North Island Fishing Report: Settled Seas and Snapper Bins This Week

Kia ora, this is Artificial Lure with your North Island fishing report. Around the upper North Island, we’re sitting under a settled high with light variable winds in many areas this morning, tending seabreeze in the afternoon. Expect calm to slight seas and good visibility. MetService reports patchy cloud but plenty of clear patches, so it’s a good day to be on the water. Sunrise was around twenty past seven, sunset just after five, giving a short but punchy bite window at dawn and again late arvo. Tides around the Hauraki Gulf and East Coast are running mid‑range today, with a decent morning incoming pushing bait up onto the edges, and an afternoon outgoing that’s been firing up the channels. Local tide boards and Coastguard notices point to stronger flow on the headlands and reef points, so plan your drifts and anchor jobs to make the most of that moving water. Snapper have been the main story. Inshore, inner‑gulf patches in 8–15 metres have produced pannies to the mid‑40s on soft‑baits and straylined baits, especially over foul and shell. Out a bit wider, the 30–45 metre line has seen better numbers of solid fish, with a few larger models mixed in. Recent club comps and tackle shop chat from Auckland through to the Bay of Plenty all mention consistent snapper bins, plus the odd by‑catch of kahawai and trevally. On the lure front, small to mid‑size soft‑baits in natural baitfish colours have been hot: think motor‑oil, new penny, and anchovy‑style patterns worked close to the bottom. Slow‑pitch jigs in 40–80 grams, pinks, oranges, and golds, are doing damage over the deeper pins. For bait fishos, fresh is best: pilchards, squid, and fresh kahawai or mullet cubes, lightly weighted and allowed to waft back in the burley trail. Kingfish action has been patchy but worth the effort around the offshore reefs, markers, and workups. Live jack mackerel and kahawai slow‑trolled or dropped on the edges of structure are your best shot, with a few fish also taken on mechanical jigs and topwater stickbaits when bait schools are pushed to the surface. Couple of hotspot ideas for you: • Hauraki Gulf – the worm beds and surrounding foul off Auckland have held steady snapper schools, with birds picking and gannets occasionally dropping on anchovy and pilchard workups. Drift these areas with soft‑baits and slow jigs for a good shot at a mixed bag. • Bay of Plenty – inshore reefs and sand edges off Tauranga and Matakana Island have been turning over pannies and the odd solid snapper on the change of light. Fish the tide changes with a solid burley trail and unweighted baits, and keep a livebait out for a cruising king. Overall fish activity has been best around the top and bottom of the tide, lining up nicely with dawn and dusk. Midday has been quieter in the clearer water, so go lighter on trace and more natural with your presentations if you’re stuck fishing the middle of the day. That’s your North Island report from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a session on the water. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn