Full Reset. Spring does this, by land sea and air the upheaval of seasonal change is inevitable yet still surprising, year after year. CAUTION  Loch Ness monsters by are out there! Fully, semi and barely submerged

branches, trees and other major debris is lurking ready to cause havoc to your wonderful day of play out there. Keep a wary eye out, particularly along tidal current lines, some of what lies just below the surface is very ‘Titanic-like’. From an elevated vantage point this week a tiny tail poked out above the surface not far out from an Auckland shoreline, with an ominous dark shape just below the surface it looked just like ‘Nessy, half a pine tree will do that.

Another BIG Northland trevally – on the new Catch CURLY TAIL softbaits!

Seminars: Whitianga bait-free competition with the helpful addition of a pre-comp seminar of what to use, and what not is on next week Tuesday Nov. 7. The following week in Wellington/Plimmerton an epic open day is being held at KP Marine, with a softbait specific seminar at 1pm, past, present and future softbaits – are you up to speed or are you missing out? Find out, easy, and free.

Excited by the fishing season ahead? We all are, and our choice is wide not only in what equipment to use, but where and how to catch fish. Overwhelmed by information? Usually that’s more of a function of social media opinions, not so much fishing facts. So perhaps with the seasonal change, some changes to your fishing are in order? Adapting to what can be fished, not just what you currently do, or have done for many years. What’s your ideal fishing day? A bit shallower water fishing, some sneaky land-based sessions more often than not? The challenge of catching ‘even’ a kahawai on a blustery ‘non-fishing’ day – can be a thrilling new personal challenge, or the challenge and adventure of a flounder on a softbait , or a kingfish on a softbait (big 10inch 😉 ), even fishing a softbait as a livie under a balloon, or those marvellous mackerel overlooked by many New Zealanders. Lots of ideas and ways to enjoy this Spring/Summer of fishing, have a browse on www.catchfishing.pro for ideas and expanding your bait-free fishing thrills. Have you tried the new Curly Tail softbaits? Almost too good with their action in water, a heap of bite triggers built in, check them out and their incredible vibe action, epic stuff and a great addition to your fishing prowess (see video on Catch Facebook/Instagram).

Kawau Island – has good solid snapper in the shallows (curly tail softbait territory?) – with more than one angler sheltering and catching well-conditioned snapper over the past two weeks – fatties too, nice. More good snapper to be caught in an around the top end of Waiheke/Ahaas right now as the Spring rush into the Gulf and Waitemata harbour is well underway. This area northern Waiheke area is great for fishing with lots of habitat

And that’s a big YIPPAAH! Marty from BerleyPro/Tasline travelling the world with Catch softbaits.

welcoming the incoming snapper (and a few kings) and a great place to shelter in calm when there’s a bit of a SW wind. Some well-conditioned snapper to be had in and around here.

Nesting time it is for gannets, the need to breed and feed is paramount, similarly with a lot of the wildlife out there in Spring, it’s all on November is THE month of the year to get excited and head out fishing, try new tackle, new techniques, new fishing.

Fishing reset – the world is your new season oyster.

Cheers

Fish just don’t seem to care! Wind, rain, hail – pfft, meaningless to those a few metres below the surface. So some inshore fishing has been the go, and many

Straylining softabaits – have you, do you?

have been doing alright catching aji, squid, kahawai and some snapper, stray-liners doing rather well. Adjusting your fishing to what is available is key rather than doing the exact same thing, month on month, year after year, reducing and eliminating so much pleasurable fishing. There’re so many different species and ways to catch them, why not dare to try something out of the ordinary? Usually, a lot of fun and adds another string to your bow at least.

With all this wind and expect more a simple solution despite strong winds is lining up a nice little possie, which doesn’t have to be far away, anchored or land based with that wind overhead helping align you with the tide current, habitat, and fish. Burley pumps up the mosh pit and further back there are usually a variety of fish coming through and around you for the next few hours, perfect. So in your vicinity, not necessarily all at the same time there can be snapper, gurnard, mackerel, squid, kingfish, kahawai, john dory and a few more. All within casting distance. Using lures while in a typical strayline setup can be exciting action-packed fun – using all sorts of rod/reel combos, as well as tasty temptations especially soft baits.

