Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man ta fish and he'll sit on the rocks and drink all day. |
Posted By: Hardie
Date Posted: 24 Jul 2011 at 4:56pm
I've just moved to Browns Bay went fishing to the left of the beach 3 times at low tide and caught nothing at all .There was no sign of fish what so ever.Is there something I'm doing wrong.I planning to try milford is there a specific tide,bait or time please let me know |
Posted By: Pickles
Date Posted: 24 Jul 2011 at 5:01pm
| Wrong time of the year to be fishing there Hardie, will be quite hard getting anything decent. Try Mosquito Bay at low tide and cast into the channel or Weiti River estuary, just watch the tides at both. Also give Duncansby Rock a shot 2 hours before and after high tide. |
Posted By: pure--lure
Date Posted: 24 Jul 2011 at 6:10pm
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You mean someone has actually got something legal of weiti river wharf lol?
------------- http://www.facebook.com/groups/hibiscus.coast.fishing/ |
Posted By: Pickles
Date Posted: 24 Jul 2011 at 6:22pm
I meant the estuary/mouth, not the wharf. Although I caught some decent pannies there when catching bait one night
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Posted By: pure--lure
Date Posted: 25 Jul 2011 at 9:50pm
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Yeah, my mums partner actually caught a kingy of there 30 years ago so I suppose anythings possible
------------- http://www.facebook.com/groups/hibiscus.coast.fishing/ |
Posted By: Salty Bones
Date Posted: 27 Jul 2011 at 8:04pm
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went fishing off island bay wharf last week as only had a couple of hours, nothing...guy there said hes been catching lots of kahawai though. good to hear the inner auckland harbour still guite fishable in the winter cold months ------------- Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man ta fish and he'll sit on the rocks and drink all day. |