Lighten load for the nationals
Points will be gained for using light line in relation to the size of fish, and the emphasis is on catch and release
There will be people chasing game fish all around the country tomorrow as the annual nationals tournament signals the start of a week of intense fishing.
Points are gained for using light line in relation to the size of the fish, and the emphasis is on catch and release. Some anglers specialise in fishing with ultra-light line and catch fish such as kahawai, snapper, kingfish and trevally on light tackle; even down to one or two kilo breaking strain. The tournament is divided into sections by species, covering tuna, sharks, marlin, trevally, kahawai, kingfish and snapper.
Although smaller game fish such as kahawai and snapper, trevally and kingfish can be caught around Auckland, some anglers who specialise in land-based fishing do well from the rocks. They might travel to Great Barrier Island or the top of the Coromandel Peninsula to fish, and reports indicate good numbers of large snapper in the Colville Channel with 7kg and 8kg fish common.
Other game fishermen concentrate on fishing for marlin and sharks and teams fishing in Hawke’s Bay and off the Manukau Harbour do well. The traditional marlin fishing grounds off Northland and the Bay of Plenty are always popular.
Snapper fishing out in the Hauraki Gulf has been hot this week, with good numbers of fish in 60 metres off Flat Rock, and work-ups can be found south of Little Barrier Island and north of Anchorite Rock.
Fishing the work-ups with lures such as the freestyle kabura jigs and flutter jigs has been successful. The kaburas are fished on light jig rods with braid line and dropped to the seabed and retrieved slowly — with one wind of the reel per second. The fish can be felt mouthing the tail of the lure and you have to resist the temptation to strike and just keep winding slowly until the line tightens and the fish is on.
Jigs such as the flutter jigs target larger snapper, and are fished with an upward jerk of the rod and allowed to flutter back down. They sometimes provoke a strike while sinking so it is important to keep in touch with the line as it sinks. But both lures should be fished close to the bottom, so after retrieving a few metres the jig is dropped back to the bottom and the process repeated until the line has drifted back to an angle of about 45 degrees when it is retrieved and cast again, away from the boat in the direction of the drift so it sinks directly below the boat.
There are also good numbers of snapper in the inner Waitemata Harbour, all the way up to Te Atatu where fishing floating baits in shallow water on the rising tide at dawn works well.
Kingfish can also be targeted in the harbour with lures such as surface poppers cast and retrieved, or bibbed lures like rapals trolled, or live baits. There are kingfish in the Manukau Harbour also, and and small ones are easily caught trolling off Cornwallis.
Snapper have started running in the Manukau and the gurnard fishing will just get better as the summer moves into autumn. Scallops in the harbour are reported to be in good condition, and that season runs until the end of next month.
A typical trip out on the harbour fishing the deep channels will produce snapper, gurnard and trevally, with kahawai also turning up occasionally. But, as in the Waitemata, the best time to fish is on the small tides as the strong currents on big tides make it difficult getting baits to the bottom; and seaweed carried in the current can foul lines. Gurnard are best filleted and cooked with the skin on, as they don’t have exterior scales like other fish. Snapper also benefit from this treatment. But they should be scaled when wet. If the skin dries the scales are hard to remove.
Freshwater
The big trout continue to come from Lake Rotoiti where the hot weather has caused the fish to congregate at around 30 metres, although the depth varies during the day.
Deep jigging is producing good numbers of fish.
Fishing has been good in the Hauparu Bay area, but the trout seemed to have moved down the lake to the deep water to the west of Hinehopu.
On Lake Rotorua, the extreme temperatures drives trout into cold water stream mouths like those at Awahau and Hamurana, and the number of anglers wading is a good indication of the prevalence of fish.
Surface temperatures in Lake Tarawera have reached 24C, and this drives the trout into deeper water during the day. Jigging and trolling to 30m has been good.