Fishing report
1st July 2023
There’s been heaps of fishing happening. Surf casting wise, Palliser Bay remains the hot spot, with good catches of trevally, gurnard, snapper, and a few stray moki.
In particular, there is some really good snapper fishing still happening, with plenty of fish up to 15 pounds caught over the last week.
The water has been nice and clean, not too much swell, and that makes it ideal for land based anglers.
Ocean Beach has been firing, and when it’s not, the action has usually swung more east of Lake Ferry.
There’s no real tide action that seems to work best consistently, the one thing that does make a difference though, is fishing the clearer water. It’s great to fish through the tidal change, as you get two different tidal flows and you’re never sure exactly which one will fire up the bite on the day.
With a lot of rain often the dirty water spills out into the ocean, such as at Lake Ferry, and you’ll notice the current takes it either east or west. Whatever side it’s going, make sure you fish in the clear side or where you can see the water colour change away from the dirtier flow.
Boaties are enjoying a lot of good snapper, puka and kingfish action, all from around the local reefs and popular hotspots around Kapiti.
Mana is proving a little harder to find decent snapper but they are still there for the patient.
There’s been a good run of blue warehou, which are a great fun fish to catch, really aggressive and pretty good to eat.
Warehou can be found around most reef areas at the moment, pretty much anywhere you can catch terakihi. The bigger the reef the better it is, the more tide the better, like Hunters, Karori Light etc.
They are really aggressive biters and you’ll get them on jigs, like slow pitch or smaller kingie jigs as well as normal baits.
You’ll get them well up off the bottom, so keep you jig moving if you get on to them. They are a regular feature every year around this time, and can be great fun to target.
Good sized hapuka have reported back to us from anglers just off the back of Mana and off Makara, along with a few larger sized kings.
The terakihi fishing has been awesome out a bit deeper, like 80 metres off Mana
This year we seem to have had a lot more squid turn up, which is great for the fishing generally, attracting nice big predators, but also for fishermen targeting these mobile calamari units.
There’s a lot of squid fishing around the wharves under lights using squid jigs at the moment. Winter is their season. You can get plenty of squid during the day too, if you target weedy areas where there is little tidal flow.
We’re selling heaps of squid jigs at the moment, so come on in and we’ll let you know what’s popular.
Tight lines
Cheers
Pete
26.5.23
The current fishing conditions in the Wellington region have been somewhat patchy, in line with the weather patterns, and winds making the waters pretty murky at times. However, when it has been fishable, there have been some good catches reported, particularly of snapper.
Interestingly, the pattern of the snapper population seems to be changing for the better, with solid fishing all year round now.
This is seen as a very positive change, as snapper is quite a dominant species, and seeing them flourish around all our coastlines is certainly welcome.
The west coast fishing has also been reported as good, with some nice catches of snapper off the shore, and from boats fishing the popular reef haunts around Makara etc.
The fishing conditions have improved over the last month, with good snapper being caught all through Palliser Bay.
Some impressive catches have been reported, with fish up to five or six kilos. There have also been a couple of larger catches reported, up to 10 kilos even.
Off the shore, fishing has been going really well particularly off the south coast and Palliser Bay. There’s been good moki fishing and plenty of solid snaps and trevs being landed.
On the kingy front, it’s a bit quiet but this is not too unexpected for coming in to winter.
The really big news is bluefin fishing. With a dozen or more fish being landed bluefin fever is on.
These amazing gamefish have been captured off Cape Palliser, trolling around the thousand-meter mark generally, and quite a few boats are now heading out when the conditions allow.
Bluefin can be pretty aggressive, and you don’t need a full-on game-setup to be in the hunt, a couple of good lures trolled with solid gear and you are good to give it a go.
I reckon we are seeing the effect of the commercial and recreational set nets restrictions off the west coast of the North Island since October 2020, which might have impacted the quantity and variety of fish coming in close to shore.
In Wellington region, for instance, I really reckon there has been an uptake in productive in-shore boat fishing, with fishers reporting catches of better and better snapper amidst the tarakihi and Cod.
I’m just speculating, but it’s good to see improvement whatever the reason.
The harbour is still fishing pretty solid, gurnard, snapper, trevs all in decent numbers right through the harbour reef systems.
Out wide, it’s bluenose and puka season coming up, but this is one area where the fishing has been a bit tougher lately, from our reports anyway.
A few puka have been caught in the South Coast area, although not in substantial numbers.
In case you have not caught up, there is anew regulation on hapuku/bass fishing, with a limit now of two fish per person.Full details HERE:
We’re still seeing a few fish out of the Trench, but nothing spectacular to report.
