Autumn fishing in the Hauraki Gulf – there’s still plenty of action happening and if you’re out on a day where the weather is favourable, it’s absolutely magic!

I love Autumn fishing! The Silver bullets are still blipping all over the place, especially the further out into the Hauraki Gulf you travel. The surface activity of the chrome and purple coloured skipjack tuna can be easily seen on calmer days. Skipjack can be finicky to catch at times, therefore it pays to try all sorts of lures. The smaller ones like micro jigs can work well when they’re giving you the cold shoulder.

Solid kingfish are feeding up on mackerel schools. The tell-tale signs are gannets hovering, then dropping in over a wide area with no concentrated workup, as the kingfish chase after their fast fleeing prey. If you see gannets doing this, target those kingfish on jigs or top water lures. There will no doubt be snapper down below, but probably spread around the wider area. A great place to drift fish for both species, and there’s been lots of action over several hours out in 50m.

Smaller jigs of 20 – 60gms worked with an aggressive action have been catching the better sizes of snapper as well as kingfish! What a thrill to catch, kingfish on micro jigs and rods.

It’s a great time of year to be out fishing.

Enjoy.

Espresso