The Espresso Report February 4, 2022

Kite surfers are loving the hard core easterlies, not so much the fisho’s, but the wind will wane, soon, so what to look and prep for coming up..?

Improved upper harbour snapper fishing! A surprising lack of sizeable snapper up the harbour according to quite a few, a little odd as this time of year as it’s

Dark dirty water…

usually a great place to be catching good snapper, it should improve. And here’s some tips for getting in amongst the action as soon as you can you can, wherever your Spot X may be…

Dirty water. Once it starts to clear (even before) when the wind does calm down, it’s prime time to target snapper, they’re searching the gloopy soup for food, add a bit of clarity so they can see their ‘prey’ i.e. your lure, jig or softbait and they’re in with a grin, often striking aggressively. Luminous softbaits do well putting out the bright ‘fast food’ sign e.g. Livies softbaits like White Warrior or Glowing Gurnard (pictured) are ideal. Be seen, be eaten! Also – drag those softbaits, whatever colour you have. Drag ‘em along on the drift, lifting with the boat motion, or yours added, but not much.

Luminous Glowing Gurnard softbait grabs fish attention

You’ll probably need to let line every 5-10 seconds or so, the lure then plops back down onto the sandy, muddy sea floor, puffing up a smoke signal of the potential food kind, and a nice drag line mud trail giving its position away to a hunting snapper or gurnard. If you really want to grab fishes attention come on feel the noise style, add a Blade for vibration as well as flashing that all important silver eye-catcher.

Further out the ‘dirty water’ isn’t as prevalent seemingly unaffected by the surface state for several days and yes out in the gulf, deeper water has been, and will be, doing well whether right-side of the gulf down from the Moehau range under some workups, or left, over by Little Barrier – again good fishing often with gannets and dolphins lately.

Slow Pitch the BOSS for bigger snapper

Slow Pitching: Prime time is right now! Your fluttering falling ‘baitfish’ is easy money for the fish, and you. A well shaped and weighted slow pitch jig has a captivating and enticing fall, a good example is the renowned slow pitch jig the BOSS, match that with a slow pitch rod like the Kensei and you have the right stuff to battle and land those big reds you see on Facebook and Instagram. Easy to choose the right weight of jig, what ever water depth you’re in, multiply it by 2 = grams. Fishing in 50m or thereabouts? X 2 = 100gram BOSS jig. Go heavier when drifting quicker 150gm out there is a top pick. Perfect. Slow pitch with the standard haltering retrieve (say 3 separate 1/3^rd short sharp turns of the handle leaving rod alone/horizontal) with a pause of 1-3 seconds between each partial wind, or a slow steady retrieve, or a more aggressive slow-mechanical style retrieve. All work very well, try each as the action imparted on the jig is quite different and some variations often entice a strike when others don’t. It may seem strange at first, and you’re thinking how can this work, a few slow pitches later you’re hooked up to a hard charging snapper, with a big grin from ear to ear. Easy, exciting, effective, economical.

Squidwings – the goto lure for catching skipjack

Skipjack – out of the gulf on the other side of the entrance gates (Colville, Craddock and Jellicoe channels), in the next paddock as it were, not that obvious on the inside of the gates lately, but with their speed, these easterly winds and the gulf’s water temps – expect and hope for many to be inside in the blink of a Katsuwonus pelamis, or skipjack tuna’s, eye. Recommended lure for skipjack? Too easy, Lil’ Squidwings is perfect trolled around 6kts – or go to the 100gm Squidwings when there are big, hungry barrels around.

Marlin – start again, but where they were, start there, and watch those SSTs for progression along the coast, those edges of temperature changes the place to be for both marlin and the tuna. YFT eastside and juvenile SBT westside N.I., choices ay! SBT on a softbait!?

Yes it’s windy, so prepare well, the fishing will be all-on, on the (wind) drop…