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Catching a feed for dinner from a backyard jetty has been a regular occurrence for Warkworth resident Mark Vulinovich, but he wasn’t expecting what he hauled in earlier this month.
Vulinovich has been fishing from a jetty at the foot of his property in Rivendell Place, on the Mahurangi River, for a number of years.
He says he regularly catches pan-sized snapper, sometimes taking nine over the course of a day.
However, he says since the river was dredged, he has noticed a change.
“We’re getting more fish and the fish are bigger,” he says. “We’re also seeing other varieties, such as parore, and you can fish across all tides.”
On January 14, Vulinovich caught a 10.8kg snapper, measuring 87.5cm.
“I think he may have been going up the river to die. We’ve put him in the freezer and I’m thinking of getting him mounted and then perhaps I could donate him somewhere.”
The Mahurangi River dredging project, aimed at making the river more navigable, wound-up last year. It targeted just over eight kilometres of the waterway, from the town basin towards the mouth, removing more than 800,000 tonnes of silt.
