Fishing: East Coast the place to be for snapper-lovers

By GEOFF THOMAS

If you live in Auckland city and want to catch snapper this weekend, you will need to travel, for the best fishing is further afield.

Kingfish are abundant in most areas, but close to the city snapper are mainly among the miniature versions.

However, the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel and Whangaparaoa areas are all reported to be producing good numbers of quality fish.

Snapper are in close along the Bay of Plenty shoreline, giving surfcasters access to good fishing, and off Town Pt at Maketu the fishing has been excellent.

Popular spots near Tauranga have also been producing well and Mayor Island should be worth a visit by those chasing large specimens.

Both shore and boat fishing should also be firing along the coast from Opotiki to Cape Runaway. This is one of the top regions in the country for catching large snapper, with floating baits close to the rocky shore. School snapper out on the open sand are twice as big as those found elsewhere.

A popular rig for fishing the sandy bays is to drift with a jig on the end of a string of snapper flash flies which have been sweetened with a chunk of bait.

The rod can even be left in a rod-holder, allowing the rocking of the boat to move the lures, but sufficient line should be paid out to ensure the jig remains on the bottom as the boat moves along.

Snapper are also close in along both sides of the Coromandel Peninsula, from Mercury Bay to Whangamata and around to the Firth of Thames.

This is also prime time for huge kingfish along this coast and land-based anglers do very well with live kahawai presented under balloons. Landing the powerful kings among the rocks and weed is a challenge.

Fishing around Waiheke and Motuihe Islands is more patchy, with large numbers of juvenile snapper still present.

But fishing in the Tiri Channel and around Kawau Island is reported to be far better and out in the open parts of the Hauraki Gulf, when favourable schools of good-sized snapper can be found under flocks of feeding birds or located on the fish finder.

Drifting is a good method in this situation also, with tough baits like whole baby kawahai, or fillets, and mackerel.

The tentacles of octopus are a bait which works well in deep water, with several centimetres of the end left hanging to entice the fish with movement.

Blue mackerel is another top bait, fished either whole, butterflied with the tail section removed, or as a long fillet.