KEY POINTS:
They came to Auckland to breed, turned up their noses at our weather and cleared off. That's the story of this summer's Hauraki Gulf snapper fishing.
The schools arrived in the inner gulf in November and December for their yearly spawning, only to be turned back by the consistent sou'westers that prevented the sea reaching the favoured spawning temperature of 18C.
Consequently, catches were well down on recent years. Recreational anglers have had to scratch to get a feed. The charter skippers haven't done much better except for those working in the outer gulf.
The story is the same all around the North Island where snapper usually congregate: fewer fish and catches well down. Blame it on the El Nino weather pattern, which brought cooler temperatures and more winds.
Usually, northerly and easterly winds blow the warm water into the inner gulf to replace the colder water and trigger spawning. In an El Nino year the opposite is the case, and most of the spawning is done in the warmer waters further out.
Auckland's recent earthquake centred in the gulf off Orewa probably didn't help matters. If I was a snapper I wouldn't feel inclined to hang around while the seafloor burped and vibrated.
The best snapper fishing has been - and still is - in the Manukau and Waitemata Harbours and in the outer gulf in depths of 60m to 70m. A run of snapper has been noted in the Waitemata in the past week, but you have to be persistent to get your reward and be willing to try different techniques.
As charter skipper Alan Viskovich says: "You have to fish well, choose the time and tide and really work the baits. The old story of casting out baits, leaving them on the bottom and just waiting won't catch much at the moment."
Is traditional heave-and-leave bottom-bait fishing dying out? Never. When the fishing is hot this method is too successful. But leaner times call for a bit of thinking outside the square, and for new techniques and rigs.
One fisherman caught several snapper in the harbour off Chelsea using silicone-smelt trout flies. These can be classified as soft-plastic baits.
These "rubbers" are revolutionising sea fishing in New Zealand - a wide variety are on the market now - and have hooked fishermen in a big way, especially in the Far North where their success has been spectacular.
Around Auckland, too, more and more anglers are using soft-plastic lures and learning how to retrieve them correctly so as to trigger strikes.
Many find this, and other styles of fishing such as jigging, more interesting than simply casting out bottom baits, sitting back watching the rod tip and slurping beers.
When it comes to experimenting, Manukau man John Moran sets a fine example. Recently he had "one of the best days on the Manukau Harbour in all my life".
He was out early at change of tide to a deep gut running between the Papakura Channel and Clarks Creek, and anchored on the edge of the gut where, unusually, the current ran across rather than down.
He ground-baited with chunky pieces for half an hour to whet any fishy appetites out there, then started fishing.
He used a light rod set up for soft-plastics, 7lb braid line, fluorocarbon trace, a size 6/0 hook with a half-ounce sinker resting on it, and cast a cubed bait into the gut leaving the reel bail-arm open and watching the line for a strike.
He didn't have to wait long. On his first cast the line suddenly zapped out, he struck, and a 4kg snapper "gave me a hell of a fight". That's a superb fish for the Manukau, but later he bettered it with a 5.8kg specimen.
"From the first cast it was non-stop big fish. They were rising up from the bottom of the 14m gut to smash the baits as they drifted through the midwater."
So if you're not getting fish, take a lesson from John Moran's example. Try something different.
Put away the heavy gear and get some light tackle. Read the winds and tides and currents. Explore and experiment. You'll have a lot of fun.
