Excellent fishing has been on the menu in and around the mussel farms on the western side of Coromandel, solid snapper, and kingfish hounding those
Another fine fish falls to the Dominator microjig!
kahawai relentlessly, while further out in the Firth of Thames some good workups for those chasing the dragon. Either scenario using slightly larger 7” softbaits and those magic micros have been the go for both kingfish and snapper. Aggressive shallow water takes, raging battles gaining and losing line, epic stuff with great fish. Sheltered from the recent thumping easterlies too. Orca have been feeding beside the coast road, quite a spectacle. If you’re over there in Coro, call in and see Rob at Fish, Dive & Hunt Coromandel, tell him I sent you – he has the inside scoop on the latest going’s on there 😉. Out in the middle of the Hauraki gulf some great snapper signs are all over the show, but the technique to get them to strike sure does vary – there have been some frustrating times with good sounder sign of snapper, but very little interest in striking…until the action they were after was discovered, ridiculously long slow winding retrieves, BOOM, fish on! And again, and again – while the various other tried and true methods simply ignored a lot of the time. Yes indeed, Let The Fish Be The Judge rings true. A video reel to show what these fish are doing and how to catch them is on the Catch Fishing Facebook page and others now, worth a good look as it shows in real time just how far and high snapper can follow before striking, making the difference between plenty of fresh snapper for dinner, or frozen sausages.
Over the eastern side of Coromandel the Longshore Marine Lure Coaching
seminar held at the Mercury Bay Game Fishing Club was fantastic on Monday night, so many keen anglers of all ages and stages of lure fishing came along and enjoyed seeing how little movement can be used effectively with softbaits in the display tank, slow, medium and fast pitch jigging
techniques learnt, watching world-first videos of snapper in their natural habitats (5m-55m down!) stalk and strike lures – teaching us all what snapper actually do in reality. Then adjusting our tackle and how we present lures so they can’t resist, and we can target those better fish. With new and hands-on information to use, look out big fish in Coromandel! And here’s a little gem of a place to visit – Kuaotunu, on the way from Coromandel over to Whitianga, definitely worth a stop at the General Store – excellent for a scoop or two of good ol’ kiwi ice-cream, a flat white coffee and any last-minute tackle and intel, as literally on the doorstep is good in-close snapper fishing.
Winter lure coaching seminar dates are filling fast – if you, your club or local store want to enjoy one of these informative and entertaining seminars, please get hold of me right now, so we can make it happen and not miss the opportunity, time is of the essence.
Espresso out.
Facebook: Grant Bittle (Capt Espresso)
