The winds of change, every 4th year we get that extra day, 366 this year, leap year and a full moon thrown in – now that made for some fishy stories over
Preparing your snapper
the past week or so! The season of Summer is changing to Autumn awesomeness, and fishing can really kick into gear around now, perfect timing.
Hereโs some absolutely fantastic food motivation from local legend fisherman Anil Nathoo showing not only some great โhow-toโ preparation using the entire fish, but a mouthwatering way to cook and serve snapper – your taste
Sizzling snapper – oh the aroma!
buds are in for a thrill: fish for dinner .
Espresso articles are also coming right up over the next few issues of NZ Fishing News monthly magazine covering a variety of fishy topics, so keep your eye out for the new issues, out soon before it goes quarterly. And the big annual Hutchwilco Boat Show is not far away as well.
More inshore fishing activity, antics are keeping us amused โ fish school detection easily spotted by the little white terns’ flitting about close and ‘not quite close enough’ for landbased.
Landbased light gamingย
Gannets too getting into the inshore action, in just a few meters of water off the shorelines, bombing in but requiring shallow diving โ hammering these little kahawai that are after the anchovies. Birds battling the wind, terns getting sent fluttering backwards with strong gusts making for a difficult and tiring meal for them some days.
Ultralights are gaining momentum, big game still going strong marlin and tuna, and the good olโ goto – snapper and mussel farms, they just go together right now right around the gulf. The edges of the big bay being the place to be for snapper just before the turn of season really kicks in. Good supply in terms of mussels but also the little anchovies too for snapper meals in the farms, so yes a very good place to be to put a few snapper in the bin, whether drifting and flicking a softie, or burleying up a storm getting the semi-sleepy snapper into the groove. An excellent time to be using all sorts of tackle not just the ho-hum always done approach, which can lead to frustratingly empty chilly-bins at times. Snapper feeding so close to the surface their dorsal fins are making waves โ sight cast a baby 25gm stick bait and youโre topwater fishing for snapper, truly exciting stuff, a grin a mile wide, and good solid snapper takes you can see.
Savour the snapper flavour – delicious!
Or use a barely weighted (say 1/4oz jighead) and no-weighted softbaits, go big if theyโll take them, 10inch jobs. When theyโre feeding aggressively try a few high casts, getting your softbait to slap down on the surface like a pilchard dropped by a bird โ snapper when feeding high in the water column will sprint up and smash โem, simply thrilling visual ways to catch snapper. If theyโre not that aggressive, go down in softbait size โ but again really lightly weighted, cast and retrieve smoothly, not too fast, the snapper sees this as the lone lost anchovy caught out away from the school, exactly what it wants for lunch, give โem a taste. Smacko! Get out there and get into them.
Workups out further by top of Coro, the upper Firth ones have been OK but not too outrageous in terms of snapper numbers and quality though.
That seasonal change is upon us, of the good news kind, you know the days are getting shorter, and you can feel the air temps are starting to dropโฆbig fish, small fish and everything in between, itโs action stations.
Cheers
Pictured above:
Landbased opportunities abound right now, see the terns โ cast the micro, at hand in the car: 7gm Pocket Rocket, 2 piece softbait rod and S3000 reel, always be ready ๐
Anil Nathoo snapper prep and cook link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neFkKjuHkD4
