Bay of Islands

fishing report

September 17, 2021

Supplied by

Note: If map is showing it is created by LINZ / New Zealand Hydrographic Authority and made available by Creative Commons 3.0. Maps should not be used for navigation

We're so lucky to be in an area like the Bay of Island's and do feel for the fishermen stuck down Auckland, hopefully we can all soon get back to normal life. Since getting out of lockdown the weather has remained consistently challenging, so we’ve not really had a great opportunity to hit the fishing to any decent level. However, in the limited time we have had out there, the fish have been in good numbers with most of the spring spots firing well, particularly in the shallows.

Live mackerel have been our bait of choice, and the big snapper love them.

The Te Puna and Dove Bay side has been fishing very well on the incoming tide. I suggest laying down a good berley trail though, as it’s still quite cold and you often need this to get their noses going and fire up the feeding instinct.

Don't be too worried about any water discolouration as this does not seem to matter at the moment.

We have had most of our success in shallow water, and I mean shallow like down to only three metres.

We’ve enjoyed some amazing sights with kingfish chasing the snapper up and fins out of the water as they charge in, so firing stick baits around the reefs and shallows at the moment will be well worth a go.

Out in the middle ground, there are small schools of terakihi so try targeting these guys by locating them on the sounder and quickly dropping smaller flasher rigs while you try and hold the boat over the schools. This is also a good way to pick up a few surprise snapper as ‘by-catch’.

On the kingfish front, there are some nice fish in the middle ground and they are responding best to live baits currently.

The hardest part is trying to catch the livies without the kingfish trying to eat the bait of the bait rods! Looks like giving the fish a break has done a bit of good for the appetites and confidence of our local kingies.

I’m sure it's going to be a good season up here, there are some good signs, but always watch the weather. We have some nasty fronts hitting us at the moment preventing us getting out as far as we might like, but at least the inshore is providing a great option.

Be safe out there, tight lines

Darren