Good size fish in harbour

The Tauranga Harbour has been fishing well of late and while there have been a lot of small fish some good snapper and kingfish are about as well.

Here are a few tips to help increase the catch:

Fish the last two hours either side of the tide and when it coincides with dawn or dusk are the best times.

This is when the fish are moving into the shallows on the incoming or back into the holes on the outgoing tides and the current is not as strong, which helps with bait placement.

A sinker that will get to the bottom and stay there is a must and the weight will vary according to the current.

A long trace of at least 5m I have found the best.

It pays to use quality swivels to avoid line twist as well a slender bait that doesn't act as a propeller.

Self-hooking recurve hooks like the Mustad Demon work really well with the long trace as sometimes you don't feel the bite.

If you are getting a lot of weed on your line it pays to shift to another spot. You may only need to shift a few metres to the edge of the current line.

I have had reports of fish up to 6kg being caught during recent weeks.

- Tightlines