Fishing: Get some hapuku on your menu

Mid-winter signals a raft of fishing regulation changes, with trout streams ruled off-limits as the fish prepare to spawn, scallops coming into season and the imminent arrival of whitebait season.

For fishers who like to "go wide" it signals the chance to get into some seriously big bottom fish, giant hapuku and bass, or wreckfish.

It's a mystery to me why hapuku is not more favoured as a table fish, fetching only about $16 a kilogram in supermarkets.

Yet it is far more versatile than most fish, is moist and stands bad cooks who over-do it, has few bones other than the big backbone if steaked, and that is easily avoided. Caught fresh and iced immediately, it is one of the best eating fish.

The 'puka can be caught in as little as 30m of water during winter but normal habitat is anything from 80m to 400m. Wreckfish, a species found in tropical and sub-tropical waters worldwide, occupy much greater depths.

I've caught them at the Three Kings at 600m. The 'puka has a more pronounced lower jaw and is blue-grey in colour. The wreckfish is shorter and stouter, more a brown colour and has larger scales.

At 600m, which is about as much line as the average gamefish reel holds, or anything over 100 really, you need braid line so as to feel the bite. The bottom-feeding members of the groper family do not hit a bait at speed - they sidle up to it, chomp and taste, then try and retreat to the protection of the reef.

In the case of bass, they will generally occupy a cave or cut in the undersea cliff, and if they reach home, the line will cut off on rocks.

These big fish inhabit reefs and pinnacles where they hide from fierce currents. They are slow swimmers that emerge from their lairs to snack on squid, large crabs and crayfish and unsuspecting fish including terakihi, which often school in similar deep-water areas.

Best baits are squid - and a new trick is to use a squid lure with a real squid threaded on or tied with bait elastic - or long flaps of trevally, bonito, fresh kahawai, kingfish or terakihi. Whole fillets are good.

Some anglers use a lumo stick tied above the bait, which works but is not essential. A cray tail is a guaranteed hit. The hook should be pushed through the armour and protrude from the flesh.

Hapuku will also take jigged lures but jigging can be costly if you hook the bottom too regularly. One idea is to make your own with a jig mould then paint them. Light greens and reds are the best colours, and a minimum weight should be 300g.

Best rig is the ledger and it pays to use two droppers off the mainline. The target species will be within 2m of the bottom. Often they are best caught on the drift at slack tide high or low, when it is easy to get baits to the bottom. Use a short rod or stand-up gamefishing gear and don't bother with line weight less than 24kg and a leader less than 50kg.

Weights must be huge. At the Three Kings we use old cast-iron sash cord weights from the demo yard - cheaper and easier than lead.

Hooks should be 8/0 or bigger, recurves. The bottom-feeders hook themselves by sucking on the bait then trying to drag it away. There is no strike as such but you will feel a tightening of the line.

The added feel of braid is a big advantage when trying to catch bottom-feeders. Monofilament nylon can stretch up to 20 per cent when under weight at depth but braid does not stretch at all.

Those who target 'puka have favourite rocks and pinnacles marked on the GPS. It pays to go out with someone who knows where they could be - fishing the open seabed is a waste of time.

At this time of year small 'puka are coming into water as shallow as 30m round islands. In colder waters they can come into even shallower water and I caught one in 12m inside Waitangi Harbour at the Chatham Islands.

The bigger fish will move into the shallows later in July, August and September, though in the really deep water, as at the Kings, they can be caught year-round.

The bigger fish will blow their air bag as they come within 20m of the surface, as the pressure is insufficient to contain the float bladder. It will burst through their mouth like a big red balloon, often half the size of the fish.

Watch for sharks at this stage. They frequently follow the catch to the surface and will strike as the 'puka or bass bloats and is defenceless.

There are two ways of looking at this: it's entertaining but can mean the end of a meritorious catch. Stay back on the transom and use a gaff.

My best bass was 69kg at the Kings. It was followed by hook-ups that felt bigger but by then a Great White had turned up and he dined freely.

Big snapper are the order of the day round the outer Hauraki Gulf and Far North islands, with plenty in the 10kg range. The fish are in shallow water round the islands, close to deep water. Use big baits and big hooks.

Anchorite Rock, Little Barrier, the Cavallis, the coast between Whangaroa and Cape Karikari and the bays at the tip of the North Island are all producing.