Geoff Thomas: It's all or nothing when it comes to snapper

A good day out snapper fishing. Photo / Geoff Thomas

What a strange summer of fishing we are having. Well, in terms of snapper around Auckland anyway. Fishing is going from hard to red-hot and, in some places, fish are hard to find.

The inner Waitemata Harbour continues to produce the best action, but it fishes better on small tides and the full moon on Thursday brought big tides with corresponding strong currents. Today's tide on the Waitemata is 3.5 metres, which is almost as big as it gets, so the harbour will only be fishable at the turn of the tide. Otherwise the powerful currents make it too hard keeping baits on the bottom. One solution is to drift and fish soft plastics, and that will be better if the wind and tide are running in opposite directions. The most consistent fishing is coming from the stretch between Stanley Point and Devonport.

Further out there are huge numbers of small snapper in the channels, but fishing lures or fresh bait like yellowtail or kahawai will deter the pickers. There are also large numbers of rat kings - the small kingfish that are well under the 75cm minimum size limit. These are easily hooked on fresh piper and will also take snapper baits, but can be a nuisance. The best way to target larger kings is to use big baits like live kahawai.

Some large snapper have been taken in the Manukau Harbour and in some very shallow water. One angler boated a 3kg snapper and another of 4kg while fishing in just two metres of water. He cut the motor and rowed for the last 500 metres before fishing, to keep the boat noise down, and used fresh whole yellowtail for bait.

Another keen fellow rowed his inflatable out off Cochrane's Gap, on the west coast, and returned home with eight good snapper - the largest weighing 11.4kg .

Some good fish are also being taken off Motuora Island and out in 35 metres in the middle of the Hauraki Gulf.

Marlin fishing off the Manukau Harbour has also picked up as the game fish move down the coast and one angler was home by 11am after hooking 11 marlin, two of which he boated.

In Northland waters, blue marlin continue to impress game fishers. These tough fighters are usually found out wide in 1000 metres of water but, as the warm currents up to 24C are well inshore this summer, blues are being hooked in 200 metres, along with striped marlin averaging over 100 kilos which can be found closer in at 100 metres of water. The area between Queen's Buoy and Whangamumu has been fishing well, and there are also a lot of spearfish around but few yellowfin tuna and mahi-mahi.

Sharks, particularly makos, are also more prevalent this year in numbers not seen since the early 1990s. The Bay of Islands Swordfish Club recorded up to 300 sharks in a season back then but, in recent years, catches have been down to about 10 for a season.

Trout are running at the cold water stream mouths on Lake Rotorua, from Ngongotaha around to Hamurana. Some fly fishers are catching-releasing up to 30 fish in a morning at the Awahou Stream mouth, and the favoured pattern is an olive fly in size #10, or a small green orbit. The trout are averaging about 1.5kg , with the occasional specimen up to 3kg, while brown trout up to 5kg are also being taken by stalking the shallow margins.

Fishing at Lake Taupo has been disappointing for many anglers, particularly fishing on the lake. The lake level is high, but stream mouths have been fishing well at night although the full moon will make this harder except at deep water rips like those at the mouths of the Tauranga-Taupo and Tongariro Rivers.

Fly fishing on the Tongariro can be good with a cicada pattern with a pheasant tail nymph on a dropper underneath, although the fish are generally small.

Stalking the banks of the lower river with a cicada dry fly for large brown trout can be exciting, but challenging.

With the hot weather, the cicadas should be active on lakes Rotoaira and Otamangakau, but there has been little angling pressure on these waters.

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