Geoff Thomas: Few answers to dilemma of catching undersized fish

Undersized snapper. Photo / Supplied

Small snapper are plaguing anglers this summer, and reports indicate undersized fish are more numerous than at this time last year.

People often ask: Why don't they increase the minimum size to 30cm? And this is a target that is often voluntarily applied, with a lot of anglers working on the basis that if you have to measure a snapper to see if it is legal, then it is too small to take anyway.

But the prolific numbers of fish between 20cm and 27cm are a good indication of why the limit is set at 27cm. This allows a fish to spawn at least once before it can be taken, and if this was increased it would actually result in more fish being killed and wasted.

The problem is that a lot of people don't treat small fish carefully, and they will die even after being returned to the water. The actual survival rate is hard to measure, but a fish which is squeezed while held with dry hands, or has a hook torn from its mouth, may well be fatally injured; usually unwittingly.

The best way to get small fish back without injury is to leave them in the water and flick out the hook with long-nosed pliers or a hook-removal tool. If the hook is deep-set, it is better to cut the line and the hook may well rust out without damaging the fish.

In fact, if people were really concerned about having the minimum impact on fish stocks, the ideal system would see anglers having to take home the first nine snapper (where the limit is nine) they caught, irrespective of size. Of course, this would not work in practical terms, for human nature being what it is, the smallest fish would be tossed over the side to be replaced by a bigger one.

The only solution to avoid undersized fish is to move to another spot, or change the approach. This can be done by using only fresh bait, which does result in fewer bites but better-quality fish. Kahawai will do the trick, and yellowtail (or jack mackerel) is better. These can be filleted and chopped into chunks, and kahawai can be skinned and used fresh.

There are fish everywhere at the moment, and one angler has been doing well just off the breakwater at Okahu Bay with pilchard chunks on a flasher rig in the evenings, regularly taking home 48cm snapper.

Tides are ideal for the long weekend, with good currents and low tides in the early morning and evening, so from the turn of the tide for the first of the incoming tides, it should fish well.

The fishing out wide in the Hauraki Gulf has picked up, with some good snapper under work-ups between Tiritiri Matangi Island and Flat Rock, and small kingfish on the reefs throughout the gulf. The outer islands like the Mokohinaus and Little Barrier have not been fishing consistently well, but are holding some big kingfish.

Snapper have moved out of the Bay of Islands after spawning and are proving hard to find. In fact, as charter skipper Geoff Stone says, this is a regular pattern and it can be easier to catch a marlin than a snapper at this time of year.

Kahawai have moved into the bay and kingfish can be found under the birds. There are marlin all up the coast from the Poor Knights to Doubtless Bay, and on the first day of a tournament this week, eight marlin were recorded at the Bay of Islands.

Two blue marlin have been caught, but there is no sign of yellowfin tuna - which continues the pattern of recent years.

On the west coast, marlin are starting to turn up, but no concentrations of fish have been reported. In the Bay of Plenty, good numbers of marlin are being caught out of Whitianga, Tairua and Whangamata, but in the east it has been slow, with only one fish tagged out of Whakatane.

The old tuna tournament at Whakatane has been replaced by a four-way tournament targeting snapper, kingfish, marlin and sharks, and the four-day event starts today. Kingfish are running well at White Island, but apart from albacore and skipjack tuna, the large game fish are scarce.

Once termed the "yellowfin tuna capital", the fishing scene at Whakatane has changed and the big tuna are a distant memory.

* More fishing action can be seen on Rheem Outdoors with Geoff, 5.30pm on TV3 tonight, and on the internet television channel FishnHunt.Tv