Geoff Thomas: Work the tides right and keep it simple for snapper success

Photo / File

Opinion

The smallest tides of the month this weekend will dictate where to cast.

There will be good current flows between Devonport and the harbour bridge.It is not necessary to travel far to catch snapper at the moment.

Whether fishing in the Firth of Thames, the Tamaki Strait or off the city in Auckland the fish are in close and 15cm or 16m of water is all that is needed.

But north of the city it slows down, and boats fishing at Kawau Island or off the Whangaparaoa Peninsula are finding fishing much harder.

Some of the charter boats at Gulf Harbour have been travelling all the way down to the Motuihe Channel to find snapper.

But like all snapper fishing it is a matter of working the tides. For example, the tide starts flowing in the Sargents Channel before it does in the Motuihe Channel, and with the smallest tides of the month this weekend at 2.7m it will be an important factor when deciding where to go.

Another point to remember is that as the tide runs into a congested channel it actually flows faster out the other side. So when looking for more current it is better to move further into the channel, and the reverse applies when less current is wanted, for example on the bigger tides of 3m and more.

So the plan this weekend would be to start fishing in one of the channels, moving down with the current as it picks up, to ensure a good flow.

The other variable, of course, is the bait and rig which are employed.

The commercially produced flasher rigs with bright tassels on the hooks work fine in some situations, and in fact when there is little current flowing it is the best time to tie one on. Then, as currents pick up, a change to a trace will produce more fish. The exception is when fishing in deep water and a flasher rig is fine at all times. But in the shallow channels a trace does seem to attract better quality fish, rather than the small juveniles which will attack anything. It can be up to 2m long, and as when selecting sinkers, it is better to keep the materials as light as can be confidently used.

The fish which may be lost through line breaking are more than compensated for by the higher strike rate with light line, trace and sinkers. So a main line of 8kg or 10kg breaking strain is fine, provided a sinker under 120g is used. The heavier the sinker, the stronger the line should be.

It is the same with the trace material used.

Twenty kilos is plenty for the size of fish caught in the channels or in the Waitemata Harbour, and hooks of 5/0 are fine. The mutsu style or recurved hooks can be used on both rigs - a ledger or a trace on a running rig. When using a trace it is common to use two hooks, often with a smaller sliding hook as a keeper hook and both are stuck into one bait.

This is fine in many offshore situations, but in the harbour it makes sense to have both hooks tied about 10cm apart, with a small bait on each.

This way if one bait is pulled off by small fish there is still another bait doing the work. And fish like mullet or kahawai are preferred by some successful anglers because they stay on the hook better than soft baits like pilchards. Small chunks with the hook pushed through once will also result in more hook-ups than big baits, simply because they are easy for the fish to swallow.

It is a question of keeping the approach simple, and the size and number of snapper which can be put into the box will surprise many people.

There will be good current flows in the Waitemata Harbour between Devonport and the harbour bridge this weekend as the water is squeezed between the city and North Shore.

Last weekend boats were catching fish almost within touching distance of the grey ships moored at the naval dockyard, and in the 25m hole off Stanley Point. Bayswater and the Tank Farm were also producing plenty of snapper.

The biggest kingfish in the inner Hauraki Gulf were coming from the Chelsea sugar works last week; and there are plenty of kings on the reef at Crusoe Rock and off the reef at Pakatoa Island.

The key is live bait like kahawai or piper, although the more common yellowtails (jack mackerel) will do at a pinch.

The eastern coast of Coromandel is harder and, in fact, fishing has been tough since Christmas but should pick up over the next month.

Game fishing is making up for it with the Mercury Bay Game Fishing Club at Whitianga recording about 50 marlin so far, and it is still early in the season.

Fly fishermen are doing well at the Hamurana and Waiteti Stream mouths on Lake Rotorua, but more settled weather is needed for the popular Awahou Stream mouth to improve. There are good numbers of smelt at Rangiuru Bay on Lake Tarawera, so harling and fly fishing should pick up there, and on Lake Rotoiti deep jigging is still producing good numbers of trout.

The Outdoors column in tomorrow's Herald on Sunday also features fishing in the harbour, and more fishing action can also be seen on Rheem Outdoors with Geoff, at 5.30 on TV3 tonight, and on the internet TV channel, www.FishnHunt.Tv.