My Account
Local fishers are catching good sizes and numbers of snapper from just about every depth in Whangaparaoa Bay and the crews that are heading out deeper in the Gulf are doing equally as well in the work ups. The place has been on fire!
With the advent of modern lure fishing we are seeing more and more captures on micro jigs, slow jigs and soft baits from anglers who are relatively new to this style of fishing and the level of excitement is contagious when hearing them recall a first big snapper or kingfish from a micro jig or slider.
The Whangaparaoa Bay area has been very good and the famous Motuora Island snapper fishery is really alive and well. There are a few options in this area too and, being on the southern side of Kawau Island, there is plenty of shelter from any northerly swell or wind. When there are offshore breezes it is generally fairly calm around the island and out on the sand in 30-35m. This is where the majority of fish seem to be getting caught.
Closer in, and along the 20m contour line around the island – in fact right across the bay – has been good too with sporadic work ups, surface activity and plenty of hungry fish. There are a couple of likely spots in the channel between Motuora and Moturekareka, and also along the 20m line just south of Motuora. In the evenings or early morning try in close to the island as the big fish often move in closer to patrol the reefs during the night.
East of Kawau in 50m has also been pretty consistent with good numbers of fish being taken by charter boats and recreational fishers drift fishing the deeper water. You have to upsize your lures out here to 80-140gr but once you get them in the zone they are hit almost immediately. Around Flat Rock especially early morning has been good too. I’ve always said the Flat Rock will produce big fish for the first one there in the morning or the last one there at night, and this has been true these past few weeks with numerous big snapper coming from dawn and dusk sessions.
Further south along the Tiri-Kawau line in 35-45m has been good, so it would be prudent to keep an eye out for the working birds along here or try an exploratory drift through the area. Recent reports suggest you’ll get onto them pretty quickly. If all else fails then anchor up and get some NZ salmon berley flowing. It really brings the fish on!
The 30m contour line just north of the Tiri Channel has a big bend in it and we call it ‘The Boot’ due to its shape. This area has been fishing well, especially when the tide is outgoing. There’s a bit of current here so you will want a slightly heavier jig head or lure to hold you in the zone longer or add a ball sinker to a straylined bait like a pilly, mullet strip, belly flap or half a giant piper. An evening session here with a light southwest breeze and outgoing tide would be a great option at the moment. Further out in the Gulf there are work ups and plenty of sea life to indicate where the fish are likely to be holding. East of Tiri and in about 45m is a good place to start having a snoop around. Watch for fast, low flying gannets or circling gannets in the sky and dolphins heading purposely in one direction. Chances are they will lead you to fish. North of Gannet Rock about 6–10 miles is a prime area at this time of year.
Best baits: Try to aim for a ‘wind with tide’ scenario for your bait fishing. Ensure your berley is near the bottom but not right on the bottom (2m up is good, usually in deeper water) and use a good berley like salmon, pilchard/bonito or shellfish and kina to attract and hold the fish in your area. There is some good GoPro footage floating around of fish holding in a berley trail showing just how effective it is. Baits like pilchards, squid, mullet, bonito belly flaps, koheru and giant piper are very good choices where the fishing action is pretty full on.
Stray line rigs with a light weight or flasher rigs work well in most cases and variations of these too. Some have been targeting gurnard along with snapper using Black Magic or Tasman Tackle terahiki rigs with a small sinker and laying them along the bottom for these bottom crawling delicacies.
Lures and colours: The Ocean Angler Sliders, Jitterbugs and Micro jigs are pretty much the go-to lures for the Gulf these days and the colours that seem to work best are Bruised Banana, orange, pink and green. The old rule applies – whoever is catching the fish, copy them! Soft bait colours seem to vary more and I guess that’s down to individual lure action and shape. Curly tails are working well inshore while Paddle tails and Jerkshads are going well out deeper. Try the ZMan Nuked Pilchard as it’s been a good colour lately.
Landbased: There is a good following for land-based fishing in Whangaparaoa, which is not surprising, as the peninsula has plenty of rocky ledges and beaches to fish from. We have a chart in store that has all the good spots on it and we can offer good advice on any day’s conditions to get you onto a likely spot. Recently the landbased crew have been chasing kingfish using Rusler Livebait Sliders off the rocks and although the kingies haven’t moved right in close in big numbers, there have been some good captures. It’s ideal to be able to slide a live bait out off the rocks or beach to attract a patrolling kingfish. They are simple to rig and use and are built tough to handle the abuse of rocks and big fish.
The local river mouths have been producing the odd kingfish on stick baits too. The Nomad Chug Norris and the Nomad 155mm Riptide are good lures to start with. These too are built tough and have razor sharp BKK hooks. Wenderholme, Waiwera, Orewa and The Weiti River are all worth a shot on the rising tide.
