KEY POINTS:
The sudden temperature drop means a change in fishing tactics is necessary.
The snapper have largely gone from the channels of the Hauraki Gulf and the school fish have left inshore areas for deeper water, just resident fish now scouring the reefs and weed beds as competition for
food drives the big numbers further out.
Soft baiting will not work anywhere near as well as it does in the warmer months, simply because the areas where drift-fishing produces well over summer and autumn are not now holding the big schools that they were.
Anchoring and setting up a good berley trail will bring fish around after 15-20 minutes. Cut baits are better than whole pilchards as the bite is very light. It's best to use unweighted baits floated back from the boat and it is crucial to stay in touch with the terminal tackle and to strike once the fish shows any sign of running.
There are still plenty of kahawai in the inner harbour, reports Eugyn de Bruyn of Sea Genie charters, and fishing close to the East Coast Bays on dusk can produce snapper to 4kg.
There are still some schools at the 40m mark behind the Noises and north towards Tiritiri Matangi.
Land-based anglers have been nailing some good-sized snapper from the rocks at Kakakawa Bay while those soft-baiting in the Firth of Thames have found the fishing hard.
Further out, hapuku are moving onto the reefs around Great and Little Barrier, the Mokohinaus and Hen and Chicks in numbers. It's easy to get a limit, weather permitting.
The Manukau Harbour is full of gurnard but high tides this week also produced a weed problem for anglers, quickly fouling lines so badly that they wouldn't catch anything.
Manukau expert John Moran advises fishing the flats in as little as 4m. The areas out from Little Muddy and Big Muddy Creeks and off Laingholm are turning up gurnard as well as trevally in numbers, Moran said.
Marlin were sighted feeding north of the Poor Knights during the week.
There was a late flurry of marlin and mahimahi activity off Cape Karikari before the southerly winds hit and drove the last of the billfish north and away from New Zealand.
Charter skipper Rick Pollock on "Tracker II" reported strikes in water temperature as low as 17.5C. The last fish will now be feeding at the Three Kings before heading to the mid-Pacific.
As reported here in April, Pollock's boat "Pursuit" went on the rocks at North Cape. It has been repaired and after survey will be back in service for Ranfurly Bank trips over winter.
Another well-known charter skipper Pete Saul from the Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers club will also have his boat "Lady Jess" back in service this month after it was washed ashore on the Hen and Chickens Islands following mechanical failure.
The Ministry of Fisheries has announced it will review the stocks and catch limit on orange roughy and bluenose. The new fishing season starts on October 1 and the Minister of Fisheries Jim Anderton is expected to sign off on Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC) on a variety of species.
The spanner in the works is the kahawai legal challenge brought by amateur fishing groups, which is now before the Court of Appeal.
The Rodney District Council is proposing a range of different speed limits for various sectors of Muriwai Beach. There is concern among recreational anglers that access at the southern end will be further restricted.
Meanwhile one major impact of Mr Anderton's decision to extend bans on inshore netting in order to save Maui's and Hector's dolphins has been overlooked.
The 300-odd fishermen who will be put out of work are the ones who supply a large part of the fish eaten by ordinary Kiwis - flounder, kahawai, mullet, gurnard, trevally, the lemonfish sold as fish 'n' chips.
Putting fish on the table is about to get significantly more expensive.