
Fishing Report 2.4.22
1.3.22
Fishing report
With the weather offering us a few good days and more than a few bad ones, we might wish for January back at the moment, but coming into autumn there are often good settled spells, so fingers crossed. Last week was pretty good fishing, and we are on a bit of a roll south end of Mana at the moment. No matter what the tide was doing, fishing was pretty solid, and targeting in a bit shallower and fishing some back eddies we were able to pick up some really nice snapper. Around the area there’s also some very good tarakihi, trevs, blue mackerel, kahawai and of course the odd good kingy. Turn of the tide there gives us the opportunity to shoot out deeper and target the puka, which has been reasonably successful with consistent results not always in the same spots as the fish move around.
There’s probably less fish around than I have seen in the last couple of years, but sometimes the patterns go that way a bit, and they can pick up during the changing seasons.
We are fishing the 150 metre drop off all the way along from Mana down to Makara in the 150 to 170 metre depth range, and searching for sign along the bank will generally reward the patient sounder watcher.
You can also head out further to the 200 plus drop off but we have had not much need to head out there as we do ok without the extra travel.
Even sheltered up inside Mana has been producing some good sized snapper, a fish species that appears to be even more widespread now, and always a welcome addition to the day’s catch.
You can get onto snapper easily in most places that have a bit of foul or shelter, and that means anything from as shallow as 5 to 10 metres, right out into the deep.
Surfcasters are doing well on snapper too, mostly from Paikok up to Te Horo.
It’s not always easy work getting good results off sandy beach, but good efforts will generally be rewarded with persistence.
The keen fisho’s and local club members have been doing really well up there, but the catch is, they seem to come on about an hour after dark.
This being the case it pays to get set up and established, then you’re familiar with things around you and how comfortable you are to wade out after losing the light.
Waders or a surf wetsuit-type-thing are a big advantage as often a bit of distance is required to get out to the second channel, whereas at high tide fishing the first channel is often enough.
Tīwhane Pota, with help from daughter Rangituia caught a massive kingy.
Using a live bait kahawai under small balloon, 11/0 live bait hook, 200lb mono trace, 50lb ball bearing swivel on 24kg main using rollered game rod! Not your typical beach rig.
His words:
“Got the idea to use the game rod after seeing birds working out from the surf club, huge tail splashes amongst kahawai.
Thought it was kingfish, first day no luck. Next day was within 30 seconds of letting the kahawai get out with the balloon.
Once hooked let a young fella reel it in. Had to assist the poor wee blighter as killed his arms.
Easy as walking up the beach and getting the line back on the walk back to the water.
Folks at the river mouth thought I was nuts. 'How ya gonna cast that out?' they asked with a laugh.”
Length - 134cm from head to V of tail
On the bathroom scales it went 32.7kg
There’s also been some boomer kingies caught land based closer to the city, off Sunshine Bay and in town around Oriental, Flat Rock, and Evan’s Bay.
Kapiti is fishing really well when you can get out there, with good albacore catches out the back of the island and northwards, and not so many bluefin of late.
Tons of good snapper and kingy fishing out there, all systems are go on that front, around the popular reef systems all round the island, so depending on what way the wind is blowing, there’s always a fishable spot at the moment.
Closer in, the harbour is fishing nicely, especially for snapper, where Point Gordon has been pretty much the story, although Ward Island is proving good for snapper too.
If you want to fish the wreck (look for it off Point Halswell toward Somes) it’s good for kingies, tarakihi, snapper and heaps of other species. The trick is staying a bit wide of it to avoid losing your anchor on it, and drifting is not so great as you then lose your gear fairly easily.
Setting up a berley trail drifting into the wreck as you sit off the edge of it is generally a good way to go with dropper rigs and straylines doing the business.
Get set for a good weekend coming up.
Good luck and tight lines.
Cheers
Pete
8.10.21
Getting a break from the wind is not so easy at this time of year, and true to form some decent time on the water has been pretty hard to come by of late. On the brief occasions we’ve managed to get out, fishing has been pleasantly successful, with terakihi, puka and kingies all playing ball out at the Hunter Bank.
We lost a couple of really good fish, but still managed to land a couple.
