Spring activity has kicked off with the inclusion of early season topwater kingfish in the mix.

Snapper

Inner shallower areas of the gulf have been a fishing display the past several days! Not surprisingly with the raucousness of the inner area workups. Right into  less than 1m water depth hoofing it around the Waitemata and inner Gulf areas. These spectactular sights were hard to miss. This sudden burst of Spring activity really kicked things off in a hurry.

Surprisingly good catches of pannie snapper in the Rangitoto channel for instance. Little soft baits flicked on ultralight jigheads, say ¼ of an ounce. A good steady supply of 30-45cm pannies have graced more than one chilly bin over the past week. Next week similar findings are to be expected. All along North Shore Bays, Gulf Harbour, Rakino, the Noises, Army Bay, out from the Happy Jacks in the Firth of Thames have all been hotspots this week.

Kingfish

Baitfish were being herded into splinter groups with the afternoon aerial bombardment. Unrelenting, they have continued until just before nightfall on several evenings particularly along the extended North Shore. A natural consequence of such intense activity is to draw even more predators that are keen to join in, coming in from further out. Kingfish of well legal size are part of this hunt. If you are keen to tangle with one, you have a good chance even this early in the new season. Top water is always a favourite and readily taken with the water being less than 20m deep. Here it’s easy enough for kingfish to see, hear and feel the splash of the stick bait landing wiggling vibrating it’s way along the surface. Sinking sticks are great to use when the sea surface is choppy. It stops a lot of flying fish stick baits, and allows kings to see and hunt down your lure.

Deeper gulf fishing has been challenging really only due to typical blustery winds this time of year, however looking through the past few years of Espresso Reports it is around about now the true return of male snapper from out deeper kicks into gear.

Don’t under estimate the power of your lure.

So how important is your lure really? Afterall many great fish have been caught on all sorts of things and levels of tackle, yes very true no doubt about it. However how many times bigger fish we all love to catch have simply said ‘yeah…nah’ when seeing our offering for a second, perhaps only a micro second to decide, or after carefully eyeing the offering up for a little while, it decides – nah, and simply moves on. We never knew any better, none the wiser. Your lure is the only thing the fish sees. So how important is your lure, and the presentation of it? It can be EVERYTHING.

The vibration and sound the lure you have chosen emits, the particular reflection of light off its surface imitating a gyrating baitfish inadvertently showing off its lightly coloured underside, the action whether erratic and spasmodic or gentle and stealthy? Your leader, line, rod and reel are important, after all your rod is now designed to work the lure as one of its primary functions, the modern style of fishing. Your lure is what makes the fish strike, which is 100% under your control.

Luck?

Eliminate luck as much as you can from fishing, rather target and catch the fish you are after, not what you sit wait and hope for – luck is for Lotto. The better your lure the more success.

Are your menu items that you show to fish the ultimate temptation? Or simply another stale leftover meat pie in a gas station’s pie warmer? It’s not about what you are catching, it’s about what you aren’t. Your lure is EVERYTHING, make it great and so your fishing will return the favour.

 

Enjoy your Spring fishing success.

Espresso.

 

Catch Fishing / Wave Dancer / Extreme Boats / Honda Marine New Zealand / Savwinch Drum Winches / Isuzu Utes New Zealand Ltd / Oakley / Musto Australasia / Furuno NZ