The North Mole in Whanganui has an abundance of keen fishers all year round. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown
“Exceptional” conditions around Whanganui have led to more and more people casting a line as fishing seems to be gaining popularity.
Fin Ocheduszko-Brown reports.
People fishing in Whanganui is not an uncommon sight.
However, Wanganui Manawatu Sea Fishing Club commodore Jamie Newell says the quality and quantity of fish people are reeling in is attracting more and more to the water’s edge.
The weather, huge ecosystems and structures that produce fish and high currents that bring nutrients into the area are enhancing the fisheries, he says.
“Commercially, we don’t get fished very hard, which enhances our fish life. We get some wicked fish.
“More and more people are realising that, so we get more and more people travelling from out of town to come fish here because our fishing is so exceptional.”
Newell has been on the club’s committee for nearly 14 years and its commodore for nearly two.
Whanganui anglers are having success at the moles, beach and sea, he says.
They are regularly catching snapper and kahawai all year round, which is unique for snapper because until now they have mostly been seen in summer.
At the Marine Tackle (Marine Services Wanganui Retail) store on Wilson St, Newell has mounted for display the 12kg snapper he caught.
He says snapper over 9kg are becoming frequent in the area.
“People call them a fish of a lifetime, but they are a normal fish for us now.”
A Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) report in 2024 said large catches of snapper during the late 1970s and early 1980s reduced the snapper stock to a low level, which remained at that level throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
The snapper biomass along the west coast of the North Island has “increased substantially” since 2010, with the biomass level nearly returning to where it once was before the late 1970s.
The future is looking promising for Whanganui’s fishing scene, Newell says.
“We’ve got game fish that are starting to come through that we have never seen before with the warmer weather patterns coming through.”
Two marlins were spotted off the coast of Foxton recently, adding to the first one caught in a long time last year in the same area.
“They’ve turned up again, so it won’t be far until we get one off Whanganui because they are swimming past our coast,” Newell says.
He said he’d be surprised if a marlin wasn’t spotted in Whanganui this year.
In 2022, a bluefin tuna was caught off Whanganui for the first time in a while.
In contrast, Newell says, blue cod are becoming less frequent because of the warmer climate and large commercial and recreational pressure.
Fisheries New Zealand enforced a recreational daily limit of two blue cod per day for the West Coast of Wellington to Taranaki in December last year to help the resurgence.
The Whanganui Little Anglers group was founded in October to partly accommodate the growing interest.
It is an initiative, set up by dairy farmer Carl Drewett, to encourage children to fish.
Up to 65 children are a part of the group that regularly meets up to fish, courtesy of tackle provided by various local businesses.
Inspired to fish by his grandfather from a young age, Drewett says fishing teaches kids many things.
“I thought that there is a bit of a demand there, so why not use those skills to teach these young fellas and direct them somewhere else in life?
“I find in Whanganui, there’s not a lot for tamariki to do, unless you have got money.
“They come down and sit for hours on end in hope of catching something, and the smiles on their faces is something else – it is really cool.”
The group is in the process of applying to become a charitable trust, which Drewett says is important because of what the kids are getting from it.
“The kids are absolutely loving it. Some parents find that their kids have always asked to go fishing, but the parents aren’t too sure where to start, so we are providing that,” he said.
“I’d love to make a full-time job out of this because there is such a gap in our community for things like this.”
Newell says some New Zealanders are probably not aware of the fishing in Whanganui because it is not very well studied.
“We have some of the best fishing in the world at our doorstep.”
Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.