Dave Witherow's Open Season is pitched at anglers, travellers, tourists and anyone who appreciates skilfully told fishing yarns.

Hundreds of anglers will be out on the Waitemata and Manukau Harbours fishing from the shore and in boats next weekend trying to catch the biggest kahawai.

Things are picking up on the fishing scene and in Auckland you don't have to go far to find snapper.

Commercial fishing would be banned from the inner Hauraki gulf and the entire Marlborough Sounds under National's plan for new recreational fishing parks in those areas.

Jimmy Spithill was onto a big one. Over 400 metres below the glistening Bay of Islands sea surface, his bait had been snaffled by some monstrous creature of the deep.

Fish & Game officers step-up their efforts to combat the problem of trout poaching in the central North Island. Please help Fish & Game - if you see anything suspicious, phone 0800-poaching (0800-762244)

David Letterman once billed him as the "extreme fisherman" but Matt Watson sees himself as a custodian of the sea.

Three Auckland fishermen chanced upon a great white shark during a day in the Hauraki Gulf over the long weekend.

The highly prized sport fish bonefish is found on shallow, clear flats in tropical waters including the islands throughout the Pacific Ocean.

Good snapper are still being caught in close on both coasts when conditions allow. In Auckland fishing from the rocks along the East Coast Bays and at Whangaparaoa has been productive.

A monster kingfish surprised a party of snapper fishermen last weekend when it swallowed a bait meant for snapper. The 36kg king took the piece of pilchard on a flasher rig by the Noises and was eventually subdued on the light 10kg breaking strain line.

Snapper can still be found around Auckland, but they are only in patches and the best way to find them is to look for changes in the temperature of the water.

Snapper fishing is still going well as seasons change and fish can be found just about anywhere.

Anglers looking for a dinner of fresh fish over the long weekend don't have to go past the harbours at the moment.

There is a trout lure called a toby which has been around for generations, and like many top lures it originated in Scandinavia. But, as with most fishing experiences, one is often surprised at how the fish change the rules or do the unexpected.

Fishing is fickle, the saying goes. And as summer departs and cold nights descend and leaves start turning, the snapper turn up. It has been a long wait, but the old Maori knew this was often the way. They called May tamure, in honour of the snapper.

Celebrity chef Michael Van de Elzen has stepped up to the plate to support a charity fishing event.

Snapper fishers will need to lengthen their rulers and return more fish to the sea from Tuesday as measures to restore the country's most popular fishery take effect.

Cuts to snapper limits come into force on Tuesday, with the increase in the minimum size from 27cm to 30cm. The new rules apply only to the Snapper 1 area, which runs from Cape Runaway to North Cape on the east coast, which is the main snapper fishery.

Crayfish fishing around our coastlines is thought to be triggering a damaging sequence of effects that also threatens the species' infants.

His farm-registered SUV and makeshift lean-to with rudimentary kitchen shelves has occupied a prime corner of Auckland's waterfront for more than a year.

It is not often you come across a totally new style of fishing, particularly one which outfishes everything you thought you knew. Like most innovations in the world of snapper fishing this came from Japan.

There have been some bright spots on the fishing scene, with occasional bags of nice snapper reported.

A shark, more than two metres long and believed to be a bronze whaler, washed ashore on Auckland's Browns Bay beach just after midday today.

No woman in New Zealand has caught a bigger fish than the giant Pacific bluefin tuna that Aucklander Donna Pascoe reeled in this week

Kingfish are the prime target at present, with mega-sized models up to 40kg coming from the top of the Coromandel Peninsula at spots like Square Top Island.

Witnesses and club officials are verifying a Northland 8-year-old's feat of landing a marlin 10 times his own weight.