Fishing in The bay Of Islands New Zealand

[StrikerCharters]

Nice snapper mate

[Tat2b]

tht snapper lives in kulp for sure so dark... i c ur using a boat rod with ur sof bait?? do u cast and retrive or let it sink to the bottom then retrive??

[JimbobandJo]

Yep sure is a kelpy. We are fishing close to the shore and the rocky outcrops. We drift past and flick the softbait right into the rocks then let it sink a little so really its just about amongst the kelp then whammo. I only fish with 12lb mono so I gotta be quick. Lost some that just plain went the other way.

[aus2045]

The fishing in NZ is so much better than here in Oz. Snapper like that are rare these days. That would be a fish of a lifetime here.

[JimbobandJo]

Yeah it has it's moments.Been crap weather here havn't had the boat in the water for 13 weekends straight. I like your Barramundi fishing.You get some big snaps in Adelaide though eh ? Where are you?

[aus2045]

I am in Rockhampton, Qld, halfway between Brisbane/Cairns. Its's very fished out here.

[JimbobandJo]

Ok there's a big population there for a small coastline. We tend to release the larger snapper when possible. We have a 9 fish per day limit here which I think is too many. 5 would be ample. Our small limit is 270mm. I have a lower limit of 350mm on my boat and a top of 450mm. Gotta do what ya can to keep it going. We have active breeding programs here for a couple species including kingfish.

[watertothepeople]

beautiful snapper! when I travelled new zealand I cought my first kingfish in the bay of islands. what a beautiful spot and country!

[AHAPS]

nice one mate!,what type of knot are you using to tie the lure on?

[JimbobandJo]

Thanks.I use a double uni to the swivel.I used to use snap swivels but they open up and fish are lost.Now I use a plain ring to attatch the swivel to the lure head.I tie a blood knot for the trace to main line.That way I can wind the trace right onto the reel when the fish is close to the boat.

[leetdragon]

Beutiful looking fish good on ya

[pikeyman1]

The gulp realluy does work, my mate's been catching loads of carp (in the UK) on the Gulp Salmon Eggs.

Nice snapper BTW!

[joshuakillsall247]

nice snapper

[slank7]

speak of the devil, i just bought some berkley shads today i got the 5" ones, one pack of white and another pack of blue/purple/white ones

[JimbobandJo]

What are you going to attract with those where you are ?

[slank7]

bass, pike, maybe musky. mostly bass though, i live in ottawa

[jellyman159]

hey dude

so does berkley gulp REALLy work?

what did u use there?

[JimbobandJo]

The gulp baits sure work.On this trip we mostly used the 10cm yellow minnow .We used the blue jerk shad but the yellow worked best for us. I used an after market 1/4 oz head colored red. Maybe the red head made a difference, they were just cheaper than the berkley originals. To catch the snapper in the video we drift past the rocks in about 20ft of water and cast the baits right to the edge like you guys do with bass then walk and twitch them over the kelp and foul ground back towards the boat.