Fishing: Hungry fish make it easy to get a meal

By PETER JESSUP

This is the time of year all fishermen love. The first cool nights are telling their targets to feed now before the cold sets in and food gets harder to find.

So the fish are feeding hard, whether it's snapper in the Hauraki Gulf, trout in the Rotorua and Taupo lakes, or gamefish off the coast.

Auckland anglers have reported limit bags of fish up to 6kg within 200m of the North Shore beaches, or from close to the anchored sand barges in the Rangitoto Channel, around Browns Island, off Maraetai and up the west coast from Raglan to Dargaville.

The easterly conditions have been kind to west coast fishermen this summer, and up to 40 boats have been gathered at marks from the Manukau bar north to Muriwai some days.

Surfcasters and kite fishermen report a predominance of snapper off the west coast, rather than the usual mix of kahawai, gurnard, small sharks and snapper.

On the east coast, the fish are in much closer, often in shallow water.

Berley is the secret, light lines with small sinkers work best and the rising tide is better than the outgoing.

That's because small runs of whitebait have been in the Gulf and around estuaries. The little fish are also the reason schools of kahawai have been seen off the North Shore beaches and north to Tiri.

Surfcasters are doing well in the Bay of Plenty, and Pukehina Beach has been hot at night.

Some gamefishing charter boats off the east coast of Northland have reported six to eight marlin tagged in a day. It's like that from Tutukaka to North Cape, and the mainland coast is better than the Three Kings.

We may soon know more about the movements of the big billfish.

A Massey University researcher supported by fishing clubs has attached five data-recording devices to fish that were released.

The devices pop off after a set time, float to the surface and transmit their information to the researchers.

In Taupo and Rotorua lakes, deep trolling and jigging are working well as the fish feed before the first spawning runs of winter.

* The Royal Forest and Bird Society has extended by a month the deadline for submissions to its proposal for a marine park along Auckland's west coast beaches.

And among submissions to the New Zealand Underwater Association on its proposal for a reserve encompassing Whangaparaoa beaches and Tiri Tiri Matangi is one from the Hibiscus Coast Rescue Trust expressing concerns about safety.

If the reserve is approved, its boundaries will be next to Defence Department restricted zones and the no fishing/no anchoring zone for communications cables.

Long Bay reserve butts up from the south, and Tawharunui and the Goat Island reserve at Leigh are to the north.

The result is that boaties might have to go up to 8km out to sea to reach fishable water, the trust says.

Member Les Sharman said 100 people on 60 boats were helped in the area of the proposed reserve last year, and winds were above 20 knots on 120 days.

"It's not a safe area to declare a marine reserve," he said. "The trust is concerned there has been no thought given by NZUA to the safety considerations."