Summary

• Deeper water to 50 meters at the Little Barrier end of the Gulf is productive.
• Look for the birds in numbers. Even if just sitting on the water, the fish seem to be there.
• The fish are quite spread out in the area so there's no need to over-work a single patch.
• Slow-jigs in bronze and silver are working well fishing on braid with long, flexible rods.
• Be patient and plan around the bite-time windows if possible.
• If you're after winter kelpies in the wash, you'll find them on soft-baits—just make sure you're up early enough! 😁

Report

I finally managed to snatch a couple of long overdue days off work for a fishing trip with a mate to the outer Hauraki Gulf and Great Barrier. It was certainly worth it.

We kicked off from Pier 21 early Monday morning. A bit foggy to start, but that cleared up fast and we were treated to a gorgeous blue-sky day with a very light northerly.

We headed towards a place called the Fingers, up near Little Barrier, fishing slow-pitch jigs and kick-tails into about 45 to 50 meters of water. The fish weren't really biting, and the marks weren't too promising. After a couple of hours, we had just two or three pannies to show for our trouble. But seeing a bunch of gannets hanging around gave us hope for better fishing later during the forecast bite-time window, so we decided to scope out some new spots and swing back around lunchtime.

We scoped east towards Great Barrier for about 90 minutes. Not much luck there either, just one or two more fish in the bin. When we got back to the Fingers, things were looking up. More birds, better marks on the sounder, and, thank goodness, better fishing. We spent the afternoon drifting and reeling in a decent bin of snapper, keeping fish between one to three kilos. The best lures? Slow-pitch jigs in bronze and silver with a tuft of flash on the hook-rig.

Heading over to Barrier for the night, we tried our luck with Z-man soft-baits under gannets near Mahuki (Anvil) Island before dropping anchor in Bowling Alley Bay. Although there were plenty of snapper on the bottom, it was hard to get past the oversized winter kahawai. Prepping our catch for dinner, we got a visit from a couple of big bronze whalers. Pretty cool to see them up close!

Next morning, we didn't rush out bed but eventually got moving to try soft-baits in the gentle wash near Mahuki Island. I landed a pair of solid five-pounders on light spin gear. This time the Bruised-banana Z-man proved the choice of colours.

With a plan to hit the early afternoon bite time just right, so went to explore the far eastern edge of Horn Rock foul. Caught some decent blue cod on kaburas, but not much else.

Cruising past Little Barrier towards our spot near the Fingers. we saw a couple of whales on the move and soon enough loads of gannets just sitting. We deployed the sea-anchor a bit upwind of the birds and had a blast with the slow jigs and kick-tails. Didn't even have to start the engine again; we just drifted through regular patches in quality snapper for duration of our session. That bronze slow jig with flash was king again.

After a super chilled late lunch, we headed back to town to clean up. All in all, it was a productive couple of days on water.

Summary

• Deeper water to 50 meters at the Little Barrier end of the Gulf is productive.
• Look for the birds in numbers. Even if just sitting on the water, the fish seem to be there.
• The fish are quite spread out in the area so there's no need to over-work a single patch.
• Slow-jigs in bronze and silver are working well fishing on braid with long, flexible rods.
• Be patient and plan around the bite-time windows if possible.
• If you're after winter kelpies in the wash, you'll find them on soft-baits—just make sure you're up early enough! 😁