Very low and slow tidal current moving around this past week – putting a bit of a dampener on snapper spirits, but this ebb has made for some fantastic sea conditions to be out there enjoying. Forecasters have been on point – remember for the sea state you need to account for swell, not just wind, and tide direction. More coming on reading the forecast better, faster and more accurately so you know exactly what to expect out there, not just what we hope for and misread through rose tinted lens.

Famous Rangi channel pannies – be there first thing in the morning, and disco! Softbait and microjig city, lots of smaller snapper for sure but some nice specimens in amongst the odd kahawai school and the breeding mackerel (in roe) feeding on tiny fast fleeing baitfish/anchovies (pictured below). So likewise many fish follow the bait schools around the general area and up past Rakino, some St Patrick day fish around there too, big green back kingfish!

Perhaps we have an inkling of Autumn snapper snacking starting? Best way is to fish the inner channels and areas (like just out from the Noises (out of the no-fishing zones) early and get that morning bite.

Upper Firth of Thames has provided some good snapper, just drifting around the baitschools and various sea birds sitting, picking up snapper on smaller lures and jigs with steady easy to eat movements rather than highly erratic energetic style. Mid ground of the gulf has seen some very quiet days snapper-wise.

Lots of little tuna just outside the gulf, still, western Gt. Barrier more so than eastern side, lots more the further north you go too. If they are ignoring your trolled lure, try a really small (10-20gm) white or silver microjig (trolled with hook at rear).

Coming up: The famous Rangi channel and worm beds – see for yourself unique video footage of them and how your technique could be attracting, or repelling fish! Stay tuned…and see everything for yourself. Definitely worth watching!

A massive and magnificent manta ray is around the gulf if you are lucky enough to see this flying fortress, it’s huge! Mantas do not have barbs, they are not dangerous and are often curious of humans.

Researchers on lookout for 6 metre-wide manta ray seen in Hauraki Gulf (msn.com)

I’ll be bringing you more info. Every week throughout the year, thank you for your solid support and the feedback on what you enjoy catching fish with, much appreciated. Coming up – new deep water softbait rigs (6ounce!) so how deep could you fish your whopping big softbaits like a 10inch long one? And if you still know someone who still uses bait, then help them out with the big daddy, highly luminous, bleeding eye, reflecting retina, Tenya styled (for extra fish-catching action)…new Stingaz deep water rigs.

Check the forecast, be in the lee of land if it’s breezy and you could be onto an epic fishing session, snapper, kahawai, kingfish, mackerel – who knows? You if you go fishin’!

Enjoy

Awesome autumn – a single weekend of summer left, then autumn arrives! Some very good things fishing-wise happen in autumn…

Hauraki Gulf, and fishing.

The full moon late last week really dampened the snapper bite, threw out the anchor even – with a few days of scratching heads wondering what the fish are up to, with oh-so-tentative barely detectable bites much of the time. Fortunately just a few days later the bite has returned somewhat better. The Firth of Thames has been doing alright – great with the easterlies as it’s a bit more sheltered than out in the open gulf, and with both snapper and kingfish it’s a good place to be fishing right now. Out in the open areas of the gulf, like east of the cable zone in 40-45m chart depth has seen a steady pannie brigade hard on the sea floor. The technique of gradually, slow jig style, retrieving your lure up 10 winds is an effective method for these snapper with their ‘yeah-nah’ attitude  – whether using the slow jigs like Beady Eye Kabura , or those devastating micro jigs imitating anchovies like the Pocket Rockets, worth their weight in tungsten. Sporadic smaller workups dotted around the area, with dolphins a bit lazy on it has been similar to the snapper bite overall, fits and starts.

