If you’re looking for success with your snapper fishing, you can’t go past the soft baits at the moment.
No doubt the snapper are feeling the cold, like us humans are. However the sea temperatures are still showing relative warmth of 15c and 16c in the mid to outer gulf. Perhaps thatโs why the snapper have been biting well out there. Soft baits are doing very well out wide and in close, especially when the bite is not particularly ravenous. But when the bite does happen, itโs all guns blazing.
In the deep water it still pays to try and use lightweight jigheads for soft baits e.g. 1oz in 40m+. Using drogues to slow the drift to a minimum helps ensure the baits get to the sea floor where the snapper are. Donโt forget to be wary on the way down and watch that line โ kingfish will take a bite as the little imitation baitfish flails and descends. Set the hook by striking on the drop if you see the line pause or speed up quickly.
The full moon is a week away, so there should be some good feeding sessions happening before then.
Time for some deliciously fresh smoked kahawai? Plenty of big versions feeding in schools easily found in the early to mid ground of the Hauraki Gulf. The 35-40m chart depth has a plentiful supply right now. Many wide areas and smaller individual schools of kahawai are hassling baitfish. These are easily spotted by the terns hanging around overhead, and the rippling water surface as the fish feed in a frenzy.
Southern Great Barrier has been fishing very well, the deeper areas have been well supplied with both kingfish and snapper. It’s a great place to be catching fish on a cool clear crisp winters day when the wind allows.
So many fish, so little time! Southern bluefin tuna off the North Island coast, along with hapuka/groper, bluenose, bass, gemfish. New Zealand has such a great winter fishery.
Enjoy your winter fishing.
Espresso.
Catch Fishing / Wave Dancer / Extreme Boats / Honda Marine New Zealand / Furuno New Zealand / Isuzu Utes New Zealand Ltd / Oakley / Microdot
