1. At Waipu Cove walk through the creek at the south end of the beach, up onto the ridge. Looking out towards the islands on the coast below is a big  almost flat rock (1/4 acre size or thereabouts, is surrounded by water at high tide but may only be a few feet deep to cross. There are alot of mussels around this rock and make good burly and bait. Here you can catch Kahawai and Snapper, baitfish, also stingrays fairly common.

 

2. Back at the ridge follow the track right for five or so minutes until you are past 2 or 3 of the new houses, before the track goes past the next gut drop down onto the rocks and fish the north eastern point of those rocks. Snapper and trevelly here in bigger proportions than the previous spot....but also patches of foul to snag you every now and then.

 

3. Another 5 minutes along the track to the next point, crazy rock formations here and hard to actually get out onto these rocks. You can fish the edge of the reef at low tide here for an hour or so with no swell but after that you will have to go back up the rocks a bit. Fishing now becomes a challenge because you are so far back from the edge of the reef and only little guts to lead your fish to land. Landing a big fish here is almost impossible. This is a dangerous spot and not for the faint hearted. There are a couple of steps of faith out to this spot. About my 3rd to last mission to this spot at one of the steps of faith my sandal blew apart and i crashed onto the rocks. My big toes nail was all smashed up and just hangin on and the flesh all around my toes and end of my foot was minced nicely. It didnt look very good at all and took 30 minutes to compose myself before crossing the next step of faith. Luckily i had a bandage in my kit and bandaged what was left of my sandal to my foot covering the gory bits.....i felt much better once i couldnt see the mess. I never wear open footwear rockfishing anymore.

 

4. Northern end of Langs beach are some rocks that jut out, doesnt look very fishy but some lazy fishermen have landed 20 lbers here. Past these rocks is another little beach called Ding bay. At the north end of this beach is a track out to the point on the right, there are also steps at the north end of this beach that lead up to the road. You can access the point from these steps when the tide is in. Very limited parking at the top of the steps though, you may have to park down the hill.

 

5. Mangawhai head rock, someone else on this forum may be able to offer more info on this spot. Cross when the tide is low enough and get back before it gets too high.

As for experience, I'm not a total novice, have caught many fish when invited on friends' boats, but not much from land.  However, it feels more satisfying when I do, and it's the only real way for me to get out there.

I don't mind a hike, so I'll some of the place you mention, RockX, but I'll make sure I have strong footwear!

That's a good point actually:  They say don't wear thick heavy boots when rock fishing, don't want to get dragged under if washed off the rocks, so what does anyone suggest to wear, just trainers?

So far weather on Metvuw.co.nz is looking good for the weekend

hey fisher what day you coming up?