KEY POINTS:
The Kerr family of Whitianga just keep on gathering records, adding two to their tally this month and even winning back a lost one.
Charter skipper Andy Kerr, wife Karen and son James, 7, hold 39 Mercury Bay Gamefishing Club records and 12 New Zealand records, and Karen has a world record pending.
This is for a 3.86kg snapper caught on 1.1kg line from the Kerrs' vessel Stingray. Karen set the first world record for that category in mid-2003 and held it till December that year when another charter skipper's wife in the Bay of Islands, Heather Stone, bettered her. Now Karen has regained it with a fish twice as big.
But pride of place in this fishing-mad family is held by young James - he started fishing long before he was big enough to lift his catch into the boat - who holds four national junior smallfry records and six club.
His New Zealand records include a magnificent 10.59kg albacore on 6kg trace, a 5.84kg snapper on 3kg line, and a 1.1kg skipjack tuna on 1kg.
James and his parents reckon chasing records is great family fun, and they'll be out after more.
Anglers can have a lot of family fun at the moment at weekends and evenings as the weather improves and snapper spawn fast and furious from the Far North to the Hauraki Gulf.
Everyone has been getting a feed of quality 2kg fish, whether they put the boat in the water at Tokerau Beach or Takapuna, or visit the wharves from Mangonui Bay to Devonport, where the snapper are running past North Head as the inner gulf starts to fire from Tiri down the Rangitoto Channel.
The influx of snapper into the inner gulf will be boosted any day by an invasion of school snapper from the seaward side of Coromandel Peninsula, where they have been massing west of Great Mercury Island before heading north to spawn in the gulf and the Firth of Thames.
For Auckland fishers, the best spots close in for family outings are proving to be around A-Buoy off Takapuna, off Milford Beach, off the tip of Whangaparaoa and across at Wellington Reef, and especially in the Tiri Channel. Fishers have also had good catches off Rangitoto in the evenings and in 22m at the back of Waiheke.
Farther out, good catches have been taken at the Ahaa Rocks, big snapper have been caught in shallow water around the Mokes, and a couple of huge kingfish in the 40kg range have been spotted in that area among the workups.
In the north, fishing in the Bay of Islands is picking up after being checked by last week's cold patch.
"The fishing is very consistent in the middle ground in 35m to 50m using pilchards and soft-plastic baits," says Bay fisherman Chris Small.
The best method, he says, is to drift fish with a soft bait just off the bottom and the rod in a holder, and a strayline rod out the back with a pilchard bait.
The soft-plastic baits, or rubbers, are becoming increasingly popular in the north, he says, and some boaties are now reporting up to half their catch on these baits.
In the troutfishing zones, the Tongariro River has been in flood after heavy rain and this should trigger fresh runs of trout from Lake Taupo. At Rotorua, large browns are now being targeted at night at the mouth of the Ngongotaha Stream, and fish up to 6kg have been landed. Night fishing at the Awahou mouth has also been successful, and smelt activity has been reported at Rangiuru Bay on Lake Tarawera.
Back-country streams in the Bay of Plenty and Taupo fisheries are clearing after heavy rain, and the upper reaches of the Ngongotaha, which opens in a week, are full of fish.
