Fishing: Trout bigger and in good numbers

The high central North Island lakes open this weekend, with trout reportedly in good numbers and bigger than in previous years.

Fish & Game is expecting a busy start to the season given the positive signs.

Check your watch for the start as daylight saving commences on Sunday, the fishing starting at 5am.

Conditions had been "pretty amazing", said Fish & Game's Steve Smith.

Three good years have produced good-condition fish in Lakes Tarawera and Okataina and at the latter the 53cm size limit imposed as stocks fell has been reduced to 35cm. On opening day last year most fish had to be put back but that is not expected to be the case this time.

Up to 500 boats are expected to be on Lake Rotoiti for the opening morning and Smith asked anglers to show patience at ramps and fly-fishing spots and to be thoughtful of others.

"You wouldn't believe how many times we see or hear about one boat cutting across the trolling lines of another."

At Taupo, spawning runs are in full swing. The drizzle mid-week prompted big runs of fish, as did a falling barometer, despite the conditions remaining very mild.

Hundreds of fish are being caught daily in the Department of Conservation's monitoring traps on the upper Tongariro area rivers and some are in the 5kg range, evidence the fishery is healthy.

Some "slabs" or spent fish have started moving back down the river and both they and the pre-spawn fish moving up have been feeding aggressively.

The average size of landed fish round Taupo has been 2kg, up from 1.6kg just a few years ago.

Some anglers have done much better - check out the pictures at Sporting Life Turangi (see link below).

Jared Goedhart, of the Sporting Life store in Turangi, said the rainbows were "going for just about anything" thrown at them, "as long as you're in the right place at the right time".

Runs had been thick and there were also plenty of fish in the lake, he said, with trolling productive in the more settled conditions as wind allowed. In the rivers, nymphing works well or use a green catis or goldhair copper wire.

Round Auckland, the snapper fishing has been hard for the past few days, with southeast and then northwest winds making it hard to find a spot where the boat will hang well in prevailing tides and currents.

Bite-time remains short and at times the bite is extremely light - only those staying in touch with their line are scoring.

Accomplished local angler John Moran had a hard day at the bottom end of Waiheke - where fishing had previously been hot - as did I.

The snapper were hardly touching the bait.

"I've never known fish to bite so lightly," Moran said. "It required total concentration to nail them. You'd have your thumb on the spool ever so lightly and just lift it and you'd see the line run slowly but when we struck and hooked them then they'd suddenly wake up and give you a fight."

They dropped lots of big fish, he said, but caught 12 - the biggest over 9kg but "biting like a baby".

Big, messy baits remain more productive than a whole or cut pilchard - use fresh mullet or kahawai, be patient and stay alert and ready for the minimal movement that tells when to hit.

On the Manukau Harbour, gurnard remain in numbers, with movement required to excite them.

The temperature is heading towards 16C, at which point they usually retreat to the continental shelf. But good catches are still reported all over the harbour.

Best method is a ledger rig or flasher with cubes of bait.

'Walk' the line across the bottom by letting it run slowly out with the current then winding back.

The fish seem more likely to take the outgoing bait than the incoming but when they do hit they hit aggressively and hook well.

Trevally have been caught in numbers off Little Huia, anglers using all sorts of rigs from ledger to strayline baited with white squid or shellfish.

And there are already some good school snapper in the Manukau, in the Purekau Channel off Waikowhai and just inside the harbour mouth in the Destruction Gully area. The Manukau scallops are in primo condition and in numbers and in the shallows, so recent higher- and lower-than-usual tides have been a boon to local gatherers.