Fishing: Love affair with the perfect fish

New Zealand snapper are handsome creatures. Photo / Paul Thomas

If we could sit down and design the perfect fish it would be hard to improve on our snapper, the fish that we all love to catch.

While a kahawai, trevally or gurnard always has the same colouring, snapper changes with the seasons and is a handsome creature, combining rich bronze, cream and orange hues, sometimes dotted with electric blue sparkles and overlaid with a sheen like a newly minted coin.

As balmy summer weather approaches, the snapper move close to shore, within range of kayak paddlers and surfcasters, and as winter bites they head out to deep water so we are not tempted to spend cold, wet dark days on the water.

They bite aggressively and pull hard. And when it comes to fillets on a plate they are divine. Even the heads, fins and frame make fine picking for those who know how to handle them.

It is their ability to thrive in a wide range of sea conditions and to take advantage of different foods that is the key to their success and abundance.

Analyses of snapper stomach contents have shown that they eat more than 100 different species of invertebrates and small fish - mainly crustaceans, worms or shellfish. Those living in rocky reef areas feed on crabs, kinas (sea eggs) and shellfish such as limpets and mussels.

They are armed with some of the most efficient dental equipment in the sea, with sharp canines in the front for gripping prey and tearing shellfish from rocks or out of the sand, and double rows of powerful, grinding teeth to crush their food. On surf beaches they will easily crush tuatuas and pipis. They will eat starfish, octopus and jellyfish and are not averse to cleaning up boiled spuds and peas tossed over the back of a boat.

Scientists identify our snapper as separate families: those found on the west coast of the North Island, at the top of the South Island and the east coast of the North Island.

These families display different characteristics tempered by their environment and they do intermingle occasionally.

Growth rates vary considerably depending on local conditions of food, temperature and the density of other snapper; a 5kg fish may be anything between 20 and 50 years old. By counting rings in the ear bones, or otoliths, scientists have established that the average 27cm snapper is 5 years old on the east coast and 4 years old on the west coast.

The oldest recorded snapper was 66, and the 15kg-plus "trophy" specimens range from 35 to 45 years old before they die of old age. The heaviest official catch was a 17.2kg snapper caught at Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty in 1992, by Mark Hemingway.

Our snapper is not, in fact, a true snapper in international terms. There is a large family of "snapper" fish throughout the world which are totally different; our fish are actually a member of the bream family. There is a true bream in Australia which a Kiwi fisherman would not hesitate to label a small snapper. These are found in harbours and estuaries.

Their true snapper are larger fish which develop a distinctive bump on the forehead; one theory says that it is used for knocking shellfish off rocks. These fish are also called squirefish, which is how they are listed by the International Game Fish Association. This can be confusing for New Zealand fishermen wanting to check world records of our snapper.

The seasonal movements of snapper are well known. The normal pattern is for the large schools of fish to move in from deep water in spring to spawn. Some migrate down the coast from Bream Bay to the inner Hauraki Gulf in October and November, while there is another flush of fish moving into the Firth of Thames from the eastern end of Great Barrier Island. All reports indicate this is happening at present.

On the west coast, the fish move up the coast from northern Taranaki in October and November. Kite fishermen always do well at beaches such as Mokau and Kariotahi, reporting 10kg-plus fish at times.

Boat fishermen also have good fishing out of Raglan, Kawhia, the Manukau and Kaipara Harbours, and beaches such as Muriwai, Piha and all the way up to the top of 90 Mile Beach. Another well known area for big snapper in the spring is off Whirinaki Beach in Hawke's Bay.

Mum's monster catch

Aucklander John Wentworth told the story of a monster snapper caught by his mother in law about 80 years ago. Their family ran the boarding house at Whatipu, at the northern entrance to the Manukau Harbour, and they spent many happy years there.

"She was fishing off the flat rock in the bay at Whatipu, using a 300g cotton handline.

"Her two sons were with her and they were looking for crays under the rocks when she pulled in a massive snapper. The fish weighed 15.5kg the next morning and had been gutted and gilled when caught.

"If one allows, say, 1kg for drying out overnight and another 2kg for gills and guts - that fish would have weighed an estimated well over 18kg."