The fishing has been quite difficult over the last month or so due to both the El Nino weather (lots of high winds) and high 25 degree water temperatures (spawning fish). When we have been able to get out the fishing has been “average” to “great” from day to day (it is getting more consistent now).
I have never seen so much bait and predators like KY and Kingfish and this is being reflected in the amazing game fishing we have had this year with Marlin and YF Tuna right in close around Little barrier and even Anchorite (we had a free jumper giving us an amazing aerobatic display between Channel and Anchorite the other day).
Whilst we have been looking for workups as usual, sometimes the bigger snapper are away from the huge spread out ones and can be found where the bait is dense (being worked by predators). We have had great days catching the bigger snapper and legal king fish on snapper gear, but have to put up with the sharks as well (bloody tax man)!
As I said above I have never seen so much bait around at this time of year (anchovies, pilchards, whitebait, yellow tail etc). Sometimes the fish will take anything and at other times we have to match the hatch. The green and red Jitterbugs have been getting the most and best snapper but the silver blue had been deadly on KY and Kings (especially if you put a red skirt on – bleeding pilchard). The lime pickle (green with pink underbelly) has been getting the John Dory once again!
Here are a few of the fish we have been catching on Jitterbugs lately.
See you out there.
Cheers Capt. Snap (Nik)
Snap Fishing Ventures
“Nothing ventured nothing gained”
http://snapfishingventures.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Snapfishing