It's all on!! The spring fishing at the moment is spectacular. The surfcasters are absolutely smashing the moki, trevally and early season snapper in the wairarapa, with many anglers catching a half dozen or so. November has always been a favorite month of mine for fishing along that coast as it can produce real quality mixed bags. You are best to use one or two hook ledger rigs with fresh mussel, crayfish, paddle crab or some anchovy. Using these baits will help to avoid the odd pesky spiny dog fish that still lurk around.
For anyone looking at getting into this coastal fishing i would suggest a 13ft 3pce rod and reel combo something like the Shimano Vortex 13’6ft 3 pce rod paired with a longcast reel like the shimano Aerlex or the Okuma distance surf arena we have these combos in store and they run out the door at $299 spooled with line. These are a great value for money set.
The harbour is starting to pick up with some good kahawai, gurnard and a few snapper mainly around Evans bay and the eastern side of the Miramar peninsula. The first handful of kingfish have been caught at the usual haunts remember these are not the only places that slide baiting works.
There are many areas like seatoun, the Hutt river mouth and Eastbourne, these have many great rocky outcrops and beaches where you will successfully catch these green back torpedoes and enjoy some great snapper and trevally fishing in the same areas.
The boat fishing on all coasts has been great one day and slow the next this is a reflection in the ups and downs of the temperature with it going from 15 degrees to 10 then jumping back up to 15 over a period of 5 days this is a good sign that it is bouncing back so quickly as it means the warm water is not getting pushed to far up the coast when we get a southerly flow. Having said that the good days have been really good with good numbers of puka out deep with fish up to 60lb being taken. The inshore fishing on the south has been good for blue cod, tarakihi and gurnard, all lovely table fish.
Inshore fishing on the west has seen some great gurnard, trevally and a number of snapper being taken. The tarakihi are starting to fish well at verns along with the odd puka which is great fun on the lighter gear. Kingfish have been pretty solid with a number of fish around, the challenging thing is getting past all the barracouta and big schools of kahawai.
Once these Northerlies slow and we get the chance to get out the west coast again the fishing should be very good and only get better as the weather gets warmer.
Make sure you pop in store if you need any help or free advice on how to do it or where to go.
Cheers Felix