Fishing: Top fishing follows recent bad weather

Fishing is improving everywhere after the recent spell of bad weather, and the Taupo rivers last week produced some of the best fly fishing of the winter.

The spawning runs had been slow until the six-week drought broke last Friday with excellent weekend fishing. Two visiting anglers landed 27 trout in a day and a half on the Tongariro River earlier this week, while a young Thames angler landed and released 36 fish last weekend.

Predictions of a bumper season appear to be well founded.

Winter snapper fishing has also picked up, with some huge fish landed from the rocks in Northland and off West Coast beaches.

Still slow close to Auckland, with best results in deeper water.

Hot spots:

Northland: Three-mile Reef off Whangarei and top end of Ocean Beach good for school snapper up to 4kg; baby squid best bait as less likely to attract barracouta.

Snapper up to 9kg from rocks at Rocky Bay and Matapouri; tarakihi in good numbers at 60m depth off Tutukaka.

Auckland: very big John Dory, some tarakihi and a lot of 2-3kg snapper at Anchorite; Flat Rock producing well; patch of foul off the wharf at Tiri and reef at the end of Whangaparaoa fishing well.

Good straylining in the shallows between Thumb Pt and Kauri Pt at bottom end of Waiheke.

Slow close to city.



West Coast: big snapper kite fishing caught at Karioitahi, and also surfcasting at Kawhia.

Coromandel: mussel farms and deep water off Coromandel fishing well, and fish are in close on the ocean side.

Bay of Plenty: sea is 1.5 deg warmer than usual, but bad weather has made offshore fishing difficult. In Hawkes Bay, Roy Frost broke the Pania Surfcasting Club record with a 14.4kg snapper from Whirinaki Beach.

Rotorua: generally slow, with a small run on beach at Okataina and some fish coming from Hinehopu and The Pipe at Rotoiti; steady runs on Ngongotaha Stream with fish appearing below main road bridge; big, brown trout also running but proving hard to catch.

Taupo: fly fishing in streams and rivers now steady with limits on the Tongariro by late morning; streams all clear but more rain will help, and stream mouths also fishing at night. On the lake, deep trolling at 30m with light traffic producing nice fish averaging 2kg.