Hauraki Gulf
fishing report
April 27, 2023
January 19, 2023
The snapper fishing, as a general rule, gets pretty slow for a while now, as spawning condition and skinny fish can sometimes make it pretty challenging to get a decent bite going.
There are always exceptions of course, and workups can pop up anywhere at any time, and bring all the good fish with them.
Over the past week, we’ve seen a bit of a change, with the steady workups that were holding well at the top of the Firth thinning out and less dependable.
There’s still a lot of fish there, but without the workups you’ll often find the catch is just dominated by ‘pannies’ 30 – 34 cms typically, with the odd bigger model mixed in.
If you are after a decent feed, that’s all good as these small fish are the tastiest, but don’t go as far when it’s time to share a few fillets with the wider whanau.
Following the contour lines with sounder going will soon identify where fish are holding, and when you do get a decent bit of sign on the sounder, a steady drift and a bit of patience will generally be rewarded.
Everything from soft baits, slow pitch, inchiku, kabura and micro jigs is working with some days favouring one method, and the next, another.
More solid workups, and the bigger fish they attract, have been active further north, west of the Coromandel and between Anchorite and Channel Island.
They are a moving feast though, so get the binoculars out and be prepared to move about a bit this time of year.
The weekend looks pretty fishable with wind from the west at this stage, with Sunday the pick for now, so I’m sure there will be a few boats out.
Kingfish action is heating up a bit, and we like to limit the take of snapper, or stick with the smaller pannies, and try for a bit more volume-per-fish with a king or two.
It’s the same old haunts for kingfish action, Flat Rock, Channel Island, Anchorite and it’s outer reef spikes etc, and having live bait on board is a big plus. Towing or dropping livies will often get the bite when jigs don’t.
In the middle of the day, livies can often be caught by identifying a bait school near the surface on your sounder, and immediately dropping a sabiki rig into them.
Be prepared for juvenile snapper and anything else is a bonus!
Good luck
Tight Lines
NZ Fishing World Ed
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