Fishing: Manukau sharks develop a taste for fishermen's boats

Manukau Harbour anglers have been tangling with great white sharks, while on the east coast two visiting Aussies managed 400 fish in four days - without bait, berley or an anchor.

Soft baits are becoming increasingly popular, as evidenced by the turnout of around 500 people at each of two instruction seminars put on by Aussies Michael Guest, the rally car driver, and Captain Mark Phillips at the Stanmore Bay and Maraetai Boat Clubs.

Guest and Phillips fished the Mokohinaus with "Tiny" Coe of Stirling Sports, who is now hooked on their method.

The Aussies used "high modulus" graphite rods and braid. The rods contain no fibreglass and use a cork grip to lessen weight, given the method involves casting and retrieving all day. Braid of 10/15kg is chosen over monofilament nylon because it provides more immediate and vigorous action on the lure as the rod is worked.

The anglers cast the soft bait lures into the wash around rocks and work them back to the boat, or drop them on ledger rigs where fish can be taken mid-water or on the bottom, and in either case the boat is drifting rather than anchored.

The Aussies go under the name Pure Fishing, and were promoting the Berkley "Gulp" baits. The lures are made from natural products and biodegradable. They include scents and flavours attractive to fish and come in different sizes and ranges, including crab imitations.

Coe said they nailed around 100 fish in the day, including 10kg snapper, all bar six of which were released. "They convinced me," he said.

The Aussies also visited Great Barrier, Little Barrier and Anchorite Rock. But their daily tally of around 100 fish, including snapper, kahawai, trevally, kingfish, gurnard and reef fish proves their point. Big kings appear the only fish to show an aversion to the soft baits.

Coe was also out on the Manukau when mate Mike "Smudge" Parker had a nose-to-nose with a great white.

Three boats from Manukau Marine were fishing a bank well up the harbour and catching some good trevally. Parker was trying to untangle lines and was about to boat a fish caught by his 10-year-old son.

He was leaning over the side when a shark of between 4.5m and 5m came head out of the water and gulped the trev. The great white then hit the side of the 5m boat and smashed the bait board off before sliding away.

"It's something I'll never forget," Coe said.

Carl Hill and mates on another boat motored up to Kauri Pt near Clarks Beach and put down whole bonito baits hoping for a shark. One hour later a great white of around 4.5m took the bait and, when it felt the hook, surfaced and circled the boat before heading to the main channel.

Two hours of fight on 37kg line brought it to the boat again, and it then attacked the motor while Hill and companions got a tag in. "It was nicely hooked in the mouth and we released it fairly easily." He estimated the fish in excess of 200kg.

The marlin fishing appears to be all over with the possible exception of the Three Kings, where Rick Pollock on the charter boat Pursuit reports sightings but few hook-ups.

The water temperature is still 21C in patches, but can drop by two degrees within a kilometre of trolling. His customers are still enjoying great bottom fishing with hapuku, trumpeter and terakihi and big snapper as well as kingfish to 35kg.

In the Hauraki Gulf, the fish are well out and close in. The big schools are still hanging around the 40m mark and will take anything that hits the bottom - jigs, straylines, flasher rigs and soft baits. In the channels, flasher and ledger rigs with cut baits work best.

In closer they require more finesse, but that's where the biggest fish are, especially in the evenings.