Got out in the tiny 5 hour window on Saturday between the 35 knot Southerly and the 35 knot Norwester.

Just hit the harbour; this time of year is usually good for Gurnard and we were not disappointed - a relatively quick and easy 8 or so good carrots, all chunky fish in nice condition. Released a few smaller ones, and one mid-30-cm that was obviously in poor condition (post spawn?) - splotchy, thin fish. Plenty of Kahawai of all sizes interspersed to keep things interesting.

Also fluked a Snapper that I assume was lost, water temp still in the 12s.

More honking W/NW this week, which will hopefully herald the arrival of some warmer water and larger numbers of summer species...

neil_cb125t wrote: Looks like we will be heading out on Sunday to Kapiti - forecast is great. Last trip we really struggled - got just enough for a feed but it was hard going.[DIV] [/DIV][DIV]Tried all our normal round the Island spots but most were full of undersize cod or sh*t parrot style fish. [/DIV][DIV] [/DIV][DIV]I have never pushed to hunters bank but reports are pretty good there, any tricks to get there? I only have 100m of Anchor rope and heard shes pretty deep....[/DIV][DIV] [/DIV][DIV]Anyone tried up the coast near Otaki or Pekapeka for snapper?[/DIV][DIV] [/DIV][DIV]Cheers [/DIV][DIV] [/DIV][DIV]Chappy[/DIV]

Anchoring at Hunters is a risky business unless it's at very very slack tide and you're not worried about losing your anchor. It fair honks through there.

Getting to Hunters... I'd consider driving south to the Mana bridges and launching there, shorter run in the boat and much nicer place to launch from, if you don't mind the extra 20 minutes drive in the car. Don't worry about finding it; if conditions are nice there will be 20 boats sitting on top of it.

We'll be out on Saturday and Sunday (probably?), launching from Mana. Send me a PM and if you like I'll give you my mobile and you can ring for a report on Saturday evening - warning that it might be "Didn't catch sh!t, sorry, no idea".

Depends what you want to target.... again, PM me with your general plan and I'll give you my 2c for what they're worth.

Well, its been a looooong time since posting in here.

nice ski Spaz.

It’s coming dude. Kapitis cleaning up wed/Thursday. Wangas Friday. I’ll be hitting wangas for sure if it’s stays as forecast. Could possibly squeeZe Wednesday in kapiti way

Nice - we popped out rom Wangas to Patea on friday - was like a lake all day. Water temp was 15 up that way.

Snapper finally around in good numbers out west... got 11 in a couple of hours this evening out from Mana. Good consistent pannie kinda size, 1.5-2kg models. Pretty straightforward at this time of year... bit of current, bit of vaguely interesting terrain, lots of berley...

Water temp 18 degrees.

And a happy new year!

The last week or so of southerlies has stuffed the water temp, down to 14 again (wtf) which has completely switched the Snapper off.

Got out yesterday in lovely conditions, knowing that Snapper were hard work I didn't even try for them.

Picked up 3 Kingfish on jigs, one of which was a short very fat fish that got turned into a beautiful new years eve dinner, the other two went back to grow bigger.

Shot down to Verns on the turn of the tide, took a little while to find the Tarakihi but once it was on I was picking up 2 or 3 every drift, took a dozen good sized ones - nice to give some fish away to friends and family at this time of year.

Grasshoppa wrote: Heya Roz, dont count on the Albies too soon yet, water temp 13.7degrees on surface and colder at bottom/40m diving ysdy, those southerlys have smashed the temp, plenty of teri and puka around tho

Had one of our best sessions yet yesterday. Got up proper early to make the most of a 6:50am low tide. Lines in the water at 5am, first bait down was eaten in about 30 seconds by a solid Snapper, followed by about 90 minutes of fantastic fishing. Largest Snapper just under 10lb, plenty in the bin so moved on to other species. Shot down to Verns where the Tarakihi were slow but consistent, picked up half a dozen in as many drifts.

Tried a few more spots trying to mix up the species but couldn't get away from the Snapper :/

Water temp remains stubbornly low. Saw 18 at times but high 16s was probably the most common.