Thanks to the local gurus who sent me advice – thought I’d better post a report after our very pleasant family visit to your neck of the woods across last weekend.

Flounder

Though the tide didn’t seem ideal, with full to outgoing conditions, I tried spearing up the estuary one night near the place we stayed at, at Athenree. Though the habitat looked perfect, with lots of crabs on a firm mud bottom, I only saw two flounder. Got one nice one which I wounded fatally with the first stab (somehow went between the gill plate and the body and hit gristle, but must have also hit an organ/brain) and chased down when it took off and then finally went belly up. Lovely in the pan for lunch.

I didn’t see any baby flounder, which is not a good sign. Plenty of eels, yellow-eye mullet, etc.

Kauri Point wharf

It’s many years since I did proper wharf fishing, and I’d forgotten the types of old salts, weird gear and fishing styles you see in classic Kiwi wharf fishing. And the smell of baked on bait, decaying seaweed etc.

What a superb, and I would say, unique fishery you folk have on your doorstep. I couldn’t believe my eyes at the baitfish schools swarming around the entire structure, and the kingies boiling up every so often. The 3-year-old and I visited once for a recce, and once to fish. Despite being a week day, each time there were lots of anglers – with a rod in every rod holder. One group of new NZers was using a throw net to full effect, landing a teeming heap of massive jack macks, parore and other fish, filling their bin and also having livies on tap for their 12 or so rods. I failed to catch any livies on plain sabikis, and they wouldn’t bite pillie or squid either. Only fresh bait. Must be very well fed and seen every sabiki under the sun. So I chopped up an ailing piper I was given to catch some very lively macks.

I hooked two kingies on a slider rig on my VIP870 and big Baitrunner. One busted me off on something a long way straight out from the wharf (a log?), the other was under-sized but was fun to tangle with. Maybe 70cm? I tried a surface lure a few times and had one good follow, but no hits.

I tried the narrow jetty end closer to shore, but it was not the right spot for the youngster, so we went back to the wider end section.

The little fella (in his life jacket, but no rope as it was tricky to organise with all the anglers moving around) caught a tiny rock cod and something that looked like a small sweep. Pic below. But he was happy watching the action and was a real trooper despite the foreign environment.

We saw four kingies landed, one legal. Unfortunately, the anglers who hooked them let the baits be taken well down, and didn’t look after the fish when landed, and two of the three released went belly up as soon as they hit the water. What a sad waste.

The sea lettuce was a nightmare, seemed particularly bad on the outgoing tide. Huge clumps got stuck on everyone’s rigs. The piper some guys used were not in a good way after getting throttled by it, hence me going with maccies.

Anyway, a great little break with some fun fishing thrown in. Thanks again to the community for sharing info.

TTK