AlbertW

It looks quite small in my hands haha,

Hey all, Got on the plane to Auckland yesterday and after a few “minor” inconveniences( the bus got hit by an airport truck) we finally made it to Auckland at around 4pm Nz time. Woke up at around 4am today and just didn’t have anything to do so I got up at 6 and went down to get some breakfast at the hotel. At 10 I venture out into the harbour with my little bream gear and start chucking gulp grubs around. The guys at the tackle shop said that 4-5 inch plastics were a good size even for the little snapper. However I kept getting hits and taps and hooking up but then promptly dropping the fish, after cutting the grub in half I sent it back out there and first cast I had something big grab it, my little 2500 nasci screamed and off it went. Was thinking of a trevally at first but then I saw the red. So happy to be rewarded with a 30cm snapper especially with it being my second time fishing here in NZ and first time trying soft plastics for saltwater. I only had 4lb braid and 10lb leader so I was very hesitant to lift it up, but with no other options it actually handled very well, no abrasions on the leader but I’ll still change it up later. Chucked it back and off I went back to the hotel to write this report. Thanks for reading, Albert

ahh thats good to know then

I'm guessing with the retrieve for all lured its just a slow roll downstream right? As if a baitfish or insect was swimming upstream it would look entirely unnatural because they wouldn't expend energy for no reason.

Thanks so much for the feedback Volitan , I'm also looking at getting some green pumpkin zman larvaz to imitate a caddis or mayfly larva, also at the shad fryz in the smelt or pearl in order to imitate a little baitfish, with how light I can rig them I figure I can sort of fly fish and drift them through the current. However I'll have to buy them in NZ because I just had this amazing whim today and just realised how perfect they would be, I'm thinking of ordering off <vendor removed> and getting them to deliver to my hotel or maybe even collect it because my hotel is only a couple of minutes away.

I'll be happy with just one fish haha, if not the view and the learning experience would already be worth it. Heres the freshwater lures my mate left me.

After some further digging it looks like that I might have the whole place to myself as the blue springs is closed due to a rockfall at the Leslie road entrance

Now that I've done some more research I'm able to fish till the end of the river right? Till the blue spring. I'll be using spinners and plastics then

Yeah true haha, I put in 6-8 hours every sesh and have caught nothing except my first king haha

Ahhhhh I see it on the map now, is this the route you mean? That entire river after that is public land right? If so that looks like fishing heaven...

Beautiful fish whiskey, do you do any shorejigging when the weather doesn't permit the yak?

Oh thats great, I'll definitely be going to waihou then, I'm thinking of the access at Herries Park in order to keep the family happy so they have something to thanks in advance. I don't quite have the funds for a fly rod right now but a 2500 sized nasci with 4lb braid should be light enough for the river right? I'm thinking of using a slim swims with a little golden TT spinner attached to it.

Hey All, Been a while since my last report because of assessments and all that, now with it being the last week I decided to get into the freshwater mood as of the upcoming trip to NZ this Friday. I had called @DerekD on Sunday morning and asked about the bass in manly dam. He promptly suggested spinners as they have been working for him there. I had recently bought all of Eesh’s gear as he had gone back to Canada and in his collection he had a small box of freshwater stuff as he was an avid canadian freshwater angler. So I tied on a mepps spinner and rolled them back to me. On the first couple of casts I realised that little greenish baitfish were following the spinner so I decided to change to a 3inch watermelon slim swimz with a spinner on it. A couple casts later whilst working the bank and I get smashed. It pulls a little bit of drag but I soon realised it was just a Redfin perch so the hunt for the bass continues! Still, a 26-27cm perch is not bad for the early season especially since it was my first. The rest of the afternoon stopped to a halt as families piled in and seemingly everyone with kids had hopped in the water even though it was still quite cold. Drove up to a nearby tackle shop to pick up a new rod afterwards and went home for a quick poorly done haircut by my dad. (All my mates laughed their arse’s off at me on Monday) Thanks for reading, Albert

That's very unfortunate pickles, I hope you get better soon. On the bright side congrats to you, Rosie, and Joe for pulling through though

Looks stunning mate, shame that it won't be in season when I get there

I'll be there this friday to next Wednesday haha

Now that I look at it, I might take that day and drive up to one of the lakes in Rotorua instead or do you recommend any other spots less than 2 hours drive?

I'll be happy enough with a perch or the others, did you target perch on lures and the others on bait?

Not yet haha, I'm planning for something big next year so all my income has been going towards saving up for that

It's just a basic plastic rental kayak haha, I'm not old enough to hire the Sea kayaks so I don't think I'll be getting any kingies but there should be plenty of snapper in the bay

Cheers mike, I'll read up and get myself familiar with the new zealand fish and game website 👍

I just realised that there is a lake pupuke stocked with trout 😅, guess im bringing my 2500 and my 3000

Hey All, I'll be visiting Auckland for a few days this holiday and I really want to bring a rod, I'll be living in a hotel right next to the water in the port area, this is my first time visiting the north island and 2nd time actually visiting new zealand, so I know nothing about fishing there. My current game plan is to bring a 3000 sized reel, and to hire a kayak in mission bay if i can fish there and drop either soft plastics grubs or bait. Could someone please help me out with general info like where I can fish and where I cannot? Thanks in advance, Albert

still using it lol

Great little thing, was my entry bream reel