Auckland, New Zealand over Xmas

[John]

So I headed over to New Zealand for Christmas to visit friends in Auckland. The first few days were rained out, but finally after 4 days there was a break in the weather for us to head out from Takapuna boat ramp (on the North Shore of Auckland) to Rangitoto Channel for an afternoon session. Ramp was pretty busy and was a bit of a nightmare to get out. Had to watch out for the ocean swimmers (heaps swimming right next to boat ramp at takapuna beach).

[map]rangitoto channel[/map]

We went over to the north-western side of Rangitoto Island and threw out the sea anchor for a drift. There were 5 of us on board so we threw out some lines with pillies on it and some with soft plastics. The plastics weren't touched, so ended up anchoring and fishing with pillies managing a few small snapper (although legal size limit is only 27cm), kept 2 which from memory were around the 35cm mark.

We then went South down the channel to another spot and did a few drifts. Not much was happening here until Becky's line went screaming off. After a brief battle she got in a small shark (not sure of species), which was released.

The next morning Doug and I got up early and after checking that the Milford creek was too low, had to launch again at Takapuna ramp. Ramp was empty and the weather was perfect - with a good amount of cloud cover and the water was glassy.

We headed directly out to the otherside of the channel and threw out the sea anchor for a drift South. We were fishing a few different plastics. Then bang, Doug is onto a decent snapper.

Doug gets another big hit, so realising they are hitting the nuclear chickens i switch to this and sure enough only 30 seconds passes till my line is hit. Had some good fights on our light-ish gear winding in these NZ snapper.

The further south we drifted towards the north head of Auckland Harbour the snapper went off the bite, but the kingies came on. Doug had some good runs and landed a few of these, but all undersize (minimum length 75cm) so all went back.

Went back and did the same drift again, moving over the snapper again as well as the kingies. Great day fishing with a total of 15 snapper and 3 kingies, we threw back any snapper under 40cm so we ended up with 8 snapper to feed everyone for pre-xmas eve dinner. We both caught 4 each, with my snapper pb on plastics of 59cm.The sizes caught were 65cm, 59cm, 50cm, 56.5cm, 55cm, 52.5cm, 50.5cm and 44.5cm. We then headed back to the ramp and was home by 9am

Smallest snapper here is 44.5cm

[rosstralia46]

awesome work mate some great snapper top read cheers

[eg_vtec]

some quality fish there guys. good job

[ryanyoung]

Good stuff Johnny, top pics as well.

Ryan.

[adambris]

nice report mate, i think thats a school shark,

[jared1979]

Think they are a school shark we used to call them greyboy sharks.

[AngryBundyBear]

Great session Johnny

[becky]

my first shark (whilst fishing for snapper)

[ellicat]

Seems it may be the place to go for a fish at the moment :dry:

Looks like a good getaway.

[Scope]

Nice one mate, some good fish there!

I'm pretty sure their 27cm legal size is taken from the fork isn't it?

[ellicat]

Nice one mate, some good fish there!

I'm pretty sure their 27cm legal size is taken from the fork isn't it?

If 27 is legal then I'm sure a lot are taken from the fork

[Angus]

Man I wish I was there now!

Angus

[dassa]

Good work johnny nice to see beck having some fun fishing as well.

Mate beckys shark is a little gummy Im about 99% sure as I seen one yesterday on IFish but it was about 25kg

[John]

Nice one mate, some good fish there!

I'm pretty sure their 27cm legal size is taken from the fork isn't it?

yep its from the fork in NZ