Hauraki Gulf

fishing report

September 24, 2020

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Ed note: All the boat traffic and most of the workup action has been over in the Firth this week, with some good snapper fishing to be had, however we are still short of the true spring workups. Earlier this week we marked plenty of good snapper sign between Rakino channel, the Noises and the lower Firth, so boaties don’t have to travel too far for good fishing at the moment. The only challenge is that workups are often spread wide and moving quickly, driven by kahawai, so they disappear as fast as the appear, but there are plenty of pannies and bigger specimens there for the patient anglers. With so many kahawai about, it can pay to use a lure such as a big kabura pinned to the seafloor, that appeal less to kahawai than sparkly metal jigs that they just love! Here’s the Espresso report for the week:

We are on the cusp of change, with daylight saving kicking in this Sunday, the days will soon seem much longer and before we know it summer will be upon us.

It is the equinox (equal length of day and night) this week, and with it the birds ‘n bees are shifting into top gear, Spring is doing it’s best for us even the tidal current slows this week which should mean less surface chop and even more opportunity to go out and enjoy some good fishing.

Weather forecasting is a bit of an art at times and with the very local vagaries of wind speed around the gulf general forecasts can mean excellent opportunities can be missed when say the Firth of Thames is 5kt variable at the same time Tiri is gusting 26kts (as per this week).

It pays to get all the reliable information about weather you can, MetVuw, Swellmap, Coastguard app (VHF live wind speeds), Windy.com, Metservice and more, all well worth spending the time perusing a few days before any planned fishing adventure. The weather changes FAST, both to bad, but also occasionally to GREAT!

Snapper – mainly pannie city right now, easy Freestyle Kabura stuff or the Beady Eye Kabura (https://www.catchfishing.pro/product/beady-eye-kabura/) pictured, with an occasional stonker (Wave Dancer landed an 18 pounder in the Firth this week) but mainly it’s still winter style pannie fishing over most of the gulf, to be expected in the very short term.

Steady stuff and great for using smaller lures and lighter gear, this week a softbait only just sinking down through the water column when there is little to no bite can be the panacea to fishing a day’s doldrums – an easy bite of a stray little baitfish look-a-like, fish on! Baby Pilchard and Kahawai LIVIE softbaits have been the go-to not surprisingly (https://www.catchfishing.pro/product/catch-livies/).

Kahawai – north of Noises has seen some solid areas of these fish of various sizes, and also the mid to lower Firth, some biggies too! Breeding and feeding is on in earnest for these prime fish. Similarly the gannets are nesting and requiring ever increasing fish supplies.

The gannets have been lining up for mackerel south of Gulf Harbour, loosely spread right across to northern Ahaas at times, hounding both the kahawai that are hounding the baitfish, and the baitfish. This all gets resident snapper interested, sometimes only very briefly with long slower periods. If too many kahawai for your liking – try a 100-200gm jig without skirts or a lot of flasher material, fish the jig with only one turn of the handle and a rod lift i.e. within 2 metres of the sea floor.

You’ll drastically reduce the number of kahawai, and target snapper hard on the floor more. The Double Trouble (https://www.catchfishing.pro/product/double-trouble/) and Deep Vee slow-pitch style lures (https://www.catchfishing.pro/product/deep-v-slowpitch/) are perfect for this situation.

Check out the latest hot colour - the Rainbow Warrior https://youtu.be/anqCARmFuxM

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The Firth workups have been fast n’ furious, mainly kahawai based. Further out in the gulf the action has been suspiciously just out of reach (wind speed and sea conditions), some big pots of gold to be had out wide when the wind allows a Barrier adventure!

Some lazy days fish wise this week with the more winter style of fishing prevailing, in the short term, but the unstoppable change of seasons is upon us and building momentum, bring it on!

All signs are excellent for a major upswing in fishing fortunes, the workup activity out off the coast, north of the Gulf has been epic to see, no doubt the gulf will turn it on too, oh so soon.

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Cheers,

Captain Espresso.

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