In fact, if people were really concerned about having the minimum impact on fish stocks, the ideal system would see anglers having to take home the first nine snapper (where the limit is nine) they caught, irrespective of size. Of course, this would not work in practical terms, for human nature being what it is, the smallest fish would be tossed over the side to be replaced by a bigger one.
The only solution to avoid undersized fish is to move to another spot, or change the approach. This can be done by using only fresh bait, which does result in fewer bites but better-quality fish. Kahawai will do the trick, and yellowtail (or jack mackerel) is better. These can be filleted and chopped into chunks, and kahawai can be skinned and used fresh.
There are fish everywhere at the moment, and one angler has been doing well just off the breakwater at Okahu Bay with pilchard chunks on a flasher rig in the evenings, regularly taking home 48cm snapper.
Tides are ideal for the long weekend, with good currents and low tides in the early morning and evening, so from the turn of the tide for the first of the incoming tides, it should fish well.
The fishing out wide in the Hauraki Gulf has picked up, with some good snapper under work-ups between Tiritiri Matangi Island and Flat Rock, and small kingfish on the reefs throughout the gulf. The outer islands like the Mokohinaus and Little Barrier have not been fishing consistently well, but are holding some big kingfish.
Snapper have moved out of the Bay of Islands after spawning and are proving hard to find. In fact, as charter skipper Geoff Stone says, this is a regular pattern and it can be easier to catch a marlin than a snapper at this time of year.
Kahawai have moved into the bay and kingfish can be found under the birds. There are marlin all up the coast from the Poor Knights to Doubtless Bay, and on the first day of a tournament this week, eight marlin were recorded at the Bay of Islands.
Two blue marlin have been caught, but there is no sign of yellowfin tuna - which continues the pattern of recent years.
On the west coast, marlin are starting to turn up, but no concentrations of fish have been reported. In the Bay of Plenty, good numbers of marlin are being caught out of Whitianga, Tairua and Whangamata, but in the east it has been slow, with only one fish tagged out of Whakatane.
The old tuna tournament at Whakatane has been replaced by a four-way tournament targeting snapper, kingfish, marlin and sharks, and the four-day event starts today. Kingfish are running well at White Island, but apart from albacore and skipjack tuna, the large game fish are scarce.
Once termed the "yellowfin tuna capital", the fishing scene at Whakatane has changed and the big tuna are a distant memory.
* More fishing action can be seen on Rheem Outdoors with Geoff, 5.30pm on TV3 tonight, and on the internet television channel FishnHunt.Tv
