Hauraki Gulf

fishing report

May 29, 2020

Supplied by

Note: If map is showing it is created by LINZ / New Zealand Hydrographic Authority and made available by Creative Commons 3.0. Maps should not be used for navigation

A big black beautiful turtle turned up on Takapuna beach this week, Brydes (pronounced ‘Brooders’) whales were feeding just of Kawau, and a small pod of big Bottle Nose dolphins patrolled the Hibiscus Coast, Mother Nature always has something up her sleeve to keep us enthralled. There’s a pretty good window for fishing tomorrow (Sat 30th, and some good looking breaks later in the week; Wednesday - Tradies day off at this stage) with wind speeds right down to rather nice once the 09:30ish tide change and wind direction coincided, stunning. Lots of areas of slow bite, you know the type – the tentative tag at a lure but either just smaller snapper picking or simply no hookup, a very wintry feel to the gulf indeed.

South of Little Barrier up from Flat Rock was one of the closer workup action areas with many mammals in the no fishing zone. Interestingly the size of snapper away from the fray was excellent, fewer but generally of better size than closer to the melee of workups and trailer boats by the looks.

Some incredibly dense and large anchovy schools were quite happily doing what they do further out, like ‘tap-the-sounder-screen’ to see if it’s faulty, kind of thing.

They were unaccompanied by bigger predators, once they’re in the sights of dolphins and whales it will be epic, thunderstruck stuff. Hopefully this opportunity for mega-workup style coincides with fishable or semi-reasonable weather, when these schools get hit it’ll be absolute mayhem of the welcome kind.

Excellent fishing out Gt. Barrier way for those who chose the big deep for their fishin’ mission, but you had to be committed, the city side wasn’t the go and the big barrier looked deserted, but out in 70m+ things were very different for just a few who made the grade.

Some good keen fisherm’n went even wider with such a sea forecast, and some very highly sought after hapuka have been prepared for friends and family as a result, superb.

Images from Swellmap: Download the app or check live updates here: http://www.swellmap.com/boating/new-zealand/anchorite-rock‍

‍

The general gulf quietened down a lot this past week although there are still good areas of snapper ‘grazing’ along in the general 40-50m open areas looking for a tasty morsel although with a lethargic almost disinterested bite a lot of the time.

This soft wintry bite has meant time to change the lure approach, one or two different..and…..smacko,! Fish after fish on. Night and day between two different styles of lures, both amazing in their own right. Some days fish are fickle and they can be even more so in winter, the better and varied the menu items you can show your dinner prospect, the more likely a disinterested fish will take a hit.

Kingfish went off the bite at some good dependable places, like 5 mile reef (SE corner of Little Barrier), Anchorite Rock, even Channel Island seemed to be in lockdown mode.

This can’t last, those big green machines need to feed, so the kingfish gear needs a really good shakedown while the wind is blowing: Nice long leader (not ‘that’ll do after several re-ties, it’s only 1.5m long...re-do it). A heavy line and leader setup for when the big boys are on it! Jigging and top water setups, ready.

Winter is here officially next week, as if we hadn’t noticed it’s pending arrival, so now it’s time to make the change to WINTER FISHING mode. BTW the next Espresso LIVE series episode (on Catch Fishing Facebook page) will be on just that, maximizing your success in winter with lures, in the shallows and deep water. Stay tuned for day and time and here’s the site https://www.facebook.com/catchfishlikeapro/.

Enjoy the thrills and delights of winter fishing. Pure.

Cheers, Captain Espresso.

‍