Now I’m no expert in fishing the Upper Harbour but I do love to try and have seen and spoken to plenty of people that have a lot of success in these waters and particularly at certain times of the year.
With the year we have had where all of Auckland’s recreational fisherman have been off the water for weeks it will be interesting to see if the fish numbers will be up too.
Maybe that’s what I need to increase my chances!
They say that from around mid-January to mid-April Snapper switch from reproduction to full-feeding mode. This means the shellfish-laden harbour shallows come alive with hungry snapper looking for an easy-feed.
But the harbour has plenty of fish at all times of the year and one of the great things about the Upper Harbour is you can find places to fish from shore, or you can get onto the water safely with a small dingy or kayak.
Some Tip’s For Fishing The Upper Harbour
Note: Sourced from Matt Jones – NZ Fishing World
With the strong tidal flows, rain run-off and the muddy harbour banks often creating murky waters close to shore, together these things provide the snapper, kahawai and even the inquisitive kingfish with enough of a sense of security to venture into the shallow areas of even just a couple of metres. An ideal place to fish is a slightly deeper gut within a large sand/mud bank running in the same direction to the tidal flows.
Fish will venture into these gut’s to feed and if you can pop your lure or bait in the gut then you may pick up a few good fish as they are passing. The upper Waitemata Harbour is full of spots like the one mentioned above and you can pick them out at low tide or on your fish finder.
Anchor up and use the current to your advantage to direct a berley trail into the target zone; be it a shellfish-laden sand bank, a hole or a reef like Meola reef. The current will disperse your berley for you, attracting fish from a wide area. They say a nice side-effect of berleying up is that you’ll often attract bait fish too, and where there’s bait fish there’s often John dory, kahawai and kingfish lurking.
Matt suggests that the best time to fish is on an outgoing tide and the best bite was through the middle of the tide.
Try Fly-fishing Or Softbait Fishing The Mangroves
It’s always fund to try something a bit different, and I came across a video about fly fishing the Mangroves.
Of course we hear these stories of good Snapper feeding and being caught in the shallows around the Mangroves, and it’s something that I think I will be trying this summer.
Sitting in the calm shallows slowly casting sounds like a good way to spend a few hours, and if I can pull in a feed of Snapper I would be a happy fisherman.
I don’t have a fly fishing rod so will use my soft bait rod.
Catching Flounder In The Upper Harbour
If you have tasted fresh flounder and you live near the Upper Harbour then you have probably thought about going on a mission to get some.
Typically when I think about catching Flounder it either involves a light and spear, or a net.
I don’t have a net that would be any good, so in the past I have always caught Flounder at night using a light and a spear, but with the muddy bottom of the Upper Harbour at Hobsonville Point I have not yet tried.
But then I saw this video of a guy catching Flounder in the Upper Harbour using the Natural Snake lollies. Of course I had to watch the video and it’s now on my list of things to try.
I guess if I don’t catch any Flounder then I might have some lollies left!
Join A Fishing Club
The Upper Harbour is a great playground for people that love the water and of course fishing.
You could join the Malt Greenhithe Fishing Club that is based out of the Malt in Greenhithe or with the population and new facilities coming to Hobsonville Point we would expect that we could see someone willing to start up a fishing club here.
The Upper Harbour Regional Marine Centre might make the perfect venue to base a club from too.
Of course we would love to see a fishing club, so register your interest and we will see if there is a good level of interest.