Saltwater Fly Fishing in Auckland

It’s been 100 days or so that we’ve been stuck in Auckland safely locked away from the best fly fishing New Zealand has to offer. Auckland only has one local trout stream and it’s been hammered.

So Pawel said let’s hit it Friday after work before the weekend rush. We did and caught nothing.

The truth is fly fishing for trout in Auckland sucks. We gave up on the idea of catching trout, but what should we do instead? Stay home and be bored?

Absolutely not! Instead, we decided to go saltwater fly fishing on Sunday.

Auckland’s Waitemata harbour can be a saltwater fly fishing paradise at times.

With water temperatures increasing and fish activity expected to be on the rise, we set off in total darkness to beat the boat ramp madness.

We headed straight for the marker buoys. The break of dawn is often the best time to target kingfish on the channel markers. We tried several with no luck before we decided to take our chances drifting with sinking lines for snapper.

Unfortunately, this usually very effective method also failed us so an alternate plan was made. Things had warmed up as the sun rose higher in the sky and we tried some channel markers for kingfish on our way to a shallow reef. Still, no luck and not a kingfish spotted.

It was proving to be a tough day on the water and our shallow water reef spot did not deliver either. The terrain looked so good but all we had was one short follow of Pawel’s fly.

Time was running out, Pawel needed to be back at the boat ramp by 11:30 so we started making our way back, stopping for a fish in Islington bay.  Here Pawel finally hooked up after a few drifts.

The loss of his fish was a painful affair for both of us and added to what was becoming a woeful day fishing-wise but stunning weather at least. Well, that’s “the sort of thing fly fisherman always say when we don’t catch fish “better than a day in the office”. 

Some small kahawai showed up and I finally hooked and landed my first fish, a tiny hand-sized kahawai!  Better than nothing ay.

It was time to make a move to drop off Pawel at the ramp.

Just as we were crossing the Rangi channel on our way to the Takapuna boat ramp the surface started boiling with kahawai chasing small bait over a wide area.  Time was very short but we just had to stop!

My kahawai went home for a dinner date with the family and sadly Pawel didn’t get a kahawai before I had to drop him off at the ramp. I returned soon after but the kahawai were mostly gone and another go at several marker buoys turned up nothing.

A tough but still pleasant day out saltwater fly fishing and yes it was better than a day in the office. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one.