Manukau / Auckland West Coast

fishing report

June 2, 2022

Supplied by

The annual Grunter Hunter comp is on this weekend folks!

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The annual Grunter Hunter comp is on this weekend folks!

Ed note:

It's the last chance to get in and join the fun in this awesome comp, plus if you are the lucky winner to fluke biggest gurnard it's well worth your while with some awesome prize money.

Fun is the name of the game.

Our intrepid Manukau reporter, Smudge the grunter master, is still to take this comp out so maybe this is the year?

ENTRY ONLINE HERE:

Tickets aren't for sale on the day and close off online at 9pm Friday 3rd.

Franklin H&F stop selling them at 4pm Saturday 4th June.

The prizes are even better this year. There's a food truck and raffles (bring some cash - you won't be disappointed)

You can fish the Manukau harbour, the west coast from north Waikato head to South Kaipara head - just make sure you are in the queue by 4pm at the Green Shed at Te Toro.

Who will win it? Another junior? Another surfcaster? A kayaker? A boatie?

See you there!

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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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Previous reports

January 19, 2024

Expect an increase in active fishing opportunities, with abundant snapper in the harbour post-spawning, along with kingfish, trevally, and kahawai, while flounder and grey mullet also offer rewarding catches, either through netting or spearing, amidst various fishing methods and local regulations.

January 11, 2024

Fishing in the Manukau Harbour is yielding a mix of small and larger snapper, with kingfish and trevally also present, while offshore fishing shows promise for marlin and albacore, indicating a potentially good game fishing season ahead.

June 30, 2023

As a part of Countries Sport Fishing Club, I get to help organise some of our fishing competitions. Mostly I’m involved in the Grunter Hunter – a gurnard only comp that regularly attracts 300 or more anglers all hoping to get some of the prizemoney on offer.

June 2, 2023

June 1, 2023

It has certainly been an unusual year. Like everyone else I would have expected a whole lot more settled weather over autumn, and now that winter is finally here, I would have expected to have seen a whole lot more cooler weather.

April 27, 2023

March 10, 2023

It has been a long time between reports, my apologies for that but it isn’t always easy to get a decent report out. I recently met up with a Fishing World reader – Gareth from West Coast Boat Wraps. I have seen his work and it is pretty good stuff.

April 27, 2023

November 3, 2022

It’s been a long time between reports for me, which is a bit naughty especially as I’ve done my share of fishing lately. The ever reliable west coast hasn’t let us down and it seldom does in springtime. One recent trip had some hectic fishing on baits and jigs for some very good fish up to 8kg, then a couple of weeks later with a new fishfinder/chartplotter with no marks whatsoever saved we repeated that trick in even faster time despite just stopping in a random spot in 58m. The difference was in the size of the fish, nothing over 3kg, but that isn’t a bad thing at all.

September 9, 2022

The weather hasn’t been kind enough to tempt me out fishing lately but to make up for that I’m going somewhere this weekend that everyone should try to fish at some stage of their life, the Ranfurly Banks. While that has nothing to do with fishing the Manukau harbour and surrounds at least I’ll be looking forward to some more leisurely snapper and gurnard fishing when I get back after putting up with those big arm stretching fish down East Cape way!

July 8, 2022

Winter fishing, why do we do it? It’s always cold, often raining and usually a combination of the two. It can also be quite productive. My son Arron and I spent last weekend fishing the CSFC.co.nz Ice Breaker competition. We targeted snapper & gurnard in the Manukau harbour.

June 10, 2022

We fished the Sunday of Queens Birthday weekend for the CSFC & Franklin Hunting & Fishing Grunter Hunter. Saturday was a perfect day and some very nice snapper came out of the harbour, plus a few gurnard.

May 20, 2022

The harbour is fishing at its best right now, especially for snapper. Gurnard catches are on the up and the fish are in great condition. I’ve seen a lot of 50cm plus snapper caught from the harbour and I know of a nice 15lb fish last week that was caught in the Papakura Channel. I’ve heard of gurnard up to 1.4kg which are close to 50cm long, some of which have been caught off the harbour beaches.