Fishing: Whales and dolphins gorge in Gulf

Hauraki Gulf fishers have been treated to a huge work-up in the past week. Some settled weather has allowed easy spotting of the birds that are feeding over whales, dolphins, kingfish and kahawai as they chase huge schools of koheru and anchovy.

Trolling on the outside of the work-up will hook kingfish but only those under 15kg. Live-baits are needed to catch the bigger kings.

There have been pods of brydes whales gorging themselves in the work-up. Some have fed so much they move little, their huge backs and tiny fins breaking the water at speed only as the dolphins chase the schools of baitfish near them. We had one within 5m of the boat at the weekend, its mouth open and over-flowing with little fish as it dived beneath us at the last second.

Unusually, there appear to be few kahawai in the work-up itself. But beneath it are some mega-snapper.

The dolphins are chasing the food up and down the area to the east of Waiheke and to the north of the tip of the Coromandel.

To hook snapper, follow the shifting work-up about 200m behind, where you can still see falling scales shimmering in the water.

The best method is jigging but the bigger fish may require more technique, with straylining on light line, a strong trace and as little weight as is needed to get to the bottom, which is generally in the 30-40m range.

The best jigs, we found, were small pink and white Black Magics. Anything with pink in it seemed flavour of the day. Fewer fish were caught on the large Zest jigs, although I did have one big kingfish run on a blue Zest, albeit briefly as the fish hit the low reef on the bottom.

The work-up has provided a treat for tourists and you can often spot the action by following the Dolphin Explorer.

A Massey University research team studying the impact of swimming with dolphins have also benefited.

The Rangitoto Channel continues to produce good snapper in the 2-5kg range, particularly early morning and in the evenings, with the rise to high tide best.

Elsewhere, fishing has been patchy and restricted by high winds.

The sou'easterly that is traditionally a killer in terms of putting fish off the bite did allow some boats to get off the west coast, with marlin action reported all the way from Kawhia to North Cape. But plenty of boats saw nothing or had minor strikes that were quickly dropped.

The water off Houhora has been 20-21C, lower than usual for the time of year.

Club secretary Debbie Bunn said billfish were being caught in green water but not in numbers and the club was hoping for a wind change before its One Base Tournament this weekend. The North Cape/Three Kings area has started to fire but is not as hot as usual.

Lots of kahawai were in Doubtless Bay and the Mangonui Harbour, said Doug McColl of Coopers Beach Sports. The big kingfish seen by divers and others had not been landed. Snapper catches had been patchy - schools were feeding one day and gone the next. Billfish had been rare despite the presence of big schools of koheru.

It's been better for the Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club at Tutukaka, where plenty of billfish were tagged during the One Base tournament that finished last weekend, though most were on the small side.

Most were striped marlin in the 70-100kg range and Australian angler Ian Weber took top prize with a 115.4kg fish caught on the boat "Fantasia" on the first day.

Rod Jones on Swansong was the competition winner with most points for tag-and-release. The biggest yellowfin tuna was only 15.8kg, to angler Peter Jane. Tongariro trout fishing guide Garth Oakden landed the only short billed spearfish, also small at 17.3kg.

Several anglers had fish disqualified from the competition because their line over-tested for its stated breaking strain and others because traces were too long, at least one of which was shop-bought. One loser was Simon Blithe, son of Tutukaka weighmaster Vicky Blithe - his mum ruled his first marlin out because of an over-length trace.

At Mercury Bay the hot action has continued with marlin still being hooked regularly, and not that far from shore. Boats going out as far as the 1km mark have been out-fished by those in 100m-150m, especially in the area around Cuvier rock and between the Sugar Loaf and McGregor's Reef at the Aldermans.

The most meritorious catch in the past week goes to Mercury Bay club member Markus Wunderlich, who was catching skipjack tuna on 3kg line in just 60m of water when a small striped marlin appeared. With no game fishing set-up on board, he showed it a 10kg line with the biggest lure he had and boated it after a one-hour fight.

The stripey weighed in at 52.5kg, a baby, but Wunderlich's boat was just a 4.5m Bonito Pro-fisher and the marlin was nearly as big.