Wellington / Kapiti

An early start on the east coast led to a successful day of fishing, with plenty of blue cod, gurnard, kahawai, and even pāua in ideal conditions.

Despite unpredictable weather Wellington fishos are enjoying rewarding fishing trips, and catching a variety of species.

As the bluefin season continues, Striker Charters delivers unforgettable fishing adventures, from trolling and jigging to landing unexpected catches like swordfish.

Big winter blue cod - The Storm Petrel turns on a dynamic day of crayfish and blue cod.

Encounter with a large thresher shark and good kahawai fishing near Kapiti Island.

Fishing report for Wellington / Kapiti supplied by Jason Grimmet on Friday the 12th of April 2024

An early start on a new spot led to a rewarding day on the water, culminating in a couple of notable snapper catches.

Sunday 'funday' misson off Makara beach.

With a brief calm in the weather, a kayak fishing trip off Makara yielded a solid haul of snapper and blue cod.

An early start for a successful kayak day. Includes speeds comparo between pedal and arm-powered yaks.

This Wellington report covers a successful day out with Blackpearl Fishing Charters catching kingfish and snapper plus a teaser for a beast of a trumpeter.

A successful early morning kayak fishing trip in Wellington produces a solid blue cod using a refined technique.

Deep sea slow pitch jigging session leads to trumpeter in Wellington waters

A successful day of fishing in Wellington, with notable catches including decent snapper and small puka, using a variety of techniques including electric reels and jigging.

This Wellington / Kaipiti reports a promising fishing scene with bluefin tuna, snapper, sizeable gurnard, and schools of kahawai, alongside notable kingfish sightings near Kapiti Island, setting the stage for an exciting weekend ahead.

A phone interview with Pete Lamb about the current state of fishing play in the Wellington region plus a short audio file of some success he had on FishBites.

It’s pretty typical at this time of year for the fishing gear to stay tucked away in the corner.

There’s been heaps of fishing happening. Surf casting wise, Palliser Bay remains the hot spot, with good catches of trevally, gurnard, snapper, and a few stray moki.

The current fishing conditions in the Wellington region have been somewhat patchy, in line with the weather patterns, and winds making the waters pretty murky at times. However, when it has been fishable, there have been some good catches reported, particularly of snapper.

For a start, surfcasting-wise, this year seems to have seen a massive number of really decent sized fish landed up Tehoro Otaki way.

Summer arrives with a bang, and the fishing has been as good as the weather.

Wellington Fishing going well heading into summer.

Fishing Report Wellington 18th November.

There’s been a few good days out on the boat between spring gales. Fishing is there or thereabouts what we would expect in spring, warming up nicely but not totally firing on all cylinders yet. Whitebait season was very ordinary this year, so let’s hope the other fishing makes up for it. Surf casting has been better up Kapiti way, with some nice snapper catches from Raumati and TeHoro, and further north again. Bigger fish coming commonly around five-plus kilos in nice and early so hopefully it will be a good summer for the land-based crew. There’s no shortage of other species out there too, with kahawai and gurnard often taking the baits to keep things interesting.

Spring conditions mean it’s pretty up and down with the weather, and when that cold southerly blast rocks through it’s only the keen out there. When it is good, there’s a bit of good fishing going on.

Even the trusty dog struggled to round up a decent haul of whitebait this week! We got a few but wouldn’t be making more than a couple of fritters, although there are a few good catches starting to come up over Kapiti coast way and over at Lake Ferry. We expect the full moon and big tides to fire up a good run so could be worth dusting off the net.

Given that the weather is not all that amazing, at least we’ve managed to get out a bit recently and made the most of the short windows. There’s another one coming up this weekend too, looking pretty good both Saturday and Sunday. The two-metre southerly swell will probably mean west coast and harbour are the places to fish for most comfortable conditions.

True winter fishing conditions at the moment, which sees us slow right down in the bait shop, but on the flip side, does allow us to get out on the good days and get some fishing in. When you can actually peg the window, the fishing can be really awesome, and we’ve enjoyed that on a few occasions in the last couple of weeks.