However we are now past the full moon influence, and even though it is high summer temps in the water, fishing is relatively good. Expect a few ‘Kabura-days’ i.e. slow and steady wins the race but the amp will be slowly turned up for the autumn snapper fishing. Lots of good looking anchovy schools hanging around mid water out in 40-50m and some showing themselves closer, in 20m out from North Shore Bays in the early evenings this week for instance. The mid-water hangout in deeper water is a strategy anchovies have to help avoid predator attacks – avoiding the surface barrier, and bottom dwelling predation.

So if you’re out in the gulf, and the gannets or other sea birds are just sitting around, even in small groups, often just preening or waiting, check your sounder there’ll probably be a big bait-school under or near them. So what would you drop down? Anchovy look-a-likes for sure even if you can’t see much on the floor in terms of snapper on your sounder. Microjigs with silver, imitating shiny anchovy are perfect – like the infamous Pocket Rocket with it’s bleeding eye. In terms of softbaiting a smaller approach would be good to start with. The Black Label LIVIES 5” on a jighead works a treat. Do try the slow steady retrieve with all your lures at the moment, it seems to be the extra trick to get snapper biting, and surprisingly they will follow and tag at your lure a long way up. Try not striking as well, let the fish hook itself as you tease it’s lunch snack slowly away from it. Also the normal vertical approach to lures…mix it up with letting your boat drift and the lure out well behind, occasionally letting line out but fishing more on the angle, a struggling anchovy that can’t get back up is a prime food target. And if you’re out Little Barrier way – good snapper fishing, around the edges in just 10-20m, softbait territory for some excellent snapper.

Bad Habits:

Your trusted hunting companion, through thick and thin – one of the most important components of your fishing tackle – your rod, and the one that probably gets the least amount of care and attention, abuse even – like putting your hook through a guide to hold it!

The hook shaft or the barb will grind against the guide, especially if you’re underway on a boat, kayak ski etc, and yes this can chafe your guide, or pop the inner – out. Use the hook holder on your rod. No hook holder? A zip-tie with a solid or split ring is a lot better than using those beautiful made from unobtainium-coated guides you’ve paid for.

Wash down with a spray of fresh water, a quick spray of silicon (watch out for too much on the grips, or avoid them), any ‘tea-stain’ (euphemism for rust) on metal parts of guides, just gently rub off with a used pot scrubber, car cut ‘n polish, metal polish (Brasso, Autosol) or even a fingernail…gently so as not to damage and scratch the guide, then spray with silicon. While you’re at it, have a close look (use a magnifying glass if you or the kids have one – like you used to burn holes in newspaper with the sun) to inspect the inner edge of each guide. Look for any scratch, nick or imperfection – if there is, get the guide fixed. Otherwise your line will wear as a result, and right along it’s length, making for unpredictable and random ‘bust-offs’ you blame on the fish, a reef, the braid manufacturer, Poseidon himself – everything but the actual cause, you and your rod guide. The guide was probably damaged when you/me carelessly in a hurry – I know you wouldn’t do it on purpose – putting your hook through a guide to hold it. Run your finger lightly around the inside of the guide, oh so gently – you can pick up surprisingly small cracks and chips by doing this. NOT CHECKING YOUR GUIDES? Ah next time, round-2-it, hasn’t affected me so far…no worries? Better off to wait until you’ve latched onto that personal best, a big beauty of a 20lb snapper, a 30kg kingfish, an incredibly tasty bluenose, marlin, tuna – whatever you happen to hook up yeah? Nah. It’s too late to check and fix the next time you go fishing, it must be done beforehand, today is good.

Bare butt? Foam rubber protectors come with slow pitch rods like the Kensei shown, but some rods don’t, unfortunately this means that time in the rod holder while underway means damage and broken rods.

Use a little rubber bumper – like the one pictured, or make one yourself, zip tying on firmly means you can slide it up and down to cater for different rod holder lengths easily. It does not take much of a rattle to damage the fine carbon fibre – once damaged it is significantly weakened. Even spiral cable tidies work…cut a bit off around the back of your computer (assuming the OCD in the office has tidied cables up) and wind onto the rod shaft.

