A year punctuated by big easterlies and easterly swells, and a lot of days on land thanks to that.

Currently that the two fronts hitting worse in lower New Zealand have still shut down a bit of fishing out wide for smaller trailer boats keen to have a crack at the marlin.

It’s all worth the wait, as the season is still pretty fresh, and there’s plenty of good fishing and weather to go.

Also, there’s a couple of comps coming up following the success of the last Suzuki Tuna comp.

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In its last month for the 2022 year the VARIETY FISHING COMP still has until end of Feb to run.

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Also, if you are into the gamefishing comps you’ll be keen on the Tristram Marine Open.

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Eight days of fishing commences at 6am on Saturday Feb 19th, until 2.00pm Saturday the 26th. Fish as many or as few days as you like!

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The regular snapper fishing is as good as you would expect at this time of year as the fish start putting on a bit more condition.  Everywhere from in shallow on the beaches to out as deep as 100 metre pins, snapper are there and generally on the chew if you get the bite time right.

Think incoming tide on a waxing moon and outgoing tide on a waning moon.

Soft baits are always very effective when the bite is on, and there’s some good gurnard and trevally about off the sand at the moment too.

Kingfish are smashing jigs and live baits off the closer shallower pins outside the Whitianga harbour, and there’s a few inside the harbour under the bait schools also.

You’ll always find them eventually out over the deeper pins but sharks are really taking their toll especially on fish being played up slowly.

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