The temperature has dropped and with it the wind it seems? Some of you will not like this seasonal event, but I love it for fishing in the gulf. The weather is more settled with crisp cool sunny days and the bigger fish will be around the abundance of bait.
In the last week or so we have been heading up towards just south of Little Barrier fishing the lumps that come up from 50mtrs to 35-40mtrs. The first reason for this, is the area starts to get the winter bait in like Krill and there is a variety of fish to catch that will feeding on this! (like trevally, kings and snapper). The second reason, is that by moving north, we get away from the abundant kahawai schools, that are affecting the area between gannet rock off Waiheke Is across and up the Coromandel (look for the terns and shearwaters if you are after them). While we love catching these fine table fish, when they are in these proportions, it is hard to get to the snapper beneath and they wreak havoc on our gear (tangles and lost jigs)!
On my last 2 charters up to this area around Little Barrier I have found a large patch of big blue cod hanging around a lump (goes from 50mtrs to 40 and they are sitting in about 42mtrs). We caught 11 of these fine eating fish on recent trips!
On Tuesday this week the workups started happening in earnest again. They have been located on the outside of the cable zone roughly halfway between Kauwau and Tiri Is. There have been numerous kingfish and snapper in these workups and the snapper have been hitting all manner of lures and colours, while the kingfish have preferred the pink ones (both Slider and Jitterbugs were working)!
Yesterday they had moved south east about 5nm, so you cannot always rely on what happened a day or two ago at the moment, as every day is different and the feeding moves around the gulf quite quickly.
You cannot beat these calm sunny winter days when the fishing hots up like this!
Nik Key is a tutor, guide, lure tester and charter skipper
See you out there!
Cheers Capt. Snap (Nik)
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