Wraps help immensely too (one of my top 5 picks of tackle accessories to have onboard), stopping your jig or lure bashing against your high carbon rod, certain death sooner or later to your pride and joy. Fast, cheap, buoyant – use for jig/lures, securing rods together avoiding damage and many tip-breaks while transporting…just another little thing that makes a big difference to your enjoyment of fishing particularly long term, it’s often the small things that help put that big smile on your dial.

Gt. Barrier closures – the anchoring and fishing restrictions are is still in place, Whangaparapara, Tryphena and Blind Bay. Caulerpa brachypus: a non-native seaweed. The non-native seaweed has been found in Blind Bay, Tryphena Harbour and Whangaparapara Harbour on Great Barrier Island. This seaweed can spread rapidly and could affect native species.To minimise the spread of Caulerpa brachypus, Biosecurity New Zealand placed a Controlled Area Notice (CAN) on Blind Bay and Tryphena Harbour, effective from Monday, 20 September 2021. The CAN and rāhui are in place until 30 June 2022. Maps of the Controlled Areas:

Caulerpa Controlled Area Notice: Zone A – Tryphena Harbour, Great Barrier Island

Caulerpa Controlled Area Notice: Zone B –  Blind Bay, Great Barrier Island

Caulerpa Controlled Area Notice: Zone C – Whangaparapara Harbour, Great Barrier Island

Pilot whales have been cruising past southern by Gt Barrier, always a delightful oddity, not great for fishing around though, unlike the big beautiful Brydes whales. Change is constant, and the season’s change to Autumn is very welcome for fishing. Bring it on, and enjoy being out there doing it!

Questions about your gear, technique, what lures? Message me, only too happy to help.

Cheers

Kite surfers are loving the hard core easterlies, not so much the fisho’s, but the wind will wane, soon, so what to look and prep for coming up..?

Improved upper harbour snapper fishing! A surprising lack of sizeable snapper up the harbour according to quite a few, a little odd as this time of year as it’s

usually a great place to be catching good snapper, it should improve. And here’s some tips for getting in amongst the action as soon as you can you can, wherever your Spot X may be…

Dirty water. Once it starts to clear (even before) when the wind does calm down, it’s prime time to target snapper, they’re searching the gloopy soup for food, add a bit of clarity so they can see their ‘prey’ i.e. your lure, jig or softbait and they’re in with a grin, often striking aggressively. Luminous softbaits do well putting out the bright ‘fast food’ sign e.g. Livies softbaits like White Warrior or Glowing Gurnard (pictured) are ideal. Be seen, be eaten! Also – drag those softbaits, whatever colour you have. Drag ‘em along on the drift, lifting with the boat motion, or yours added, but not much.

You’ll probably need to let line every 5-10 seconds or so, the lure then plops back down onto the sandy, muddy sea floor, puffing up a smoke signal of the potential food kind, and a nice drag line mud trail giving its position away to a hunting snapper or gurnard. If you really want to grab fishes attention come on feel the noise style, add a Blade for vibration as well as flashing that all important silver eye-catcher.

Further out the ‘dirty water’ isn’t as prevalent seemingly unaffected by the surface state for several days and yes out in the gulf, deeper water has been, and will be, doing well whether right-side of the gulf down from the Moehau range under some workups, or left, over by Little Barrier – again good fishing often with gannets and dolphins lately.