Out west of Hunter Bank there have been some really good snapper and kingis caught on slow jigs as deep as 120 metres, and there’s always the chance of puka or big teris here as well.
This seems to be a bit of a thing as Palliser Bay has been turning up good snapper out as deep as 100 metres also.
Snapper seem to be pretty abundant off Makara one day and gone the next - in a more traditional 60 – 80 metres.
Boom rock produced a nice kingi and snapper for us the other day but the couta were in plague proportions and spooked tarakihi.
Verns has been good for teris (70-80mtrs) on the turn of tide.
On the last trip we caught 6 snapper just south of the mana bridge as well as a heap of kahawai
The harbour has been a bit quieter and a few too many spiney dogs are around, but this may fire up a bit as we get warmer, and the water clears up a bit. Still some good catches of gurnard to be had though.
Shore fishers have been enjoying excellent gurnard fishing inside Lambton Harbour.
Evans bay has had a few snapper coming in at places like flat rock and Balena bay.
Kapiti is fishing pretty well for snapper at the north end, but we have reports it’s been not as good off the southern end. Spineys have been a problem closer to shore but when the water cleans up this should change.
Nicolsons trench fired up plenty of big bluenose on the last fishable day and consistent tarakihi and bluecod have been taken further inshore along with the odd snapper and kingfish.
Some good catches of whitebait have been taken at waikanae, Otaki, lake ferry and a few lesser known spots.
It’s perfect time for surfcasters in Palliser bay for the run of blue moki, gurnard and potentially snapper. Best fishing is when the water is clean (less than a mtr southerly swell)
Places like long beach, karori stream beach, Fitzroy bay and Wainui are good (closer to wgtn) shore fishing spots at this time of the year as well - bluecod, moki, gurnard and
1 Sept 2021
Fishing is great at the moment. Particularly for gurnard in the harbour.
Snapper are still about as well that is pretty weird as we normally expect them to just be gone at this time of the year. 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.
There’s a fair few big blue mackerel around that make awesome live kingfish baits or are great smoked or eaten as sashimi.
There’s a fair few big blue mackerel around that make awesome live kingfish baits or are great smoked or eaten as
July 2 2021
It’s fair to say the weather has been pretty nasty to us over the last few weeks and getting out fishing has been out of the question. However, when we do get these big snaps come through you can always count on some good fishing out the other side. Before the big fronts, the fishing was pretty good, full on all over the place.
One of my mates that runs a charter was catching some really big kingies up to the magic thirty kilo mark out at the Trench while chasing bluenose and puka.
Those are big fish to be hauling up from the deep, and it’s not uncommon to get them out there around June and July on the ‘shallower’ banks around 120 to 160 metres.
Out at Hunters was also going really well with kingies just nailing jigs like no tomorrow, same at Kapiti.
There’s also been good numbers of warehou turning up at Hunters which is good to see.
One of the best eating fish out there, john dory, seem to be around at the moment, and these fish although not that super common around Wellington, are always welcome additions to the pot.
You’ll target jds in the shallower reefy areas and usually catch them on live baits or big slow moving soft baits around the weed beds and other structure, as well as a few that hang around wharf pylons.
In winter, it seems to be more productive to fish a bit deeper, around fifty to sixty metres. Out in this zone there are big teri’s, cod, snapper and just about all the other species at any given time.
We fished north end of Hunters yesterday and anchored up in around seventy metres for some awesome terakihi fishing, with good specimens around two kilos, and a couple of nice snapper on the turn of the tide, so it will be worth getting out there again with some decent weather coming up.
Its always good this time of year down towards Ohau in fifty to seventy metres and I expect the fishing should be dynamite there once things calm down nicely.
There will be heaps of good fishing action coming up, with some settled spells, and good moon and smaller tide phases.
Kapiti has been producing plenty of good snapper and kingies, and my deckie has been firing out to the hundred metre mark north of Kapiti in search of puka, and managed to get onto some really big terakihi. This is a good area to target this time of year with plenty of bottom structure to prospect and always the chance of picking up hapuka and decent terakihi.
Kapiti is a good area to fish slow jigs, kabura and inchiku style jigs for snapper and kings, but sometimes bait is a better nose turner in winter, so it can pay to have both on board.
Make the most of the clear weather windows, and stay safe.