Check out the what the ultra-buoyant Livie soft baits look like on a running ‘strayline’ rig, there’s a video up on the Catch Facebook page in the next day or so. It’s amazing to see how well they can be presented. The sinker used is intentionally highly visible – say either a Beady Eye or Freestyle Kabura. The main reason being that the huge eyeball, luminous, UV coated kabura head acts as an advertisement, an attractant to a fish to investigate at close range, and disco! A hapless, defenceless ‘live-bait’ (soft bait) wafting wounded, looking absolutely perfect to attack for a feed. Using say the big 10inch Livie version with a small 1/4oz jighead (like Stingaz ) the soft bait has almost neutral buoyancy, i.e. you can cast it way out the back where the bigger fish tend to congregate watching the baitfish feed on the burley trail, waiting for their opportunity.

Catch 10inch Livie softbait bobbing around under a balloon, the future of fishing is here!

Cast this big beautiful, delicious looking Livie that gently wallows around, only very gradually sinking down (great for the shallows). Or go heavier and have the jighead plant the softbaits head on the seafloor, but the inherent softbait buoyancy makes the soft bait come alive, looking like it’s feeding, or similar on the sea floor, again helpless and presenting itself perfectly for a strike.  Twin hook softbait rigs (just like you would straylining a pillie with a keeper hook) work well in this situation. Simply brilliant. Just keep using the same SB over and over, and you can change to different species of with colour, size shape, weight, o you can get strikes and hookup even when the fish aren’t hungry.

Why not put a Livie (softbait) under a balloon! It’s crazy good how alive they look – and they align perfectly where you want them, they DON’T keep swimming back under the boat/tangling the prop/hiding from that kingfish swimming around looking for exactly that – a livie bobbing, struggling under the surface – ready to be snaffled. Best to be prepared for this and go up in gear – not your lightweight set, a proper jig rod/reel would be ideal.

So, adjust the lure type and size,

Landbased stickbaiting (Catch Handmade) a mighty kingfish!

targeting different fish as they come through and see what new adventure sessions you can enjoy, no need to be grumpy at home exchanging endless txts moaning about ‘the weather’ or traffic, or politics. And when the wind drops as it will – you have the gear that really opens up your options for any day, whether anchored, drifting, jigging, straylining.

The choices you have with fishing are far and wide, it is merely a matter of adapting to your situation and throwing down the fish-gauntlet.

Enjoy Spring fishing, it’s on!

www.catchfishing.pro

Whales right in and around the inner gulf of Tiri/Rakino/Noises area recently have been an amazing sight in such shallow water, where if they dived

headfirst, they’d bump their head immediately. A wonderful place to enjoy the sights and sounds of the gulf while catching fish within eyesight of the big city. The action out there is all over the show, close, mid, wide as the mammals are moving around a lot chasing their next meal. Here one day, but gone the next!

Winter it is out there, while Spring is on our calendar, it is still only just turned September and the water temp is still cold, around 13c. Traditionally October was just the very start of Spring swim-in of snapper into the gulf, we shall see over the next several weeks.

A lot of the time there will still be ‘kabura-days’, the ones when the bite is so soft and tentative, kaburas are ‘required’, typical of winter snapper especially. Highly sensitive rods (e.g. microjig rod by Catch), light leader and line, using softly, gently moving Freestye Kabura and Beady Eyes – hard to out perform in this current wintry scene. Start with putting a few fish in the bin with them, nice pannie sizes for dinner, then look at upsizing your lure, with the combined increase in rod and lure action to target some bigger fish. A good swap-out change from kaburas are microjigs , not too much of high lift/long fall, more gently blipping the sea floor, easy strike stuff, puffing up mud giving away it’s position. A smooth continuous wind up, slow jig retrieval style of the microjig is an absolutely dynamite way to catch fish like gurnard and snapper whatever your target

that slow-jig gradual retrieve is a top winter technique. Slow Pitch is a very good call especially when there’s a bit of a bite going on, and with both a good fall, and the all-important ‘pause’ of your slow pitch technique (have you been to a seminar and seen this?) there are good sized snapper and kingfish looking for that falling food.

