Wellington / Kapiti

fishing report

June 1, 2021

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Well, we’re into June, and it’s officially feeling like winter in Wellington a lot of the time at the moment. One thing is still hot though, and that’s the snapper fishing. The boaties have been having a better time of it as they can get out a bit deeper to clearer water, but there’s still good fish coming in from the surf casters. You still have to put the time in but there are some really good fish around on all coasts and in Wellington harbour. Top spot has been fishing the Bridge at Mana, with four really great trips in a row out there, catching decent snapper as well as trevs, kingies and gurnard.

Fish the area in about twenty metres just before it starts coming up to about six metres all along the Bridge, pretty much both sides.

Just anchor up and start berleying in twenty and the drift should take care of the rest.

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Top Spots

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Pukerua Bay and Boom have also been firing, and my mates managed a limit in just an hour and a half last week fishing forty to fifty metres or so.

There’s still plenty of snapper around in closer too, around five to ten metres out of the structure and shelter.

We’re all about the bait, but soft baiting recently with the new Daiwa Bait Junkie soft baits has proven really effective.

We’ve been doing well with the five-inch versions, but look forward to getting out there with the seven inch models soon to target some of the bigger snaps and kingies.

Puka fishing is about to enter it’s peak, with the fish big and fat, and in great condition feeding up ready to spawn.

That’s a good reason to also be very careful to limit your catch and preserve the fishery for the future.

Puka are big fish and you get a lot of meat off just one or two fish, so we always like to stop and move on to other species once you have a puka or two on board.

Even so, we have not heard a lot of accounts of good catches yet, but the time will come shortly no doubt.

Surfcasting

Surfcasting is at its best when the water is clean and not too much swell.

Spots like White rock, Whangamoana and Ocean Beach have all produced good moki, snapper, gurnard and spotty sharks, with reports of a lot of fish over five kgs being caught.

Evans Bay continues to produce snapper, as well as the Paikakariki to Raumati stretch.

Some good spotty sharks and gurnard have also been caught at Breaker Bay and Seatoun.

It appears the tarakihi have come back on the bite lately, particularly off the south coast where they have not been hit quite so hard because of the weather conditions.

There’s good terakihi fishing in close, like off west ledge just outside the harbour entrance in 25 metres, that’s a classic spot and there always seem to be fish there.

But when you go off Baring Head, Turakerai Head, and off Sinclair fishing in 35 to 55 metres is the go.

It seems deep, but targeting as deep as 100 metres for terakihi will often get you the big ones.

Obviously, there’s limited time you can get out there, but you might also pick up some good by – catch as last winter we were getting snapper and kingies at that depth, and you might even pull a few school puka and warehau, and some big blue cod out depending on your luck on the day.

Harbour boat

The snapper fishing success is still happening off Point Gordon, Falcon Shoal and around Ward Island.

A few trevs, gurnard, blue Mack’s and plenty of big kahawai are also getting caught regularly too, so make the most of your opportunities and we will see you out there.

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Cheers Pete

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