Harvey Clark: Spawning about to get under way

The action is in the Far North, at the Bay of Islands and Doubtless Bay, where the snapper are schooling and the male fish in particular have been feeding aggressively as they get their first whiff of sex. The spawning runs, always earlier in the north, are about to start.

Closer to home, the fishing has been good around Rakino Island and from Tiri to Rakino, where the snapper are feeding on the worm beds before making their way into the coast and down into the Rangitoto Channel over the next month.

Bay of Islands specialist Phil Andrews said the fishing was fantastic until the present cold patch checked the action but he expected top fishing next week as the weather improved. The sea temperature has almost reached the 18C required to trigger spawning.

Fish of 9kg and 19kg have been caught and Andrews recommends visiting boaties head for Whale Rock and Roberton Island, where drift fishing and straylining with baits and Sabiki rigs has been proving successful. Any time of day is okay.

At Doubtless Bay, Coopers Beach Sports reports "schools of snapper are everywhere, some big kahawai too" and that local customers have been depleting the tackle shop's supplies of soft-plastic baits. .

Boat and rock fishermen have been getting snapper up to 4kg off Taipa, Cable Bay, Coopers Beach, off the wharf at Mangonui Harbour, from the harbour entrance round the coast to Berghan Pt, out at Fairway Reef and off the rocks at Waimahana off Taupo Bay Rd.

The inner Hauraki Gulf remains patchy in most areas except for the worm beds between Tiri and Rakino, where charter skipper Eugen de Bruyn has had good catches of pan-sized snapper at the 30m line and he predicts more action as the weather improves. The shallows at the Noises have also been producing snapper.

De Bruyn has noted large schools of kahawai working through the area, "boiling up the surface in a spectacular sight", and has had a lot of fun catching these by trolling with white smelt-style flies or a "softy" (soft-plastic bait) drifted under a balloon.

Skipper Lee Wynard has found the worm beds at Rakino productive and also the bottom end of Waiheke at the change of light. He reports an 8.1kg (18lb) snapper boated off Rakino and that the fish in the region have been feeding hard. Wynard also recommends fishing along the 50m line off Tiri. "We've been doing really well here on a slow drift."

Skipper Lance Paniora also says the worm beds will be worth the attention from now on but says snapper can still be taken closer in if fishermen are prepared to be patient.

"They should not feel pressured to move around if they're not getting bites. Rewards come to those who berley up and wait. There are good fish among the pan-sized snapper. Use big fresh baits - fresh is best."

In the outer gulf, Allan Merrett from RnR Charters has been successful anchoring over reefs at 25m-30m north of the Maori Rocks at the Mokohinau Islands, where he has been catching snapper up to 5kg.

The bigger fish are coming in closer and the temperature has almost reached the spawning trigger. He recommends jack mackerel baits, halves or whole, casting them right to the end of the berley trail with a one-eighth ounce sinker and letting them sink to where the bigger snapper are hitting.

On deeper reefs up to 100m, he's been nailing hapuka and kingfish of 8kg-12kg are starting to follow the baitfish schools. He has noted large schools of pilchards, which is a good sign for the gamefish season.