Wellington - May 2010

Terrific tarakihi

Top snapper catches in the Wellington region recently included this 10.6kg fish caught in February by Mark Graham at Pukerua Bay.

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Both boat and shore fishers have been doing really well on tarakihi during late March and April.

In the harbour, shore fishers have been having great success from Point Halswell down to Seatoun, and fish have been of good size for shore-caught fish, with around half a kilo being average. Surfcaster Paul Haywood landed 16 fish during a very early morning session.

Harbour tarakihi for boaties have been taken roughly from the same areas, with offshore from the satellite dish and around the wreck being the most productive places. Some boaties have been getting limit and close-to-limit bags.

Also being caught in the harbour with some frequency are elephant fish. Local boatie Richard Clough has certainly been getting his share, with some nice fish in the 4-5kg bracket. Snapper on the eastern side of the harbour and kahawai in most localities have added to the harbour’s spice.

South coast boat fishers are also doing very well on tarakihi down towards Turakirae, with fish probably averaging 1.5 kilos. Most of these fish are being caught around the 90-100m depths. Also being caught at this depth are frostfish on jigs. Blue cod fishing along the deeper reefs of the south coast is also productive.

Lots of jack mackerel schools are starting to show up, along with that berserk fighter, the rays bream, in the 2kg range (pay close attention to your sounder to locate these species, which are usually found in mid to upper water).

The Trench has been very patchy, but can be a week-to-week proposition in terms of species and fish numbers. As usual at this time of the year, snapper have been the big buzz and numbers have not disappointed. Plenty of limit bags are being caught from the length of the Makara coast through to Kapiti.

One very well-conditioned 9.9-kilo effort was caught recently by Gary Whitaker while fishing in 16m of water off Paekakariki. This is a very good size for a Wellington region snapper, and the good news is that snapper fishing should hold up well into May.

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