Gone fishing: Where snapper yarns come true

By GEOFF THOMAS

Few people get to catch a snapper that will pull the scales down past the 9kg mark, or 20 pounds in pre-metric terms, but it can be done within an easy day trip from downtown Auckland.

The metric system of recording fish weight just does not cut it with older anglers, who traditionally talk about trophy snapper as being "20-plus," or even the occasional "30-pounder," which is a dream that is almost in the impossible category.

It is a little sad that for the coming generations, talk of 30-pounders will be relegated to history. The fish will still be there but the magic weights will be 9kg and 14kg, as they are now in official talk.

Such monsters are occasionally pulled from the surf on west coast beaches, like Kariotahi, by anglers using kite-driven longlines. Or they are caught by drifting large, juicy baits down a berley trail which is wafting over a reef at Great Barrier Island or the Mercury group off Whitianga.

Another haven for mega-snapper is around the Moko Hinau Islands. At 20 nautical miles off the Northland coast the Mokes, as they are affectionately called by keen snapper hunters, are out of range for most anglers who do their fishing in small trailer-boats.

The small, rocky islands are refuges for native birds and animals and landing is forbidden, but the largest does offer some shelter from the weather for boats seeking an overnight anchorage.

The islands are the highest points of a large underwater reef structure, and it is this wide area of foul bottom which provides ideal habitat for snapper and a variety of other species.

As with all fishing, local knowledge is all important. This experience is available through a charter operation based at Mangawhai Heads, R'n'R Fish n Dive. Skipper Wayne Radford and Stephanie Railey will take their 10m launch to the Mokes just about any day that the weather allows.

While the more accessible Hen and Chicken Islands are popular with charter skippers operating on the Northland coast, few go the extra distance to the Mokes on a regular basis.

"It does knock the boat around, but it's worth it," says Radford. "We haven't had a snapper under 7kg in the last 14 trips," he adds, which in the fishing business is an invitation for that particular run of luck to reverse itself.

On the two-hour run from the estuary at Mangawhai, he explains how he fishes the Mokes.

"It is mainly drift fishing, sort of deepwater straylining. I like to use whole pilchards with a ball sinker hard against the bait - the smallest weight you need to make it sink slowly.

"The fish will actually swim up and intercept the bait, so it is important to keep in touch with the bait. We just let it out slowly, thumbing the spool so you can detect a bite. Then we let the fish run a short distance, and set the hook."

The seabed all around the islands is a maze of patches of foul interspersed with clear sandy areas.

Radford works his colour depth-sounder religiously, looking for mounds and drop-offs showing signs of fish.

"Those are snapper," he says, pointing to a blue and red blob alongside the deep red outline of a rocky face. Schools of baitfish tend to appear higher in the water column, suspended at different levels between the bottom and the surface.

After locating a likely spot, Radford motors upwind and instructs his anglers to let their lines out as the boat drifts back over the fish.

Some people have difficulty getting "the feel" of the technique and miss the first bites.

When the snapper are actively feeding they will strike firmly, even savagely, and hook themselves. But often the fish are merely curious, mouthing the bait gently, and a delicate touch on the line is required.

The brag book in the cabin - a photograph album - is packed with images of seriously large snapper. It is only the smiling anglers which change with the pages.

Sure enough, the fishing gods punished Radford for his confidence in predicting 7kg-plus sized fish on the day we sampled his operation. But the icebox carried a respectable weight of fresh fillets, and a far greater number of eating-sized snapper had been carefully returned to the sea.

There is no doubt that Radford and Railey provide one of the best opportunities in the country for scoring "a 20-pounder," and if the brag book proves unattainable on the day there is always the consolation that the 2kg school snapper are actually much sweeter on the plate.

For those anglers looking for a bag of snapper closer to home, the spring runs of snapper into the inner Hauraki Gulf have started. Fish have moved onto the worm beds between Whangaparaoa and the Noises, and some good catches are coming from the Rakino Channel. Straylining over the foul near the Rangitoto lighthouse is also worth a try when the current is running and the moon is in the sky.