Fishing – Wonderful catches

March has certainly been a crazy month. With the first week lost to lockdown, boaties were left stranded. Thankfully, it was a week of really bad weather, so nothing lost! As we are approaching the colder part of the year, snapper will start feeding up for the winter months. Anglers who have been fishing around the reefs have had wonderful success at landing good catches. Reports of filling the hatch and quota in an hour or two and then having to change to fishing for another species have been prevalent during the last two weeks. Both the eastern side and the Kaipara Harbour have been very productive. Here is a photo of a nice snapper that was caught in close and released to bite another day.

Amelia Marlow catches a fine snapper.

There have been some sign of skippies around the Mokes and between Little Barrier and Great Barrier. As these fish are not targeted for eating, they are never spoken about much. However, where they are found there are normally other predators around

Meanwhile, it has been reassuring to see that over the last two years more and more yellowfin tuna have been caught. Those caught close to Kawau Island and Leigh have not been very big, but they are extremely tasty.

Kingfish have also been around and some sizable critters have been lurking around our waters. Reports of some good, edible fish were caught during lockdown off the side. As the weather was not so good, there weren’t many opportunities to put a line in off the beaches, but for those who did there were some rewards.

As we tend to have the best fishing weather around the months of March to May, I suggest now is the time to enjoy what our waters have to offer before the colder winter months set in.

Anthony Roberts, Tackle & Outdoors
tecnisportnz@gmail.com