Changeable, typical winter conditions, means you take your opportunities where you can, but overall, the Wellington region seems to be experiencing an exciting time for fishing, with some positive changes in local fish populations that promise good fishing opportunities in the future.
Cheers
Pete
8.12.22
Wellington Fishing going well heading into summer.
Just in time for summer, the snapper seem to have really turned up now, with plenty of fish around Makara, and snapper galore off Mana.
The usual story with snaps, lots of pannies, a few good mid-sized specimens, and the odd thumper in the mix.
The fishing has been going well generally, with some good light winds of late making all coasts fishable, and even better when the water is clear. This is particularly good for the moki fishing.
Shore based anglers can expect plenty of snapper, moki and a few gurnard and trevs in most popular locations.
Palliser Bay and Lake Ferry are fishing well now, so with the right moon and tide conditions anything is on.
Whangamoana, The Spit and Ocean beach have all been producing good numbers of fish.
On the west coast, dodge the seals around Red Rocks and get into some moki, particularly on the high tide.
A few snapper and gurnard are getting caught around Evans Bay with the odd kingi landed as well.
The Kapiti coast is providing some good snapper when conditions allow as well.
Raumati, Paikakariki, Tehoro and northwards have all been producing good snapper for surfcasters mainly after dark.
Kapiti continues to fish really well as we reported last week. Snapper, kingfish, terakihi etc, it’s all on when the conditions allow you to get out there.
Mana has been great for snapper mostly, but the fishing can be a bit more inconsistent so you may have to be patient and wait out bite times as the tides move about.
We did have a 40-50lb kingi around the boat the other day and caught a couple of decent fish on recent trips.
Some nice puka are getting caught around Makara and back of Mana so it can be worth diving out a bit deeper once you’ve fished the reefs with the current running, to grab the slack tide for deep dropping.
The Trench has been producing bluenose and gemfish, including some good sized fish off the far side in around 300 metres recently.
Snapper, trevally and gurnard have been easy to catch around Ward Island, Point Gordon and Falcon Shoal.
Anglers are hoping the bluefin will turn up again out behind Kapiti, as there have been some reasonable albacore caught and sighted over the last couple of weks.
If you like warehou, we’ve caught plenty from the boat off Boom Rock, and some good sized ones to boot.
Fishing Report Wellington 18th November.
A great run of settled weather has really given Wellington Fisho’s a good opportunity to get out there and into it, with some excellent fishing off every coast.
I’ve been out quite a bit, done a few charters and enjoyed some good results across the board.
Land based and surf casting has been great with clearer water and pleasant conditions.
The moki 1000 fishing comp went well last weekend at Ngawai, with a fair number of fish caught, the largest going 4.3 kilos.
Over Palliser Bay way the moki fishing has generally been pretty good, and there’s also been plenty of snapper caught too, but the season is early and we expect this to only get better as we get closer to December.
It’s been very fishable off south and west coast, a little dirty water at times but mostly pretty good, and snapper fishing north towards Kapiti has been particularly nice, my mate landing a nice 7 kilo fish north of Te Horo.
By boat, Kapiti is the place to be fishing, with recent reports from there anglers doing really well on snapper, trevs and gurnard off all the fishable reef systems out there. Good weather has really made this a top destination and warm water, around 18 plus degrees, has ramped up the bite.
Kapiti tends to be fishing better than Mana, which we have found a bit patchy on snapper.
Makara is producing good fish, and a spearo shot a 10-kilo fish here last week.
A few nice puka turning up out wide off the west coast, with the odd 20 kilo fish in the mix.
I don’t get out to the Trench that often nowadays, but I was pleased to make it out with a couple of mates for some great fishing, topped off by around a 25 kilo bluenose hauled up from 280 metres in our favourite bass patch.
There’s good kingies and gemfish in a bit shallower too.
Out at Hunters the water was so clear kingfish were chasing jigs to the boat but not taking them, which can sometimes happen when the conditions are too good!
There’s been a good run of john dory, and some big ones, which are naturally a fantastic table fish and always welcome on board.
You’ll pull these fish out of any shallower areas of foul around all coastlines, best targeted with livies, and a great by-product can sometimes be a good kingfish or snapper. If you’re keen on giving this a go HERES HOW:
We got a swag of really decent one to two kilo teri’s off Boom, which is a really pleasant place to fish in some of the weather conditions we’ve been enjoying.
