Change of fishing location will reap rewards in North

Trevally

What a great week it has been on the fishing front.

Winter fishing is now starting to set in with many people reporting good catches from all over the Northland coast.

The fish are retreating from the more southern harbours and estuaries.

The end, however, is not here, the fish haven't packed their bags and headed for Australia, rather they are starting to move into slightly more temperature-stable waters. With harbours being a big shallow expanse, they tend to act like a radiator and the temperatures can vary hugely in any one day based on the ambient air temperatures.

So taking into account the above, Whangarei Harbour last week started to slow with most of the fish retreating off the shallow areas in the upper harbour. There are still fish up around Limestone, Takahiwai and Waikaraka but the catch rates have slowed immensely.

The good news for the people still fishing these areas is the arrival of the kahawai and trevally mean days on the water are not a total loss with some very nice fighting and eating fish still available.

The kahawai schools have been many, these large ocean kahawai are chasing whitebait around the channels and banks. The trevally can still be found in very shallow water up around Skull Creek and similar areas.

Parua Bay, The Nook and Snake Bank down to the entrance are producing good numbers of all species, snapper, kingfish, kahawai and trevally, through various methods. Softbaiting the channels and banks with Lime Tigers and Chartreuse colours, or either straylined baits in shallow water or ledger rigs in the deeper waters are producing very well.

The Four Poster has been a little hit and miss but is definitely worth a shot if you are up for an evening or night fish.

Bream Bay has been producing good fish right out to and beyond Three Mile Reef and down to McGregor's Rock. Large bait schools of jack mackerel and kahawai can be seen easily from the beach most mornings with snapper and kingfish lurking round beneath for an easy feed. Use the birds at this time of year to locate the mass of fish.

Along the front of Peach Cove and the Old Woman is also fishing well - anything from the shallows out to about the 40m area. There are a lot of fish through this section with some solid 6kg-7kg snapper making their presence known as well as big rogue kingfish frequenting the berley trails of many.

The northern coast has become a rock fisherman's dream recently with the incoming plague of kahawai, the snapper and kingfish have really woken up. Get out there and do it guys.

This is the time of year the big boys get caught.