Workup mayhem and intensity in the Hauraki Gulf continue their upward spiral, and the condition of snapper has been very good. It’s far too early to tell, but fingers crossed the milky flesh fish phase is going, going, gone? Time will tell, and speaking of time, it is definitely workup time. When you’re fishing them, consider turning your sounder off so as not to disturb the dolphins and whales. Unless you're not catching fish, there is no point in having it crack away loudly, disrupting the very mammals' conversations and their ability to round up the baitfish you're relying on.

I haven’t been fishing down into the Firth of Thames lately, especially since there's been great action up the western half of the gulf, around Kawau and north towards Little Barrier. Some big, aggressive male snapper are on the hunt now, the early birds to the summer party. Looking back over decades of entries in the Espresso logbook shows that some big snapper are caught about now, and that 39-40m chart depth off the northern Waiheke area and top of the entrance to the Firth is well worth a good long look. Be prepared for some eye-openers of serious rod bends and the stress of the good kind—you know the ones, thinking you’ve hooked a kingfish but it turns into a heavy, nodding, thumping great snapper. Awesome.

Around the edges of the gulf and harbour, things are still a bit quiet for land-based anglers, pretty standard for early spring in terms of snapper, but targeting squid could be a great, delicious alternative just at the moment. Some good specimens are being caught around the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and no doubt other spot X's.

THANK YOU - because of your amazing response and requests ‘Espresso’ the boat is getting a treat, being readied to coach keen anglers and those that want to be, out on the local waters over summer. A very limited number of on-water workshops will kick-off around Christmas/New Year with Captain Espresso – so if you/your friends that want to experience and be shown personally, learning various successful techniques, the real ‘how-to’ of micro jigging, soft baiting, mechanical jigging and more bait-free fishing methods, best you email us know now here! fishingcoachpro@gmail.com

Espresso.