The winter chill is still very evident over most of the Hauraki Gulf with vast areas of seemingly no fish at times, yet hot spots pop up with sudden flurries and fast fishing with dolphins, gannets, petrels – and lots of fish all joining in the display.

The spectacle can last for while, or not, so you need to be prepared if you are going to make the most of your fishing adventures. There’s a few easy ways to do this, the best is to keep changing your menu items (lures) and their action, the difference can be staggering in terms of results.

The Firth returned with a good bite despite the lack of tidal current, same time of the day as out wide with good resident snapper feeding around that high tide.

A large Brydes whale has been hanging around in there too. The bottom end of Waiheke? Similar patterns as out wide again this week. Local hotspot workups popping up with gannets diving and good fish underneath.

Kingfish seemed to vanish briefly – although I suspect over the next several days when they pop their heads up and come back on the feed the energy will be high, there are big fat pilchards to be hounded down, a good time to target the king of fish this coming week.

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Maybe the schools out wide of the Barriers will head in like another particularly large whale along a temperature break south of Little Barrier – the next big thing/area? Likely.

Lots of suspicious looking activity bird/bait around there – future Sign ‘O the Times.

Blissful cauldrons of dolphins gorging themselves on pilchards have been happening just out of the gulf, wide of both Barriers with gannets simply ducking their heads under for a pillie beside them with no take-off or landing needed.

Utterly amazing scenes. Water swirls beside the boat as dolphins keep coming back to check on you, racing in for a quick eyeball, then off on their fishing day, as we do too.

Out of the gulf – as per previous Espresso Reports the workups further along the coast north seem to head this way. It looks like the Spring action is not too far away, it’s not here yet – but we’re under starters orders, a week or three perhaps?

Skirted lures have been the go by a noticeable margin this week, rather than hard body/metal jigs.

Inchiku and slow jig (e.g. BossSquid https://www.catchfishing.pro/product/boss-squid/  and Beady Eye Kabura  https://www.catchfishing.pro/product/beady-eye-kabura/  have been absolute stand-outs. While some complete blitzes from solid fish on the big jigs – suspiciously sharknado-like.

Quiet times for a lot of the open gulf for sure – it feels and looks like winter out there right now, but when the fishing is hot, it’s hot alright. Best to be out there in amongst it, the best form of social distancing therapy there is, enjoying and appreciating what we have right here on the doorstep.

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Cheers,

Captain Espresso.

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For Wave Dancer Charters: Visit www.wavedancer.co.nz to make a booking

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