Fresh Auckland Fishing Reports

While the weather has been in conservation mode for the last fortnight, when the winds have been offshore, there has been some great snapper fishing in.

Well the weather has not really been allowing us to go as wide as we wanted to in the last 2 weeks with 35knt winds both weekends. Our usual spots over by the pigeons and squiggles where there has been lots of snapper have been a long way to go with the big seas we have had! The good news is that the bigger fish are now moving in closer and we are finding good gannet and dolphin workups with loads of better size snapper and kingfish under them! We have been looking for the birds working in the 45-50mtrs marks over a wide area in the middle grounds. These areas are now holding good amounts of the larger snapper and long drifts through them (not necessarily exactly where the workups are) is producing a steady stream of good fish. As you would know we specialise in lures and especially slow jigs. The colours that are working seem to differ every day and sometimes during the same day as well. Orange and yellow colours mixed together have been great as have the pinks and reds. We tend to try as many colours as we can until we find the right mixture then get everyone fishing these. Having 8 anglers helps us to find the right combination. There are also fast-moving workups around the elbow east of Tiri (out side the cable), but they don’t seem to be holding many bigger snapper at the moment. These workups can also be found halfway down the Tiri to Kauwau line on the inside of the cable (western side of cable zone). They are also in the cable zone but please don’t fish in here!!! I imagine the snapper fishing will become more consistent in closer now as the water starts cooling again. We really enjoy this time of year at the end of summer and the great fishing it provides through late February and March. So I look forward to seeing you out there. Or come out with me and enjoy my playground and learn a few tricks I have gained over the years! Nik Key is a tutor, guide, lure tester, author and charter skipper for Snap Fishing Ventures. Capt Nik (Snap)

The fishing has just continued to fire right in the harbour and out wide. The middle grounds seem to be a bit more quiet - snapper wise that is as the kingfish are prolific in all areas! We have been fishing a big area around the squiggles in 45-50mtrs with great success. While the fish are not huge there are numerous pannies here in the 40-50cm range. We are finding mountains of snapper piled on top of each other in typical spawning mode. They are not always hungry but when they decide to feed it is all on! After only 6 snapper being caught all morning on sign like this below at the change of the tide (low) it was all on and we manage another 50 in 1 hour. As you can imagine my decky and myself were very busy netting and dispatching snapper with 8-way hook-ups! We are also getting quite a few legal kingfish out of these epic snapper sessions and they are always a welcome bycatch on the light snapper gear. The lures that are performing the best in these areas and conditions are the 200g Kabura style. I am always changing the head/skirts colours to see which ones work the best and am finding that each day is different. The best colours have been in this order – orange head with orange/yellow skirts, pink head with pink and red skirts, green head with green and red skirts and yellow head with yellow and brown skirts. I am making my own skirts up and mixing colours to see which ones work best. The fish seem to move a 1-2nm each day and I have been tracking their progress on my Navionics app. I have found one really good area that I call the “supermarket” due to its consistency! Looking at my diary top of Coromandel usually starts to go off at this time of the year so we will be venturing over their in the next month in search of the bigger moochers (60-80cm) grazing on the crustaceans on the contour lines. In closer the inner harbour should only get better. I find outgoing tide to be best as the spawning fish come out after spawning and are very hungry. We use the same lures in here as we do out wide but change down in weight as required. So I look forward to seeing you out there. Or come out with me and enjoy my playground and learn a few tricks I have gained over the years! Nik Key is a tutor, guide, lure tester, author and charter skipper Capt Nik

5 happy clients got some nice fish.

This month has been a great month in Spring Fishing. We are fishing out wide and noting the increase of larger snapper making their way into the Hauraki Gulf trickling through to the Waitemata. With predominant westerly winds afternoon into the evening fishing has been better. Different species amongst the schools as they pass. Quick Hit and run bite times early afternoon typical for November then a good build up before sunset putting icing onto a great day out fishing. We will be starting evening charters during the week you will have to enquire about these December is a great time for these dusk fishing trips during the week.

Morning All, Last week's fishing is still bowling on as Summer is never ending,and the weather is relatively calm and apart from a shower on Sunday to remind us Autumn is just round the corner. We are getting smacked around by the large kahawai everyday the bigger size snapper do take a while to show up through the other schools of fish and as the temp is 20 degrees they are still relatively close inshore. On Sunday we had so many lines breaking off from Kahawai, Kingfish and the odd Shark I had to go down to using one Hook rigs. Didn't slow down the hook up rate just made it a lot easier to bring fish in and control around Riko Riko. Consider the pro's you can concentrate on one bait the smaller fish don't get to dominate for so long. With our modern lifestyle we expect everything to turn on when we turn up. Hyper programmes amp you up so much you just have to turn yourself off and get tuned in to reality. Fishing requires a platform and patience is the key that moves that platform toward bigger fish.. Timing and Season helps it all turn as well There is no magic mushroom that separates small from big sometimes where the food is the fish are Big and Small you just have to experience the day to enjoy it There have been massive tidal flow this week due to king tides hopefully next week will be less. Also it may pay to bring bigger plastic bags as some fish don't fit in a supermarket bags! This week I have 3 spaces left on Thursday 14th April 10am start Also plenty of space this Saturday 16th April TBA, Sunday 17th April 10am start. Have a great week Everybody