Another prime snapper to The BOSS slow pitch jig.

There’re lots of good slow pitch jigs out there to choose from, if you haven’t already tried it the BOSS is an absolutely top performer and benchmark lure, and easy to use with its ultra-fluttering fall, definitely one to have and use this Spring for both snapper and kingfish.

Weather and calendar point us all toward getting out and enjoying some well-deserved fishing time as warmer, longer days continue their upward swing providing the motivation for us all to shake off the hibernation mode and get back into outdoor life.

How To…? Reels on Catch Fishing Facebook – check them out – practical hints, tips, setups, tackle advice, technique demo’s, rigging, all sorts of 100% bait free lure fishing, have a browse while you’re not fishing – so you are primed, ready and 100% sorted for your very next round of fishin’ missions, enjoying catching fresh fish, yes! Scaled, skin on, seared – taste buds going wild.

What’s on YOUR fishing calendar? Get into it. Www.catchfishig.pro .

Cheers

Brisk winter fishing trips chasing snapper are ON! …when the wind allows, but they’re needing a bit more planning to come home with fresh fish, and not

Catch Eels catching snapper, low ‘n slow motion is the go for prime winter fish.

having to grab some sausages for the BBQ on the way home from the ramp. Here’s a typical day over the past few winter sessions, the indicators and fishing influences prior to launch and what actually happened, interesting stuff, mostly fact, some more opinion and experience, with several of the main factors checked and planned around typically before heading out.

Wind direction and speed to determine the actual sea surface: Metvuw.com has one of the most accurate weather forecasts around, easy to read isobars and a great overall view with a basic understanding of weather data. Windy.com is excellent for both wind speed (average and gust strength) and most importantly for the Hauraki Gulf, the areas of calm wind, often one side or even smallish areas can be beautifully calm, another windy choppy and unpleasant, just a short distance away. Swellmap.co.nz graphs showing tide changes (match up directions with Windy) and tidal strength are a real key for surface conditions, stronger tide means wind opposing tide will stand the waves up much more. Also check the swell height and interval – a 1m swell may not be noticed at 15 seconds apart, but at 5 seconds can mean very lumpy and a potentially seasick crew. So, when the factors all roughly align (or not!) a very accurate prediction of fishing conditions and how they will change throughout the day can be made.

Winter means a lot of hibernation time for snapper (and humans), so checking bite times (moon phase) can help, the previous week the full moon with a slight southerly wind would typically mean a much shorter bite, mid tide is usually best for bite with current flow and activity – so a midday high tide indicated a mid-morning bite which may only last 15 to 30 minutes. It pays to have your gear prepped and ready to go, no time to be tying a PR knot once you’re out there, over fish, with wet cold hands and a rocking boat, tick tock.

Even with a few dolphins milling around, a whale off in the distance cruising through the snapper bite could have been timed on a watch, short sharp aggressive feeding, short lived, then back to ‘Where’s The Fish’? Feeding over and back to very tentative barely detectable bites – best to try microjigs or very slow moving kabura to keep catching snapper, albeit at a much slower rate, until midafternoon/mid tide again in the afternoon. You could have set your watch to the mid tide bite start and stop.  Of course, this is nature and there are many more factors that can improve or worsen the bite.

And so it was – short sharp bite times, good snapper feeding mid tide but a lot less otherwise. Interestingly the success of kayakers in and around mussel farms has been standout in effectiveness, those little softbaits and microjigs cast generally from outside towards the mussels, extending the short bite with good numbers of snapper in the area welcomed aboard. Just like land-based bait anglers who do well over winter using smaller, mere bite-sized baits, using lures jigs and softbaits it’s a great idea to start with small lolly-like temptations rather than present a ‘big Kahuna burger’ meal.

