Solid Skipjack on the mighty Lil’ Squidwings
Americas Cup win by Emirates Team New Zealand has been the culmination of years of preparation, time money energy innovation โ and delivering when it really matters. Victory over the excellence of Prada Luna Rossa is nothing short of eccezionale (exceptional), the Italian team formidable and an opponent who was equally as stunning to watch, as the boats hurtled over the water at still-unbelievable speeds. Epic top shelf racing right among some of the best inshore Autumn fishing grounds, classic New Zealand stuff.
Resident snapper and schooling snapper in the shallows are proving to be the hot targets this recent week and no doubt with the number of competitions (e.g. the Red Beach Boating club LADIES ONLY comp this weekend – another Catch Fishing supported event), plenty of fun fishing and socializing when not focussing on outwitting a fish or three. Competitions are all up and down the country, targeting different fish types from kahawai to marlin and most in between, so thereโs definitely something for every angler Novice to Pro. Best check online or at your local tackle store for the latest details and updates โ many dates change quickly with weather and other considerations. Itโs a busy time around the country at this time of year, usually good Autumn fishing provides exciting fishing especially for the snapper orientated. The Hauraki Gulf is only just waking up from itโs summer slumber snapper-wise, so expect good things over the next several days and weeks as the season changes and fish feed more aggressively before winter hits.
Workups move as they do, smaller ones have still been popping up around the gulf, but some rather bigger ones moved well outside the northern gulf and up the coast. The smaller pods of dolphins spread out over most of the gulf are little pots of gold, concentrating some schooling snapper underneath the battle between dolphins and baitfish above, often moving around quite quickly.
Skipjack have been a bit thin-on-the-ground inside the gulf, but some absolute barrels that can threaten a spooling with their blistering runs are on the outside of Little Barrier and both western and eastern Gt Barrier. With insanely-fast runs these silver bullets have, a lot like the Americas Cup boats getting up on foils, the little tunas seem to hit a nitrous switch! Absolutely brilliant stuff. And similarly the tuna never seem to give up, an impressive fish worth targeting, they are only here for the next few weeks and then they too will turn heads and not return until 2022. A thrill for most Aucklanders to enjoy so make hay while the sun shines on these stunning fish. Trolling lures or sight fishing with microjigs and softbaits are the go. Trolling around 6kts with a Lilโ Squidwing and a reverse rigged microjig like the tungsten Pocket Rocket, have both been stand-out in their success on hooking up these amazing fish (some several kilograms!) again this week.
Kingfish are back-on-the-bite! Popping up around the baitschools closer in to Tiri, the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, Kawau and surrounds as well as hounding the various reefs of the gulf, lots of good sized ones too. Using a few different styles of jigs can change your day massively, positively, donโt rely on a single method, throw down all sorts from speed jigs to slow pitch and inchiku. Kingfish can be picky at times and โjust say noโ but with a good tackle box menu youโre more than likely to come up with the ideal temptation for the big green machinesโฆhold on tight!
Watch out for Lions Mane jellyfish nasties both in the water (for those of us who like to swim out there in the big deep blue) and washed up along many shorelines this week, big messy multicoloured jellyfish that are so tempting to check out close up, poke and prod โ but they do have painful stings, best not to find out how painful.
No lockdown, tides are good with midday highs โ no excuses needed, just go fishing.
Enjoy.
Espresso.
