Fishing: Big tides promise heavy catch bags

This snapper was hooked on a ledger rig in the Hauraki Gulf. Photo / Geoff Thomas

When currents are racing, head east for plenty of snapper

Fishing is a waiting game at the moment, with wind and weather playing havoc with anglers' hopes of getting out on the water.

If forecasts are accurate the weekend should see better conditions, and with the full moon next Friday the omens are all good. Tides are building, topping 3m on the Waitemata which will produce reasonable currents. But another week will see the largest tides of the month at 3.4m. Strong tidal flows mean good fishing, and there are some spots like the wide area of foul between Browns Island and Motuihe Island which produce the best action on snapper when the tides are 3.3m or better. For some reason the incoming tide fishes better here than the outgoing.

The waters on the other side are better to visit on the small tides as the Manukau Harbour can be challenging when the currents are racing.

You can fish the east side on big tides, and take home seven snapper over 30cm long; and travel to the Manukau or Kaipara Harbours when the tides are at their smallest and on a good day take home 10 snapper down to 27cm. There is also a daily allowance of 20 other assorted fish. Any kingfish which are boated may be taken on top of the other bags, with up to three allowed.

One spot which has been fishing well is surfcasting at Pouto, north of the Kaipara Harbour entrance, where large snapper have been taken from the beach recently including one of 14.1kg.

When conditions allow there have been plenty of fish to be caught on the east coast, from Leigh down to the North Shore, with snapper up to 4kg taken under work-ups off Milford.

The most consistent fishing has been north of Tiritiri Matangi Island, and one party brought home a bin of good snapper and a kingfish last Saturday after fishing under a huge work-up east of Flat Rock.

There are good schools of snapper at 30m east of The Noises, and the triangle between Tiri and Kawau Island and out in the Hauraki Gulf towards the cable zone also usually holds large numbers of fish at this time of the year.

Fishing out around Great Barrier Island has been good, both straylining over inshore reefs and out in 40-45m, with hapuku moving in to 130m outside Barrier.

In the Bay of Islands, fishing at dusk is best off Tapeka Pt and the Centre Foul. Kingfish can be hooked at the 71m reef and on the deep reefs off Rocky Pt along the 50m line, and skipjack tuna have been reported out off Whangaroa.

Inshore snapper fishing is going well in the Bay of Plenty, and out at White Island kingfish are turning up and the first flying fish also appearing. Further out albacore tuna are being hooked north of White.

Fresh water

Trolling and harling on the Rotorua lakes has picked up, with more trout chasing smelt on Lakes Rotorua, Rotoiti, Okataina and Tarawera. The reason Rotoiti and Rotorua produce fast trout growth is the abundance and size of the smelt in the lakes.