Wellington / Kapiti

fishing report

July 28, 2021

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Fishing is great at the moment. Particularly for snapper, that is pretty weird as we normally expect them to just be gone at this time of the year. Not so at the moment, there are snapper being caught just about anywhere around Wellington, and in the harbour there’s a huge proliferation of juvenile fish. Give these guys a couple of years and if all goes well there should be some awesome fishing in the harbour. Point Gordon is the place to be currently, the deeper hole off there that drops off around 25 metres seems to congregate them, along with a few decent sized blue cod.

There’s also still plenty of kingfish around, and a good customer of ours managed a nice 30 pounder off the shore on a stick bait recently. Can’t say where as he swore me to secrecy but rocky outcrops are where kingies cruise the weed lines so perhaps persevering with stick baits is worth your while. Big fish off the rocks are always more fun than from a boat and a good kingy on a stick bait is epic action.

Out west, Hunters is still fishing well for trevs, snapper, kingies and terakihi. There are also good warehau out there, but Fisherman's is the best place for targeting these fish if that’s what you are specifically after.

The challenge with fishing here is the tide, as you want a bit moving but not roaring through, so catching it either side of a smaller tide is the best bet.

Verns reef (just north of Boom on the 70 metre mark) is producing some good sized tarakihi if that’s your target fish.

There’s a fair few big blue mackerel around that make awesome live kingfish baits or are great smoked or eaten as sashimi.

The puka are still running strong and we were out off Boom Rock fishing the mud in around 250 to 300 metres, where we got nothing initially, then our mate got six after we left, so they are out there.

South coast is good too. The Trench is fishing well for puka, bass and bluenose. Off Karori it’s been good with a few trumpeter turning up which is not that common. You’ll pick these up as bycatch sometimes if you are targeting puka in the shallower 100 metre spots. The rougher ground the better, which is why the Karori light area is pretty good.

There’s some excellent cod and terakihi fishing off the south coast now that it has cleaned up and the water is nice and clear.

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Cheers Pete

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