Make the most of it while you can
See you out there
Cheers
Pete
3/11/22
There’s been a few good days out on the boat between spring gales. Fishing is there or thereabouts what we would expect in spring, warming up nicely but not totally firing on all cylinders yet. Whitebait season was very ordinary this year, so let’s hope the other fishing makes up for it. Surf casting has been better up Kapiti way, with some nice snapper catches from Raumati and TeHoro, and further north again. Bigger fish coming commonly around five-plus kilos in nice and early so hopefully it will be a good summer for the land-based crew. There’s no shortage of other species out there too, with kahawai and gurnard often taking the baits to keep things interesting.
Drone fishing has really kicked off around the country as a ‘new’ way of getting a line out further than you can cast, and we are starting to see some really good results from using this method.
Boat fishing has turned up the normal sort of fare, cod, terakihi, trevs, kingies and snapper of course, with any of the usually productive spots all turning up a decent fish in the right conditions.
There’s still a decent number of warehou about, mostly up towards Kapiti, so you may pick up these fish likely as a bycatch.
We’ve caught a few nice hapuka out back of Mana and around the other areas you’ll usually find them
Gale force north westerly winds throw up the challenge when they kick in and can sometimes stop us getting out there for pretty long spells, which isn’t much help when you’re trying to get out wider and target puka.
They are just coming back from the spawn right now, and there’s a few nice ones turning up off Makara, South of Mana etc. Sometimes they can be a bit skinny but there’s still a good feed on such a meaty fish.
There’s consistent catches of kingfish in the harbour now, from boat and slide baiters from the shore.
We should see more as the summer schools start to come through.
There has not been a really good run of moki yet, but they are starting to come through and I’ve picked up the odd one around the south coast at high tide.
Generally, through November and December there’s primo moki fishing so that’s something to look forward to, and a good time to stock up on cray/mussel/shellfish baits that they love so much.
Palliser Bay and Ocean Beach are real hotspots for this action.
We do offer trips from $120 per person (including tackle, bait and transport) if you’re keen to talk to us about learning how to target these great fish.
If you do strike a run of moki, you can do really well and pick up multiple fish this time of year.
As soon as the water becomes clear and clean a is a good time to get into it, so try and keep an eye out for areas that have had enough shelter to run clear and that’s the best conditions to try for moki.
Those that have been able to get out off the south coast have been enjoying some big terakihi, some decent snapper, hoki, puka and the odd bluenose out past the hundred metre plus zone.
Snapper are being caught around the fifty metre mark, but the summer run of snaps has not really kicked in just yet.
There’s not been much else exceptional on the fishing front that I can recall lately, apart from an albacore caught off the back of Kapiti, so stay tuned as we get out there a bit more and see what happens coming into Christmas.
Fishing report 1.7.22
Given that the weather is not all that amazing, at least we’ve managed to get out a bit recently and made the most of the short windows. There’s another one coming up this weekend too, looking pretty good both Saturday and Sunday. The two-metre southerly swell will probably mean west coast and harbour are the places to fish for most comfortable conditions.
There’s plenty of snapper, gurnard, trevs to be found at the usual hunting grounds and this time of year fish are in their best condition for eating, so it’s nice to put a few in the bin.
If your rig is equipped to get over to D’Urville the puka and kingy fishing there is peaking and there are some real donkeys of both species being landed.
For whatever reason we seem to be getting summer fishing right through winter now, with steady snapper action, but far be it from a complaint.
It’s great to see more people out there doing it, and discovering there’s plenty of action if you actually get a line in the water.
Snapper fishing from boat and shore has been as good as you could ever expect at times.
There’s been plenty of big reds caught off the beaches up towards Kapiti, and Palliser bay is still providing some exciting fishing for land based anglers also.
With the southerly swell it might be a bit marginal for a bit now, but once it clears up expect the good fishing to continue.
Puka are a core target species mid-winter, and that’s probably what I’ll be having a crack at this weekend.
Depending how we go on the puka, the deeper reef systems are holding nice big terakihi, big mackerel, snaps and trevs etc, so it’s a good plan while you’re all the way out there to limit the catch of hapuka (which the slack tide window kind of forces you to anyway) and try for some other species out wider offshore.
When the southerly allows access to the Trench it’s been going pretty good for puka, bass and big bluenose.
A real go-to spot for turn of the tide is the ‘bass patch’ around 260 to 280 metres on the far side of the Trench.
The fish move about a bit so spend some time prospecting with the sounder and try to get down on top of them when you pick up sign.
There’s some really big fish about out there which is good to see.
Inshore the winter months often require a good bit of berley and patience to get the bite going, so come and pick up your supplies at our Rongotai shop and have a bit more of a chat about the fishing while you’re here.
