Winter is now upon us, cold, wet and windy.
Trying to plan a trip out on the water for a fish is a bit hit and miss, the MetService is now so pc and overreactive nowadays, so looking at the isobar map and comparing it with what is being forecast will put you off getting out on the water. Being old school, I first monitored the isobar map for a few days, but I also took close note of the upper cloud formation, wind speed, and direction. From Auckland north being such a narrow stretch of land, fronts tend to come down either side of the land mass, often passing quickly. By monitoring isobar maps, then putting in local knowledge, I can see that there will be small gaps where there will be a change in wind direction. When these small gaps appear, I know there will often be a few hours of calm before the wind kicks in. Having the boat ready, loaded, and prepared to go at first light is the key. Knowing I may only get a few hours fishing in, I make a game plan to target one spot. Now with the water temps dropping snapper are in their winter feeding mode, living off body fat built up over summer they are not aggressive on the bite until burly and ground bait has drawn a number of fish close to the boat, this can take an hour or so and with the weather about to close in I fish up to three rods at the same time to cover the bases.
Casting each bait at a different angle and distance from the boat, I keep the rod tips low to watch for the smallest of bites or line movement. Seldom do I have a fish gobble the bait, and go, simply, they just chew on it. Baits such as pilchards get nailed quickly, seeing just the smallest of bites when you wind up all that is left is the head and a bit of the spine. Do not think that these are just small fish, it’s just how they are feeding. Use more solid baits, jack macs, and mullet kahawai. Now, the snapper needs to be more aggressive and tend to pull a bit of line before dropping it. I find strip bait baits best with the hook set close to the top of the bait, when you see and feel the bait being sucked and pulled let line out so there is no resistance wait till the line straightens out then strike. Small bites result in good size keepers, but as I use three rods, it’s hard to focus on all three, so I cut a kahawai head in half or rig a big jack mac, then cast it well out the back and just leave it. Being big and solid, it gets nailed by the smaller fish, which draws in bigger fish, which tend to grab it and move off. Over ninety per cent of snapper over 45 cm are caught this way over winter.
Once the wind kicks in, I head back generally with enough fresh fish, but rather than getting beaten up with the boat swinging around in the cold wind, I’m home and cleaned up by ten thirty.
The inner Hauraki gulf is an amazing place to fish in winter with so many spots you can tuck up out of the wind and fish in relative comfort, take any bit of shoreline around Rangitoto Rakino Motutapu where there is rock and kelp and you will find snapper its just a matter of understanding when how and what is going to stimulate them to bite.
The outer gulf has been fishing ok but mainly with the snapper in the 34-42 cm range, that’s if you want to rock and roll, whereas closer in on the foul, you still catch a lot of 32 pls but generally end up with a few big fat 45-50 cm numbers. My picks for the next couple of months are the reef at the southern end [ eastern side ] of Motuihe, the channel between South Island [ Rakino ] and Awash rock or targeting the foul close in on the western side of Administration Bay.
Even though it’s winter, it really pays to keep the catch in an ice slurry. With the snappers’ winter body fat, make sure you wipe the fillet knife blade regularly; otherwise, the blade tends to drag rather than clean-cut the fillets. I leave my fish whole in the fridge overnight. When filleted, there is no moisture loss, so the texture and flavour, plus the fat, make outstanding eating-quality fillets.
Now that things are quieting down, I suggest that you book the boat in for its annual service, as I have. It's way better getting it done in the winter than stressing about it prior to Christmas.