There’s some great looking weather windows and nice small tides coming up, so a good time to get out there and into it. Evans bay has been producing some good snapper this week. Kapiti coast and Palliser Bay have been quiet but don’t write them off. There’s still a good chance of finding fish in numbers and the odd big snapper at this time of year.

The surfcasting has just come back on big time in the last couple of days. It’s been great after a quiet patch through the full moon phase and southerlies, to see the fish come back on nice and strong. It seems to be a bit better from Paraparaumu north up to TeHoro, rather than south where it was previously firing. One of our staff limited out up there last night after dark, but there is still plenty of good fishing before dark, and you can still get them if the tides and other factors play ball.

Well given the last few weeks has been pretty punishing with the southerlies taking their toll on fishing conditions, and definitely dropping the temp, there’s not as much to report as I would like 😊 From the shore, up further north has been fishing really well for spells, then turning off to dead for a while. Pretty hard to pick why, although the full moon in the last few days is certainly a likely factor.

With the weather offering us a few good days and more than a few bad ones, we might wish for January back at the moment, but coming into autumn there are often good settled spells, so fingers crossed. Last week was pretty good fishing, and we are on a bit of a roll south end of Mana at the moment. No matter what the tide was doing, fishing was pretty solid, and targeting in a bit shallower and fishing some back eddies we were able to pick up some really nice snapper. Around the area there’s also some very good tarakihi, trevs, blue mackerel, kahawai and of course the odd good kingy. Turn of the tide there gives us the opportunity to shoot out deeper and target the puka, which has been reasonably successful with consistent results not always in the same spots as the fish move around.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been blessed with some of the best fishing weather you could hope to get, and long may it continue hopefully. The buzz in Wellington has been around the schools of bluefin that have been around and possibly have now started to tail off having passed through on their way up north. They are still around, but a little harder to get onto now.

Happy new year all, and welcome to another summer in the calm fishing paradise of the Wellington region. Just a quick update before we get a good period of settled weather top try and get a better handle on how our summer action is going to shape up. To be fair, considering the rest of the country is seeing some wind thanks to our January cyclone, Wellington is not alone with limited fishable windows, and with some interesting turn ups for the book when you do manage to get out.

My daughter, Jade, with a nice moki, and a good haul of snapper yesterday from Pukerua Bay. Thankfully, things picking up as a couple of weeks back, the fishing was decidedly average.

Spring fishing starting to fire up nicely now, with a bit of settled weather helping Wellington anglers nicely. We’ve been out quite a bit since before Labour Weekend making the most of it, along with every other boatie in the area 😊 The weather pattern change has just levelled off the south coast pretty much for the last four or five days, which has also helped clear the water right up, awesome for both fishing and diving. Last Saturday saw hundreds of boats out, the busiest we’ve seen out there for a long time, and by all accounts, some good fishing to boot.

Just a quick update to last week's report. Wind is still playing a factor in preventing consistent time on the water, and we have only been out once or twice since the last report, and fishing has continued to be pretty successful, with tarakihi, puka and kingies out at the Hunter Bank.

Getting a break from the wind. Not so easy at this time of year, and true to form some decent time on the water has been pretty hard to come by of late. On the brief occasions we’ve managed to get out, fishing has been pleasantly successful, with terakihi, puka and kingies all playing ball out at the Hunter Bank.

Fishing is great at the moment. Particularly for snapper, that is pretty weird as we normally expect them to just be gone at this time of the year. Not so at the moment, there are snapper being caught just about anywhere around Wellington, and in the harbour there’s a huge proliferation of juvenile fish. Give these guys a couple of years and if all goes well there should be some awesome fishing in the harbour. Point Gordon is the place to be currently, the deeper hole off there that drops off around 25 metres seems to congregate them, along with a few decent sized blue cod.

It’s fair to say the weather has been pretty nasty to us over the last few weeks and getting out fishing has been out of the question. However, when we do get these big snaps come through you can always count on some good fishing out the other side. Before the big fronts, the fishing was pretty good, full on all over the place.

Well, we’re into June, and it’s officially feeling like winter in Wellington a lot of the time at the moment. One thing is still hot though, and that’s the snapper fishing. The boaties have been having a better time of it as they can get out a bit deeper to clearer water, but there’s still good fish coming in from the surf casters. You still have to put the time in but there are some really good fish around on all coasts and in Wellington harbour. Top spot has been fishing the Bridge at Mana, with four really great trips in a row out there, catching decent snapper as well as trevs, kingies and gurnard.

