I had a wonderful time fishing with Target Charters out of Paihia. The crew was friendly and professional, and they took us to a great spot where the fish were biting. We caught loads snapper!! The boat was comfortable and spacious. I highly recommend this charter to anyone looking for a fun and relaxing fishing adventure in New Zealand.

Ross from Target charters was an excellent communicator prior to the trip and the trip itself was amazing. He runs a great charter. We had 8 family on the boat and everyone throughly enjoyed themselves. The first mate even filleted out fish on the way back to wharf. Great charter, five stars, the Snapper was delicious! 🐟🎣

Awesome day out with Ross and Harley. Got us onto the fish. Caught one of the biggest fish I have ever seen. Filleted everything for us. Great sense of humour and really good people. Highly recommend going out with with them.

Ross reaccommodated us to another boat as there was a double booking and we hoped it was a good decision as we only come to Paihia once in a blue moon. We understood the situation and it was out of our control. Ross offered us the option to get rebooked in the afternoon of March 31st or the morning of April 1st. In that moment of decision making, we chose the former schedule as we thought we would not be extending in Paihia for one more night.

I enjoyed the whole experience of being able to hold the rod, cast (a little), control the line to not result into a birds nest, wind, and catch fishes. On the other hand, my partner was a bit frustrated as he expected the return value of his money by catching more fish in the afternoon session. We both believe that the morning session would be better so book yours in the morning. We had a bit of a challenge in catching live baits in the afternoon so the boat crew opted to use their frozen (but still fresh) fishes.

For the whole afternoon experience, we only caught 2 legal sized fishes (1x snapper and 1x kawhi) that we took home. We caught a total of 5-7 undersized fishes.

To Ross, Ross’ wife, Heather, Trent, and Kit, thank you for your responses and the experience.

We would still like to join the charter boat in the future in Paihia and we will come back.

The turquoise boat (May Marie) was neat and has a toilet in it. The boat has a second floor which was perfect for unwinding and not for fishing which is understandable. Chiller bins were provided and they marked the fishes you caught. The equipments were working as expected. Maybe fishing in the afternoon is not recommended if you wish to catch a lot of legal sized fish.