Of course there is every chance good fish can be caught anywhere but so far that’s where the most consistent fishing has been.  You can also expect some fast and furious action, it is often some of the best snapper fishing you’ll experience.

We’re unlikely to get many opportunities over the next two weeks as a patch of strong northerly, westerly winds & rain appear to be heading our way. There may well be the odd good day in there however but make sure you do your homework on that before making the call.

My guess is the fish will be starting to disperse and will start to show up in bigger numbers in close over the next couple of weeks.  

That shallow water currently holds a lot of sharks and kahawai so bank on getting a few more of those in your catch as we approach Christmas.

Hopefully those dreaded spiny dogfish numbers will remain low. We haven’t caught a single one so far this spring. Well we have caught a few in the harbour.

It won’t be long now before the first game fishers try their luck and while it is usually early January before the first marlin is caught out west, you will never catch one sitting at home and plenty have been caught in December in past years.

One thing you can bet on is that the rumours and tall stories will start well before then!

The harbour is going well also.

Snapper and trevally are fishing well and there are some surprisingly good sized & well conditioned gurnard still lurking around. I expect kingfish will also start to make a showing. I haven’t been out for scallops for a few weeks but they should still be in great condition.

Just a little word on tides, the biggest tides appear on the full moon and the new moon, with the full moon usually creating the biggest tides. Both full and new moons appear once per month meaning that every second week we have a big tide and the alternate weeks have relatively small tides.

High  tides on the full and new moon occur every second week and those highs are around midday or a little earlier on the Manukau Harbour. That means the low tide will be around 5.00pm. the reason I mention that, is the big tides can be very challenging to fish in the harbour.

A good option is to hit the shallows just before low tide to avoid the huge currents.

The fish are less wary as the light levels fall and will move into the shallow water where the banks hold plenty of tasty crabs and shell fish. The next few full and new moons are likely to fall on a Friday or Saturday – I’m guessing here because I haven’t checked – which is perfect for an after work fish.

While my preference is for smaller tides during the day, the big tides can be very productive in the evenings and I’ve found stray lining the most effective technique for all species in those conditions.

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Good luck out there and stay safe.

Smudge.

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This Manukau / Auckland west coast report is supplied by Michael "Smudge" Parker and supports the Counties Sportfishing Club​

For more information on the Counties Sportfishing Club visit its website here.

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