A delicious looking Eel like the one pictured swimming slowly along, grubbing the sea floor puffing up a bit of telltale mud giving away its position is a perfect softbait presentation for several snapper to snaffle, fresh fish on the winter BBQ!

Bottom end Waiheke, 40m off the top of Waiheke, just out from the Tiri channel, mid-ground of the gulf with a couple of whales, and even some action in the Tamaki Strait this week – action stations are moving around a lot, but action there is to be found.

The daylight hours are lengthening with only 2 weeks to Spring, it’s time to really gear yourself up and make this summer of fishing one to truly remember, good times, friends, family and great fishing.

Cheers

Officially winter, as if we couldn’t feel that!

Mackerel – fun, food and much more – the 7gm Pocket Rocket does it again!

Autumn was more about weathering extremes to say the least, a lot like the fishing fortunes, however those that have been out have been rewarded with good supplies of spread out pannie snapper over much of the gulf, mostly well conditioned, perfect table snapper gracing many of the keen’s home fires lately.

Aji, or mackerel abound, the sea surface bubbled right around Tiri at times this past week, quite a sight to see as the sea surface ripples and splashes into life, fish, birds and more. And why is this good news? The food chain, and where each participant lies on it. Other bigger fish like snapper and kingfish are after them, also bait fishermen, and those in the know about how good these fish are to eat themselves, and mackerel can be caught in all sorts of places. The new tuna? Landbased or on the water, ultra-lightweight tackle and tiny lures with a steady retrieve work wonders – mackerel can be picky at times like any fish, so a variety of offerings helps. The little 7gm Pocket Rocket pictured (rig with a trailing hook rather than jig style to the solid ring of the assist hook) works well. Being tungsten metal the Pocket Rocket casts a very long way even if using heavier tackle than ideal, but it’s much smaller in size so an easier target more suited to catching this size of fish. Soft mouths require a gentle approach and provides great fun fishing.

Gannets and dolphins are doing what they do around the gulf, west was best last week. The wonderful world of workups – the northern areas of the gulf and further up the coast toward the Hen and Chicks still seems to be holding more baitfsh, and therefore more mammals (not just humans), especially the big guns, whales, so workup fishing up along the coast is still pretty full on, inside the gulf the deeper 50m areas have been the go. When you’re in amongst the pumping action of workups – it’s not a place for slow jigs, tiny hooks, light line, or small softbaits and lightweight jigheads. Go big or go home as the saying goes. Why go big? You’ll catch a lot more kingfish, bigger snapper usually, far less kahawai on the drop, waste less time on light line caressing your lure back with a rampaging ocean going kahawai hooked up, circling the boat…and what’s all that bad language from your fellow anglers, ah, braid knots and tangled lines, more prized fishing time gone. Inner areas 30-40m have been great for simply enjoying an easy day of drift fishing with your secret weapons 😉 . Even if it takes a bit of a thump to get out some days, setting up the drift with drogues/sea anchors calms things down on board a lot, and an hour or three of very enjoyable drift fishing usually follows. Simple, effective and fun. Take your tackle boxes and throw down everything, including the kitchen sink, and simply enjoy your day, and dinner. Don’t just stick with what you know or are ’comfortable’ with, why not try new things, a new style or approach, a new spot that might have fish (by land sea or air 😊 ) target different species and come home with a variety of fish, flavours and set up a stunning dinner table.

Thanks to each and every one at the Hutchwilco Boat Show, it was busy! The Catch Fishing stand was pumping all 4 days and with so many happy people enjoying their lure fishing, bait free – the positive vibe palpable. Thank you to a all those returning familiar faces and friends, and to the newly introduced anglers to bait free fishing, enjoy! Speaking of which – YES YES YES! Lure coaching seminars are coming up…North Shore Auckland, East Auckland, Tairua, Bay of Islands, Whitianga/Coromandel and more, stay in touch for dates and venues. July 11 is the next one at Fish City Albany – LADIES NIGHT!

Espresso