The first thing I do when I first walk onto an estuarine flat is to take 10 – 15 minutes to look around through my polaroid’s and see what is happening. I’m looking for two things, fish movement and bird activity, and while I’m looking I try to keep my own movements as unobtrusive as possible. Checking for fish movement, especially in the shallow margins, … Continue reading FINDING FISH USING BIRDS
One of the most successful techniques for spin fishing on the flats is to “wet line” soft plastics. This technique works best if the spinning reel is spooled with braid. My preference is to use 7 kilogram Nanofil or Fireline and attach a 1.5 metre length of 7 kilogram Amnesia monofilament as a shock trace. Fly fishermen will probably understand the principles involved as they are almost identical … Continue reading “WETLINING” SOFT PLASTICS
Text: Alan Bulmer Featured image: Wettie Several months ago I published an article called “Targeting Trevally” which looked at how to improve your success rate when chasing trevally. If you want to view this article then click on the following link:- https://activeanglingnz.com/2015/08/08/outsmarting-trevally-with-flies-and-lures/ Late autumn and early winter are prime times to target trevally. There are some things that you need to consider when fishing during the … Continue reading HARBOUR TREVALLY
As you probably know I recently reviewed a Kilwell Xantu 9’6” #8 fly rod kindly loaned to me by Kilwell Sports. If you want to read the review then click on: – https://activeanglingnz.com/…/kilwell-xantu-96-8-weight-rod…/ Jeremy Wells was only too keen to see other anglers try the rod so I leant it to my fishing pal, Mark Hoffman. Mark had a few days off early this week … Continue reading FLATS KINGFISH
Words Alan Bulmer , Photo’s & Video Mark Hoffman Mark Hoffman and I have been planning for weeks to fly fish a shallow flat we’d discovered on Google Earth close to central Auckland. Our plan was to hit the spot when the weather was settled and a high tide next coincided with dawn. All the stars aligned this Saturday. The weather was perfect. Fine and sunny with a westerly … Continue reading EARLY MORNING MAYHEM ON THE FLATS
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Waiheke Island is located in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf. A short ferry ride from downtown Auckland it is arguably the jewel in the crown when it comes to saltwater fly fishing around Auckland. If you want a better idea of how good it can be click on the following video from Paul Smith to see local fishing legends, Adam Clancey and Tom Lusk, getting up close and … Continue reading WAIHEKE ISLAND – SALT FLY NIRVANA?
Due to low tide almost coinciding perfectly with dawn and dusk, I managed to get two fishing sessions in paradise yesterday. Excellent! The morning session fitted in with Paul Smith’s schedule so we arranged to rendezvous at 06.15 am at our normal parking spot. The drive to paradise is a long and winding one which our canine fishing companion Louis was no fan of. Whenever … Continue reading SNAPPER – DAWN AND DUSK
One of the most important changes that an angler needs to make in switching from fresh to saltwater fly fishing is to the leader which joins the fly line to the fly. Saltwater fish species are much larger than fresh, more powerful and live in terrain that is likely to damage a leader. Oyster shell encrusted rocks and horse mussels take no prisoners. In New … Continue reading LEADERS FOR SALTWATER FLY FISHING
This morning I spent a couple of hours chasing kingfish in the shallows in the Hauraki Gulf. Uncharacteristically they did not start scouring the flats until the sun was well up and the tide started to ebb. This was probably due to the king tide cycle that we are in the midst of. My colleague picked that this would happen as there was no panic … Continue reading KINGFISH IN CLOSE
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Back in the day most anglers timed their trips to the Tongariro river to coincide with the main rainbow trout spawning runs which occurred over the winter months. Between 1960 and 2000 these runs were mostly concentrated between May – August. However there has been a major change in the timing of the rainbow trout spawning runs since 2002 and the fabled winter runs have … Continue reading WHICH MONTHS ARE BEST TO FISH THE TONGARIRO?
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