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Those big fish will be spawning about now and once that happens they will slowly lose condition. Most of them will head out of the harbour once the water starts to warm up, but there’s still a good chance of catching a big gurnard.

The west coast is fishing well in all depths, with a lot of fish showing just how healthy the west coast biomass now is.

However, all that could change if you have not caught up with this from Legasea:

After 33 years of rebuilding, the Snapper 8 (SNA 8) fishery is finally in good shape, reaching an estimated biomass of 54% of the original population size.  

Fisheries NZ is proposing four potential options to increase the Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC) of 1300 tonnes.  They propose to increase the TACC by either 25, 50, 75 or 100%.

More commercial fishing in Snapper 8 means more bottom trawling, and this could jeopardise the recovery of snapper.

LegaSea is supporting Option Zero. No TACC increase.

We are taking a conservative stance because an increase in the TACC and trawling effort will have consequences for other, more vulnerable species in the area. Species affected include red gurnard, tarakihi, john dory, juvenile hāpuku and trevally.

Now is your chance to have a say. Let’s tell the Minister he needs to support Option Zero. No trawling. No commercial snapper catch increases. Let’s be conservative.

Make your submission in less than one minute.

If you are opposed or otherwise, make sure you have your say HERE . It only takes a minute and your say can help make all the difference.

Back to the fishing.  Snapper are pretty abundant from 10 metres right out to 70 metres in patches.

We’ve found the best fish are predominantly coming from the 60m mark or thereabouts.

Sharks, ie tope and spiny dogs can be a pain if fishing in close, so move!.

Scallop season isn’t too far away, kicking off on September 1st.

Read up on the rules HERE and please respect the delicate fishery with your take.

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Tight lines

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