Fishing report - 24.4.22
Fishing Report 2.4.22
1.3.22
Fishing report
With the weather offering us a few good days and more than a few bad ones, we might wish for January back at the moment, but coming into autumn there are often good settled spells, so fingers crossed. Last week was pretty good fishing, and we are on a bit of a roll south end of Mana at the moment. No matter what the tide was doing, fishing was pretty solid, and targeting in a bit shallower and fishing some back eddies we were able to pick up some really nice snapper. Around the area there’s also some very good tarakihi, trevs, blue mackerel, kahawai and of course the odd good kingy. Turn of the tide there gives us the opportunity to shoot out deeper and target the puka, which has been reasonably successful with consistent results not always in the same spots as the fish move around.
There’s probably less fish around than I have seen in the last couple of years, but sometimes the patterns go that way a bit, and they can pick up during the changing seasons.
We are fishing the 150 metre drop off all the way along from Mana down to Makara in the 150 to 170 metre depth range, and searching for sign along the bank will generally reward the patient sounder watcher.
You can also head out further to the 200 plus drop off but we have had not much need to head out there as we do ok without the extra travel.
Even sheltered up inside Mana has been producing some good sized snapper, a fish species that appears to be even more widespread now, and always a welcome addition to the day’s catch.
You can get onto snapper easily in most places that have a bit of foul or shelter, and that means anything from as shallow as 5 to 10 metres, right out into the deep.
Surfcasters are doing well on snapper too, mostly from Paikok up to Te Horo.
It’s not always easy work getting good results off sandy beach, but good efforts will generally be rewarded with persistence.
The keen fisho’s and local club members have been doing really well up there, but the catch is, they seem to come on about an hour after dark.
This being the case it pays to get set up and established, then you’re familiar with things around you and how comfortable you are to wade out after losing the light.
Waders or a surf wetsuit-type-thing are a big advantage as often a bit of distance is required to get out to the second channel, whereas at high tide fishing the first channel is often enough.
Tīwhane Pota, with help from daughter Rangituia caught a massive kingy.
Using a live bait kahawai under small balloon, 11/0 live bait hook, 200lb mono trace, 50lb ball bearing swivel on 24kg main using rollered game rod! Not your typical beach rig.
His words:
“Got the idea to use the game rod after seeing birds working out from the surf club, huge tail splashes amongst kahawai.
Thought it was kingfish, first day no luck. Next day was within 30 seconds of letting the kahawai get out with the balloon.
Once hooked let a young fella reel it in. Had to assist the poor wee blighter as killed his arms.
Easy as walking up the beach and getting the line back on the walk back to the water.
Folks at the river mouth thought I was nuts. 'How ya gonna cast that out?' they asked with a laugh.”
Length - 134cm from head to V of tail
On the bathroom scales it went 32.7kg
There’s also been some boomer kingies caught land based closer to the city, off Sunshine Bay and in town around Oriental, Flat Rock, and Evan’s Bay.
Kapiti is fishing really well when you can get out there, with good albacore catches out the back of the island and northwards, and not so many bluefin of late.
Tons of good snapper and kingy fishing out there, all systems are go on that front, around the popular reef systems all round the island, so depending on what way the wind is blowing, there’s always a fishable spot at the moment.
Closer in, the harbour is fishing nicely, especially for snapper, where Point Gordon has been pretty much the story, although Ward Island is proving good for snapper too.
If you want to fish the wreck (look for it off Point Halswell toward Somes) it’s good for kingies, tarakihi, snapper and heaps of other species. The trick is staying a bit wide of it to avoid losing your anchor on it, and drifting is not so great as you then lose your gear fairly easily.
Setting up a berley trail drifting into the wreck as you sit off the edge of it is generally a good way to go with dropper rigs and straylines doing the business.
Get set for a good weekend coming up.
Good luck and tight lines.
Cheers
Pete
8.10.21
Getting a break from the wind is not so easy at this time of year, and true to form some decent time on the water has been pretty hard to come by of late. On the brief occasions we’ve managed to get out, fishing has been pleasantly successful, with terakihi, puka and kingies all playing ball out at the Hunter Bank.
We lost a couple of really good fish, but still managed to land a couple.
Out west of Hunter Bank there have been some really good snapper and kingis caught on slow jigs as deep as 120 metres, and there’s always the chance of puka or big teris here as well.
This seems to be a bit of a thing as Palliser Bay has been turning up good snapper out as deep as 100 metres also.
Snapper seem to be pretty abundant off Makara one day and gone the next - in a more traditional 60 – 80 metres.
