Eastern Coromandel - June 2010

Larger snapper moving in

This 19.3kg kingfish was caught by Blake Wilkins on 15kg tackle while live baiting the Alderman Pins, a junior club record and a pending national small fry record.

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Waikato Coromandel

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In early May, marlin were still in close, with the last report being a hook-up and several other sightings from the charter boat Triple Vision between Cobra and Whale.

There have also been sightings out from the Aldermens by boats chasing kingies. Large kingfish are starting to show up in good numbers out deeper, with the best being a 30.68kg specimen caught on live bait. There are still rat kings in plague proportions in close, and while fun to catch, they can be a pain when trying for snapper.

Larger snapper and trevally are starting to move into foul areas around 15m depth, with Black Rocks, Korapuke, Green and Stanley Islands all producing very well at the moment.

Out on the sand, the pannies are in close to the beaches in 10 to 40m – accessible to pretty much everyone, with or without a boat. There have been some very nice gurnard amongst them, and these will be more common as autumn moves to winter.

Kahawai are everywhere in the bay, gorging on whitebait and small anchovies, so keep your lures small. Live-baiting is out-fishing jigs for kingies right now. Well done to Blake Wilkins, whose small fry record claim was also caught on live bait.

Up the estuaries there are still good numbers of pannie snapper, small trevally and kahawai, and the flounder are back in reasonable numbers. Check nets regularly as many parore are about, and it is good to be able to let as many as possible go.

- © Fairfax NZ News