The pilchards are being pushed in hard against the land by large KY schools. When this happens the fishing can be intense as the bait has nowhere to escape and the mammals are not actually required to herd up the bait, as the KY do a fine job. There have been mainly pan sized snapper under these workups and big KY, but also some rather large winter kingfish! We have ...

This year is turning out to be one of the most productive winter fishing seasons I have ever seen. There is lots of bait around and it is close to Auckland. What bait do you ask? Well just about everything is being rounded up at the moment. We have seen our fish spewing up smelt, krill, anchovies, pilchards and squid.

Yesterday we decided to try something different so we headed out ...

What a weekend.

Saturday 2nd July
On Saturday I took a crew out and we searched everywhere to find the fish. We left from Auckland and headed to the 50Mtr squiggles north of Anchorite over towards Channel Island and then to Square Top and caught 2 snapper, red snapper, gurnard, and a Kahawai. It looks fishy and the birds are chasing bait but the KY are tentative and the snapper are frigid. It is days like ...

Winter fishing in the Far North shallows with Zman softbaits has to be one of the most exciting ways to fish as far as I’m concerned, with BIG Kings & BIG angry Snapper just waiting to take you to the cleaners.

Thats the challenge when you fish the shallow foul (under 10m), these fish now there surrounding areas very well, all the nooks & crannies & you certainly need a little ...

Light Bulbs – switch on fishing !!!!

By Mark Kitteridge.

I love my soft-plastic fishing, and part of the attraction comes from the constantly evolving tackle.While the soft-plastics themselves are the obvious ‘rock stars’ in the technique, they’re no use without a decent lead-headed hook to get them down, impart an interesting action, and then hold onto the fish through any ensuing fights.

To be honest, I already had these aspects sorted with ...

Over the past 2-3 weeks I have been watching the bait getting denser and denser as I get closer to Auckland. The water temperature has stayed up and it looks like we will have a late season. With this in mind and also the fact that people have started squidding around Auckland a plan was hatched.

I talked my mate John Kite (Squid) into getting off work early to make ...