Boom rock produced a nice kingi and snapper for us the other day but the couta were in plague proportions and spooked tarakihi.
Verns has been good for teris (70-80mtrs) on the turn of tide.
On the last trip we caught 6 snapper just south of the mana bridge as well as a heap of kahawai
The harbour has been a bit quieter and a few too many spiney dogs are around, but this may fire up a bit as we get warmer, and the water clears up a bit. Still some good catches of gurnard to be had though.
Shore fishers have been enjoying excellent gurnard fishing inside Lambton Harbour.
Evans bay has had a few snapper coming in at places like flat rock and Balena bay.
Kapiti is fishing pretty well for snapper at the north end, but we have reports it’s been not as good off the southern end. Spineys have been a problem closer to shore but when the water cleans up this should change.
Nicolsons trench fired up plenty of big bluenose on the last fishable day and consistent tarakihi and bluecod have been taken further inshore along with the odd snapper and kingfish.
Some good catches of whitebait have been taken at waikanae, Otaki, lake ferry and a few lesser known spots.
It’s perfect time for surfcasters in Palliser bay for the run of blue moki, gurnard and potentially snapper. Best fishing is when the water is clean (less than a mtr southerly swell)
Places like long beach, karori stream beach, Fitzroy bay and Wainui are good (closer to wgtn) shore fishing spots at this time of the year as well - bluecod, moki, gurnard and
1 Sept 2021
Fishing is great at the moment. Particularly for gurnard in the harbour.
Snapper are still about as well that is pretty weird as we normally expect them to just be gone at this time of the year. There are snapper being caught just about anywhere around Wellington, and in the harbour there’s a huge proliferation of juvenile fish. Give these guys a couple of years and if all goes well there should be some awesome fishing in the harbour. Point Gordon is the place to be currently, the deeper hole off there that drops off around 25 metres seems to congregate them, along with a few decent sized blue cod.
There’s also still plenty of kingfish around, and a good customer of ours managed a nice 30 pounder off the shore on a stick bait recently. Can’t say where as he swore me to secrecy but rocky outcrops are where kingies cruise the weed lines so perhaps persevering with stick baits is worth your while. Big fish off the rocks are always more fun than from a boat and a good kingy on a stick bait is epic action.
There’s a fair few big blue mackerel around that make awesome live kingfish baits or are great smoked or eaten as sashimi.
There’s a fair few big blue mackerel around that make awesome live kingfish baits or are great smoked or eaten as
July 2 2021
It’s fair to say the weather has been pretty nasty to us over the last few weeks and getting out fishing has been out of the question. However, when we do get these big snaps come through you can always count on some good fishing out the other side. Before the big fronts, the fishing was pretty good, full on all over the place.
One of my mates that runs a charter was catching some really big kingies up to the magic thirty kilo mark out at the Trench while chasing bluenose and puka.
Those are big fish to be hauling up from the deep, and it’s not uncommon to get them out there around June and July on the ‘shallower’ banks around 120 to 160 metres.
Out at Hunters was also going really well with kingies just nailing jigs like no tomorrow, same at Kapiti.
There’s also been good numbers of warehou turning up at Hunters which is good to see.
One of the best eating fish out there, john dory, seem to be around at the moment, and these fish although not that super common around Wellington, are always welcome additions to the pot.
You’ll target jds in the shallower reefy areas and usually catch them on live baits or big slow moving soft baits around the weed beds and other structure, as well as a few that hang around wharf pylons.
In winter, it seems to be more productive to fish a bit deeper, around fifty to sixty metres. Out in this zone there are big teri’s, cod, snapper and just about all the other species at any given time.
We fished north end of Hunters yesterday and anchored up in around seventy metres for some awesome terakihi fishing, with good specimens around two kilos, and a couple of nice snapper on the turn of the tide, so it will be worth getting out there again with some decent weather coming up.
Its always good this time of year down towards Ohau in fifty to seventy metres and I expect the fishing should be dynamite there once things calm down nicely.
There will be heaps of good fishing action coming up, with some settled spells, and good moon and smaller tide phases.
Kapiti has been producing plenty of good snapper and kingies, and my deckie has been firing out to the hundred metre mark north of Kapiti in search of puka, and managed to get onto some really big terakihi. This is a good area to target this time of year with plenty of bottom structure to prospect and always the chance of picking up hapuka and decent terakihi.
Kapiti is a good area to fish slow jigs, kabura and inchiku style jigs for snapper and kings, but sometimes bait is a better nose turner in winter, so it can pay to have both on board.
Make the most of the clear weather windows, and stay safe.
