Geoff Thomas: Steep hill walk rewards

It's proving a bumper summer for kingfish. Photo / Supplied

People often ask: "Where can you go to catch snapper surfcasting around Auckland?" This summer has been good for the inner Waitemata Harbour, and fish are being caught off wharves such as Orakei, Devonport and Birkenhead, particularly at night. Surfcasters fishing from the breakwater under the harbour bridge also do well at this time of year.

Another spot which can fish well is casting from the rocks at the foot of the hill below the signal station on the south head of the Manukau Harbour entrance. It is reached by driving from Waiuku to the end of the Awhitu Peninsula, and walking down the steep hill. In the past week anglers have been catching snapper, gurnard and kahawai. But the walk back up can be a challenge and is not recommended for the elderly or unfit.

Inshore waters continue to fish well, with the channels at Rangitoto and Motuihe consistent, and snapper can also be caught in the shallows 100m off Takapuna or St Heliers.

This is also proving a bumper summer for kingfish, and one angler fishing at Crusoe Rock last Sunday caught four kings up to 18kg before the bronze whaler sharks turned up.

"When three sharks attacked a hooked king at once, we decided it was time to leave," he said.

Fishing has also improved further out in the Hauraki Gulf, with big snapper coming from outside Great Barrier Island, and dropping soft baits in 35m at the Mercury group is also producing good fish. The Hen and Chickens, the Moko Hinau Islands and Little Barrier have all improved, and there are a lot of kingfish on Five-Mile Reef, south of Little Barrier.

A work-up off The Noises surprised some anglers when the fish splashing under the birds turned out to be skipjack tuna. It is unusual for these little tuna to come so close, but is another indication of the warm summer temperatures we are experiencing.

Snapper fishing in the Bay of Islands has gone quiet, with a lot of small fish but few big ones being caught, although tarakihi are making up for the lack of snapper. One feature is the number of kahawai, and their numbers are increasing every year. Kingfish are chasing the kahawai, but the bigger kings are coming from Rocky Pt and the 71m reef.

Game fishing continues to fire, with Northland waters fishing well. The eastern Bay of Plenty has finally picked up with marlin turning up at Waihau Bay after a slow start, but it always seems to come on in time for the NZ Sport Fishing Nationals tournament, which starts today and runs for a week. This event sees fishing clubs around the country competing in many different categories, with thousands of anglers on the water.

Marlin have also moved down the west coast from Mokau to Taranaki, and New Plymouth anglers are reporting good catches.

The Counties Sport Fishing Club's annual one-base tournament last week saw 300 fish caught, including four marlin tagged and four weighed. The biggest was a blue marlin of 204.2kg.

One team of local characters with no game-fishing experience decided to go marlin fishing but all they had was an old rod with a Penn Senator reel that Mike "Smudge" Parker uses for shark fishing in the Manukau Harbour.

They put on a five-dollar lure and went trolling out off the harbour. Scott Warrander was on the rod when a marlin struck. After 90 minutes they had it at the boat and as it was their first marlin they decided to keep it, but with no gaff or gloves it was a mission getting the fish into the 5.5m runabout. After getting the bill tangled between the steering cables and the outboard, they managed to drag the marlin on to the boat. Back at the weigh station at Te Toro it dragged the scales down to 110kg.

Heavy rainfall has raised the level of the Rotorua lakes to record levels, and anglers should take care when wading the margins. The flats around the Ngongotaha Stream mouth are fishing well, with anglers stalking brown trout in the early morning.

Lake Okataina is fishing well to jigs and booby flies in the evenings with trout up to 3.5kg, while Lake Rotoiti has been fishing well at times.

More fishing action can be found on Rheem Outdoors with Geoff, 5pm TV3, and on the new internet television channel, FishnHunt.Tv.