Fishing – Targeting workups

If chasing snapper is your gig, like me, you will have been hanging out for spring and its attendant baitfish workups. Weather has played its part in keeping anglers off the water, especially on the east coast, with strong winds and stormy conditions offering few breaks and calm seas. The good news is the more sheltered waters offered by the Whangarei and Kaipara harbours have fished well, consistently producing good catches for those who have rugged up and made the effort.

As the water temperatures gradually rise, snapper are tempted out of their deeper winter haunts to school up in anticipation of doing their wild thing – breed. And snapper are not the only fish with a bit of procreation on their mind; the seasonal change is also a signal for the baitfish to do the same thing. This creates the perfect angling storm – the baitfish in such large numbers attract the predators – everything from sharks and kingfish through to kahawai, snapper and john dory.

To anglers it is like the May opening of duckshooting and to deerstalkers the April roar, a prime time to chase snapper as they gather in Bream Bay and off Pakiri heading for the shallows of the Hauraki Gulf to spawn. Just like their landbased colleagues, snapper hunters can also suffer from ‘buck fever,’ a kind of red mist affects the brain where common sense is overridden by the need to get among the action at all costs.

There are some ways to go about fishing workups that will ensure everyone gets a shot. The first thing to remember is the best action is not always among the melee of diving gannets, predators and marine mammals attacking the baitfish from all angles. We see boats trying to crash this party, but some of the best fishing is to be had drifting through the ‘exhaust.’ This refers to the area where the action has been and the fallout creates a natural berley trail with hungry snapper hoovering up to remains right through the water column.

If you arrive at a workup and there are other crews there before you, don’t jump right in front of their drift, tuck in 50 or so metres behind them. Approach at low speed where you don’t create a wake to upset the others. Have some respect.

So, what happens if you are in a prime location with the action all around you and you can’t buy a bite while other crews all have bent rods? Firstly, if your favourite softbait or hard bodied lure that has fished well for you all winter doesn’t perform, change it out to match the hatch. More natural colours, especially in the softbait department, will be more representative of the tucker the snapper will be feeding on and in theory should attract more attention. Another thing that be a game changer is to drop down a size or two – if softbaiting, trying a 5” tail instead of the 7” that has worked well all winter.

Another symptom of buck fever is catching more fish than you need, especially if you fish multiple days. I have read on social media crews catching and releasing well over their limit, keeping just a few for the dinner table or smoker. That is fine – but only if you are in shallower water – 30 metres or less. Most fish released, even if they swim away ‘healthy,’ are likely to be suffering from barotrauma – the piscatorial equivalent of a diver getting the bends. The deeper a fish is brought up from, the worst it is likely to be affected by barotrauma where its internals are forced out through the mouth and the anal vent.

Have fun out there and stay safe – the long-term forecast for the next month or so is not great. To check on the weather and best bite times go to www.fishing.net.nz