Manukau / Auckland West Coast
fishing report
June 18, 2020
On Sunday 21 June our fishing club is running our annual gurnard fishing competition ‘The Franklin Hunting & Fishing Grunter Hunter’. Due to the economic situation we’ve decided to tone things down a bit this year and operate it on a sweepstake basis where we put as much of the money from ticket sales into prizemoney as we can. We don’t want to burden our sponsors but having said that they have been great in helping us get the event sorted. We are offering a 1st Prize of over $1000. Tickets are on sale at Franklin Hunting & Fishing until 3pm or so on Saturday.
Gurnard are plentiful in the harbour right now and they are in prime condition. Fish the edges of the channels, either where the channel starts to rise up onto the banks or on the banks where it starts to drop away into the channel. I use a strayline rig and a dropper rig. Generally I keep my baits small but bigger baits can work well especially for the bigger fish. My preference for bait in no particular order are kahawai, mullet & skipjack tuna (bonito). It pays to take a selection as they can be fussy one day and at other times they will take anything.
The same tactics work very well for trevally also and there are plenty of those in the harbour too. Snapper are still being caught and are of a good size if you can find them. I generally fish deeper water for snapper at this time of year but they can certainly be caught in the shallows too.
The coast is still fishing well and as usual at this time of year sharks can be an issue. It’s not really a good idea to be using skinny line when they are about or you will be sorting out tangles all day long. Torpedo fishermen are doing particularly well when the swell is small, with fish up to 8kg being caught. June and July are generally the best times to target those fish with a torpedo or kite.
While many people have long ago put their fishing gear in to storage for the winter, from February through to late in July is my favourite times for fishing, especially in the harbour. The gurnard are big, the snapper are big and the weather is generally settled enough to get out in reasonable conditions.
Good luck to those fishing our gurnard comp this Sunday and thank you to our sponsors Franklin Hunting & Fishing and Shimano Fishing New Zealand.
Strayline rig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MRjYVE3KF0
Tips for catching gurnard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVefU1-xYX8
Good luck out there and stay safe.
Smudge.
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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