Manukau - May 2010

Easter shows promising signs

Ben Francis with a 7.5kg fish caught drift fishing from Voyager off the Manukau in early April.

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With light winds and very little swell, the Easter conditions were ‘glassy’.

Both game fishing and snapper fishing were better than most were anticipating, with some good fish taken. Water temperatures were averaging in the high 19ºC range, with a few people finding water up to 20.4ºC.

There was plenty of life around, with the exception of good bird work-ups – something which has been notably absent for some time now.
A few billfish were caught, with some reports indicating that these fish have no food in their stomachs, but others telling of fish spewing out sauries and jack mackerel when brought on board. There are plenty of skippies to be had, but the albacore are proving more difficult to find. It seems that the albies are along the 50-70m mark; skippies can be found in very good numbers from 90-120m.

The number of snapper on the coast had definitely improved over the period of bad weather through March. The beginning of April saw good numbers of ‘pannies’ along with a few much better fish over 7kg. The glassy conditions and low current allowed for some great fishing on the drift and at anchor. The 30-40m mark was favoured; at times the fishing was slow, but patience paid off, with most fish brought to the boat being well over 30cm.

The usual large schools of kahawai were present, often forming small work-ups on the surface. Getting baits past these schools down to the snapper on the bottom has been difficult, with many resorting to heavier sinkers as a partial answer.

Harbour fishing was poor through March, but in April it began to improve. Kingies are still being caught, mostly on cut baits while fishing for other species. Some of these fish are of a very respectable size for in the harbour, such as Lance Rudman’s recent 16kg fish.

Reports of a few good snapper being caught are encouraging, with fishermen inside the harbour commenting on the size of the legal fish, which has been around the 30cm mark or better.

- © Fairfax NZ News