Plenty of snapper and kingis still about in Wellington for boaties and shore fishos alike, and its showing no signs of slowing down, although kingis can be a bit harder to catch off the shore now. West coast – Pukerua bay and Kapiti have been the hotspots for snapper lately with fish up to 18lb taken recently. Hunter’s was going off for kingis the other day, but other usually good places like Boom, the north end of Kapiti and south end of Mana are still producing a few as well.

I’m pleased to report the last couple of weeks have been pretty bloody good actually, we had a bad spell for a few weeks there, but a break in the weather has seen some good fishing, especially off the west coast. It can still be a bit gnarly out wide, and I don’t have much to report from out at the Trench, but there has been tons of good fishing from mana down to Ohau.

We are still in full-on snapper mode, and when it’s fishable, there are tons of good fish and they appear to be all in close, with surf casters and boaties all withing reach of picking up a good feed. It’s not every trip that comes up trumps, but when the conditions calm down and the bite times are on, there are a lot of good fish being landed.

Kapiti has been fishing pretty well lately. I wouldn’t go so far as to say red hot, but good snapper fishing, some nice kingies, and albacore out wide are all on the cards at the moment. There are even a few skippies around at the moment, we’ve seen them jumping out around the 200 metre mark when we were out the back of Mana looking for hapuka, so you might pick up the odd one if you’re out there targeting albies. Generally fishing has been good out from Waikanai, and Pekapeka, with fish holding between the 30 to 50 metre mark. Surf casters out here have reported some really good catches, but these guys tend to be pretty hard core and fish sometimes through the night, when the fish move in to feed under cover.

We’re seeing red hot snapper fishing, land based from Paikakariki and Raumati. Big fish and big numbers (caught last two hours leading to low tide at night). If you have a look along the beach at low tide see the channels and guts and holes where fish have been feeding and will hold, so mark your location and then fish it during high tide, particularly at night. Night is when the big success has been happening as the good fish come in under cover of darkness. Mana boat ramp between the two bridges surfcasters caught several really nice snapper again at night. You’ll often get good moki in there too. school snapper in the Porirua harbour entrance , and at this time of the year you can start to get kingies and bigger snapper moving in.

It was firing all over the place last week. There’s plenty of bluenose action out at the Trench. Gemfish and hapuka are also being caught out at the south coast and out towards the Trench, however, they’re a bit quieter out west.

I can’t believe how good the fishing is in Wellington at the moment. Palliser Bay is on fire and surfcasters and boaties alike are cashing in on some spectacular fishing. When the water is clean it’s dynamite for gurnard, kahawai, snapper and in particular some epic blue moki fishing. The moki action is like I’ve never seen it before. For no apparent reason there just seems to be a big population increase and they are hanging in there. It’s just crazy, and it’s no secret with proverbial picket fences of anglers vying for space on some occasions to get into the fish.

From the shore There’s starting to be a good run of snapper and moki in Palliser Bay now for surfcaster’s. I’ve heard of a few good catches recently. One of my mates got 3 moki and 3 snapper the other day east of lake ferry. Traditional moki spots like longbeach have produced a few good moki as well - a bit closer to home. There’s been a good number of snaps and kingis caught in Evans Bay and also off Ngaranga. Good size snaps to 5-6kg and kings to around 20kg

Good news is that the snapper have arrived back at mana in big numbers. Although it has been very difficult to get out in the wind of late, when you can, it’s been pretty rewarding. From famine to feast, the snapper appear to be everywhere at the moment and are also quite easy to catch. We’ve caught a lot of nice fish even on half-day trips in the last few weeks. We’ve predominantly been fishing the Bridge, where we can get a little more shelter in the northerlies.

Pete is still out at sea doing pretty well at the moment. Last week's report is still pretty much where it's at, but here are a few quick updates from on the water today.

