With one of the wettest and windy springs in recent memory, you’ve got to be Johnny on the spot if you want to get out on the salt and into some fish. Spring is our favourite time to fish, and you’ve got a chance at a big fish every time you go out. Kingfish, snapper, and hapuku are all in spawn mode, with snapper going a brilliant orange colour and incredibly aggressive, punching well above their weight with aggressive scaps to the boat. With a short 2-day window available, we shuffled some work around and shot out to our local grounds in the gulf for a bait n burley session and hopefully a king on live bait.
Date – 6/12/22
Anglers – Mark Stephenson, Hamish Beasley & myself
Low tide – 12:30 pm
High tide – 6:47 pm
Launch – 2:30 pm
Sunset – 8:30 pm
Best bite – 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Moon – indicated good fishing with high activity
Fish size – 30cm – 77cm
Fish species caught – Jack mackerel, slimy mackerel, gurnard, snapper, kingfish, mako shark.
Number of fish caught – lots.
The first stop was live bait – you can’t beat fresh bait, either live or dead. Jack Mackeral and pilchards are easily the most abundant bait species in the gulf, but Jacks are far easier to target and catch. With most bays holding them at some stage of the day or night.
We ceremoniously loaded up on jacks to fill the live bait tank and headed off looking for fat-hungry snapper. The first stop was a tad slow, with mainly smaller fish in the 30-40cm size range coming aboard and not many of them. With little to encourage us to stay, we headed off to find more current and bigger fish. Spot #2 didn’t disappoint, with ample, scattered sign appearing on the sounder. We were also entertained by the sights and sounds of two large whales gorging themselves on the large volumes of tiny bait hovering below the surface, with the distinctive sound of whales popping air as they breached. It’s so cool to see the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park abundant with all species. With the tide change only an hour away, the fishing started a little slow, but once the tide changed, things heated up nicely.
Whales dining out on large volumes of bait and lots of juvenile mako sharks are all indicators you need to know that the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park is in excellent steed. All of it happens well inside the boundaries of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. An enthralling experience and a sight you won’t see parked up on the couch.
We had a small amount of frozen bait, but with the bite a little tentative, the fresh jack mac’s butterflied were quickly the attention of the bigger fish. So often, small changes can make all the difference to the day’s catch, and fresh bait was today’s critical ingredient. Unfortunately, springtime equals shark time, and we encountered several small makos released unharmed; luckily, they didn’t overtly affect our fishing. However, bronze whalers are a real plague; thankfully, we didn’t find any this time.
After keeping all the fish we needed to feed our families and not wanting to risk killing any unwanted big fish, we called time and shot off into a bay to cook dinner.
We like to eat well on our fishing trips, with good food adding to the experience and enjoyment of the day. Tonight’s dinner was marinated chicken wraps, and eating these to the last of the sun was a memorable way to end an afternoon fishing trip. Best of all, we were only 45 mins back to the ramp.
See you out there.
