Exotic visitors

While our game fish visitors are relatively familiar, each summer also brings an influx of more exotic fish species, many of them arriving as juveniles carried along by summer’s warm ocean currents.

Some of these fish settle on rocky reefs around northern New Zealand and may persist for several months, delighting observant divers and occasionally ending up on anglers’ hooks.

They’re not all colourful oddities or tiny non-descript animals that hide in the kelp, though there are plenty of those. Bigger reef fish make regular appearances in New Zealand waters, including amberjack, Samson fish and amalco jacks, all relatives of our yellowtail kingfish.

Examples of tropical and sub-tropical groupers, many from the Serranidae family, and many tropical wrasses are also common arrivals. Sadly, most of these summer tourists die when the water cools in autumn, but a few survive and may even grow to adulthood, although it’s unclear whether they are able to breed here.

The spotted black grouper and much larger Queensland grouper, generally considered tropical or at least sub-tropical in origin, have become reasonably common in the waters of eastern Northland, especially the spotted black grouper which is thought to breed in the Kermadec Islands.

Snapper eat a wide variety of animal food including invertebrates, mollusks and fishes. They are enthusiastic predators of small schooling “baitfish” such as anchovies, pilchards, piper and jack mackerel, but will eat almost any sort of fish, alive or dead.

Unless you really want to go out wide to catch them, there’s really no need to travel too far for a feed of snapper. An evening fish in a harbour channel or tucked in close to a local reef system is classic summer fishing. Bait and berley is probably the most popular and effective method, but lure fishers can do well too, especially those using soft plastics.

If daytime fishing is more your thing, consider fishing deeper. Snapper lurking over deep reefs in 40-60m of water often bite well right through the day whereas shallow water fish may shut down once the sun is high.

LIGHT TACKLE GETS BITES

In summer settled weather and less rainfall means clear water. Fishing gear is much more obvious when the water’s clear and fish often become suspicious of obvious terminal tackle.

You can help your cause by scaling back your gear to get bites. Light (thin) lines are harder to see, as are lighter traces. Consider using fluorocarbon trace and try to present baits as naturally as possible. Hide the hooks in the bait but leave hook points exposed and don’t choke them with the bait.

Whenever fish are wary, using light tackle can be the difference between catching and not. There are risks of course, because fish hooked on light gear are lost more easily, but often it’s more about getting bites in the first place. Once a fish is hooked you can worry about getting it to the boat.

Playing fish on light gear demands patience and finesse. You can’t muscle big fish on light tackle, but with good gear and reliable knots, it’s surprising how quickly a good angler can land a big fish. Constant pressure and having the confidence to push your gear to the limit can result in some remarkable captures.

In practical terms, most of the snapper, kahawai, trevally, tarakihi and cod we encounter over summer are easily managed on 6kg line or lighter. Kingfish are another story and fishing for snapper over really rough ground is also challenging on light line, but if you can’t get a bite in the first place, there’s no point fishing at all. B

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