The biggest and most exciting thing for me at the moment is the ‘return’ of the blue moki. It’s been going off, if you wanted to catch some blue moki now is the time. All through Palliser Bay there is great moki fishing, and they are not requiring the greatest of skill to find. Normally moki can be quite fussy and particular about where they hang, sticking to specific areas where foul meets sand or structure, but at the moment they seem to be everywhere out there, happily schooling out over the sand allowing even novice fishermen to catch several in a trip from the shore.

Right now, on a Friday afternoon I am sheltered up on the north end of Mana in 25 knots. It’s fishable out wider but uncomfortable! The harbour is fishing pretty well, particularly for gurnard which are naturally an awesome eating fish even though not much sport. The south coast is starting to calm down, and out west is fishable and looking ok if you are happy to shelter up in the lee of Mana or other areas of coastline. The swell on the south coast is supposed to ease to half a metre so it should be pretty good if that happens over the next few days.

A pretty cracker weekend last weekend, there were some good snapper caught, including a few over the magic twenty-pound mark. On one hand the conditions and fishing was tough, because of the dirty water and big tides, but it was nice and fishable with not much wind, so plenty of anglers were able to have a good crack at what was around, and with every man and his dog out, there were some great fish caught.

Wellington Harbour By boat - Some nice snapper, gurnard and trevs have been caught recently from Pt Halswell to Falcon Shoal as well as south and western sides of Ward Island. The edge of the shipping channel and around the harbour entrance have been going well for big bluecod, gurnard and kahawai Shore based - It's nice to see the return of the kahawai, along with whitebait, pretty much all over the harbour at different times and days. Evans Bay has been particularly busy with kahawai schooling up from the Coastguard building along to Cobham drive and over to Miramar wharf. There's been a nice spring run of gurnard at places like Greta Pt (Niwa) and various other points around the bay as well.

The surfcasters are happy at the moment, because it’s whitebait season. That doesn’t mean that they will be downsizing their hooks, it means that the kahawai are on the chew, especially in close around any of the river mouths, estuaries, or any places inshore that they can herd these little baitfish. Fishing from shore with small spinners is a great way to have some fun on light gear, and any small shiny lure or even little soft baits can provide epic action. Back in the day we used to throw the ¼ oz Stingsilda around, who’s out there that’s old enough to remember those classic weapons ;-)

It’s been a fantastic run of winter weather here in the balmy capital, with three good weekends in a row and packed boat ramps. Sure enough the fishing has also been worth the wait with some really good results from around the Wellington region, particularly off the south coast. There’s been a big influx of Puka out of the south coast, and deep dropping the Trench and beyond appears to have been far more productive than the west coast.

Here's an update after the comp last weekend. The fishing situation has not changed much in a week: Another successful annual fishing comp due to all entrants, my staff, all the generous sponsors and the great Wellington weather! Thanks also to Parrot Dog bar in Lyall bay for an excellent prize giving venue. Everyone who turned up got prizes which was pretty cool! We had 102 entrants fishing over the weekend with 54 boaties, 36 shore anglers, 7 juniors and 5 kids. It was surprising that only 2 kahawai were measured, no blue moki and no kids catches measured...... The snapper wern't biting as well as they have been recently but the blue cod, tarakihi and gurnard fishing was pretty good. I heard there were a heap of kingis caught out west up to an impressive 28kg on the weekend. Hot off the press today - the bluenose are firing at the trench. Well done to all the winners.

There are still plenty of good winter snapper being caught, we have had most of our good fishing and reports from up Kapiti way recently. The weather, particularly from the south, has put the usual fisherman-limiter on us.

Inshore fishing is pretty good on the whole at the moment, and better than this time last year for snapper. Plenty of terakihi, trevs, snapper, and kingfish still around the local inshore fishery including the harbour. In fact, just last week out on my little Mac off Point Gordon it was fairly easy to get a good boat load of terakihi, snapper and gurnard in just 20 metres. West coast and harbour has been the place to be, with the southerly swell roughing up the south coast a bit much.

I’ll tell you what! The snapper fishing here in Wellington is as good as I have ever seen it anytime, including the height of summer. They are everywhere. The surfcasters are getting them, the boaties are getting them off every coast, it’s a really exciting prospect for the fishery to see this popular fish in such decent numbers here. It’s incredible, no matter where we fish we are getting juvenile snapper, good pannies, and more than the occasional big banger.