Slow Pitching: Prime time is right now! Your fluttering falling ‘baitfish’ is easy money for the fish, and you. A well shaped and weighted slow pitch jig has a captivating and enticing fall, a good example is the renowned slow pitch jig the BOSS, match that with a slow pitch rod like the Kensei and you have the right stuff to battle and land those big reds you see on Facebook and Instagram. Easy to choose the right weight of jig, what ever water depth you’re in, multiply it by 2 = grams. Fishing in 50m or thereabouts? X 2 = 100gram BOSS jig. Go heavier when drifting quicker 150gm out there is a top pick. Perfect. Slow pitch with the standard haltering retrieve (say 3 separate 1/3^rd short sharp turns of the handle leaving rod alone/horizontal) with a pause of 1-3 seconds between each partial wind, or a slow steady retrieve, or a more aggressive slow-mechanical style retrieve. All work very well, try each as the action imparted on the jig is quite different and some variations often entice a strike when others don’t. It may seem strange at first, and you’re thinking how can this work, a few slow pitches later you’re hooked up to a hard charging snapper, with a big grin from ear to ear. Easy, exciting, effective, economical.

Skipjack – out of the gulf on the other side of the entrance gates (Colville, Craddock and Jellicoe channels), in the next paddock as it were, not that obvious on the inside of the gates lately, but with their speed, these easterly winds and the gulf’s water temps – expect and hope for many to be inside in the blink of a Katsuwonus pelamis, or skipjack tuna’s, eye. Recommended lure for skipjack? Too easy, Lil’ Squidwings is perfect trolled around 6kts – or go to the 100gm Squidwings when there are big, hungry barrels around.

Marlin – start again, but where they were, start there, and watch those SSTs for progression along the coast, those edges of temperature changes the place to be for both marlin and the tuna. YFT eastside and juvenile SBT westside N.I., choices ay! SBT on a softbait!?

Yes it’s windy, so prepare well, the fishing will be all-on, on the (wind) drop…

Youtube Demo’s:

10 inch Livie Softbaits, in-water, luminous swim action

Slow Pitch KENSEI rod

Featured Products quick links:

Skipjack tuna trolling: Lil’ Squidwings,

Big skipjack or albacore tuna trolling: Squidwings

Dirty water luminous softbaits: Livies,

Slow Pitch: BOSS (baby BOSS for inshore 😉 )

Slow Pitch Rod: Kensei .   Fish attractor: Blade

Start your engines! Fishing freedoms finally, and with finer forecasts expect some great fishing, from mackerel to marlin, snapper and kingfish to gurnard – so what’s on your Fishmas wish list?

Sea temps are as high as mid summer already in several places, the wild west coast is hot enough for early big gamers as far down as Raglan to already head out for a prospective look and learn. A big blue marlin of 187kgs has been caught up north (east) with several striped marlin and YFT recorded as well that side. The waiting is over, time to fuel up and get the game face on.

Workups in the Hauraki Gulf took a little bit of a siesta – but expect that to change with a flurry. The full moon’s influence this coming Sunday (19^th) is in full force, so expect frantic feeding at times but also sudden down-times, all-on or all-off kind of stuff. It’s easy to catch fish in the thick of it, but when it quietens down – just drop down to a Beady Eye Kabura or microjig, and keep them within 3 or 4 slow winds off the sea floor for snapper, simple and extremely effective, they have outstanding reputations for good reason. The inner areas are looking much better for snapper, some better sizes being caught around western Rangitoto and in the downtown/container ship area – the perfect softbait scene. Try grubbing them along the bottom and be ready for the take and strike!Sea temps are as high as mid summer already in several places, the wild west coast is hot enough for early big gamers as far down as Raglan to already head out for a prospective look and learn. A big blue marlin of 187kgs has been caught up north (east) with several striped marlin and YFT recorded as well that side. The waiting is over, time to fuel up and get the game face on.

Gurnard are happily hanging around the wide open ‘worm beds’ of the inner

gulf areas, so places like the North Shore Bays are primed for some good gurnard sessions right now. The Lil’ Squidwings is definitely worth a cast around, gurnard seem to love pouncing on these funky little lures – which can be gently slow-pitched, or cast with a slow retrieve on/near the sea floor, ideal for a carrot or two. Fun times!

Have great week leading up to Christmas, it looks like some better weather and good fishing ahead, especially once the waters clear a bit more inshore following the rains, best we make the most of it.

Enjoy!