What a great weekend it was for fishing just past. It doesn't look as good this coming weekend but hopefully it will change. With northerlies forecast the south coast and harbour should be ok particularly for surfcasting and rockfishing. The snapper have been a bit harder to catch recently and the deeper spots - 50 to 70mtrs have been more productive. There's still been good action in close but not in the same numbers as the last few weeks. The southerlies havn't helped much as they reduce the water temp and put some fish off the feed.

Have you ever heard of a butterfly tuna? Also known as a butterfly mackerel, there have been several of these very unusual fish caught this week out off the west coast among the albacore. Imagine a cross between a tuna, a tarpon, and a kingy and that is sort of what you have. A bizarre species that is certainly an eye opener at the boat. These fish grow up to 40 plus kgs, but the specimens we’ve been seeing a bit more modest. The most distinguishing features are the large silver scales, unusual to tuna, and the flattened head profile .

A pretty good looking weekend ahead, choice!! A good forecast is in store for Wellington for this weekend coming up particularly late Saturday through today until Monday, best day Sunday with seven knot variables on the cards. Mid-week goes a bit pear shaped, but it looks to be clearing up again for the following weekend too, finally a bit of cooperative timing for the nine to fivers.

Decent weather windows mean some pretty good fishing for us here in the capital. We have had some big tides accompany the full moon, which can be ok for fishing, but tends to push too much water around in deeper spots or areas prone to current. Expect these to calm down as the moon passes into its next phase. Good news is that in shallow where the current has less effect is going great guns at present. Snapper in particular are on fire at the moment, especially in shallower up the west coast. The further north the better it seems, and it’s a great time to chuck a surf caster if you like it land based.

Decent weather windows mean some pretty good fishing for us here in the capital. We have had some big tides accompany the full moon, which can be ok for fishing, but tends to push too much water around in deeper spots or areas prone to current. Expect these to calm down as the moon passes into its next phase. Good news is that in shallow where the current has less effect is going great guns at present. Snapper in particular are on fire at the moment, especially in shallower up the west coast. The further north the better it seems, and it’s a great time to chuck a surf caster if you like it land based..

Weather What a windy period we are just coming out of. It’s looking light-ish wind from this Wednesday to Friday so get ready for a few good days out on the water. With northerlies on Saturday and southerlies on Sunday on the forecast, there will be plenty of opportunities to wet a line off the shore and then boat. This time of the year anything can happen.

Fishing is just one of those things that goes up and down, some with factors we know about like full moon, temperatures and tidal run, and some factors that will forever remain a mystery affecting the way our favourite target species behave. Spots that fish hot one day are almost dead the next at the moment, but luckily there are a few areas that are more consistent and that is where it pays to start. We can never expect every day to be grouse for fishing but that’s why we love it. With a line in the water anything is possible, and just like gamblers we all roll the dice waiting for the good times to roll our way.

Happy New Year! Even though we are experiencing a lot of wind, the upside is that once you do get out there, the water temp is nice and warm, and the fishing is generally pretty good It doesn’t always mean the fishing is going to be easy but if you do your homework or know the good areas to fish you should catch a good feed at this time of the year.

Into summer now and it’s 17.5 degrees warm in the water. That means fish get active and we are seeing plenty of that. Heaps of snapper and kings in all usual haunts you would expect to find them. That is, where they are usually supposed to be, but often are not, they are now  Weather always up and down but fishing pretty good when you can get out as per usual.

Despite some howling winds, there are a lot of positives to be taken out of this week when it comes to the fishing. Before the big blow we had some good action, and there is likely more to come in the next week or so. Hapuka are back on the chew and some good numbers have been taken from both out west and south out in the Trench, so it looks to be gearing up already for a bumper season if we are lucky.

There’s big bluenose action out at the trench at the moment. These stalwarts of the deep are always a great catch for the table and we’ve seen some good numbers of nice fish getting caught if you can get the weather and the time off to cooperate with each other.

It’s spawning time for the snapper between now and early in the new year so they will be moving in closer to do their thing. Many people don’t realise the snapper move in, and when you can find them they tend to feed voraciously and can be quite easy to catch.