Boating New Zealand - May 2018

102 Boating New Zealand

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the surface with no birds or other ish in attendance. here are

probably predator ish nearby, but if nothing is molesting the

bait, it can be a waiting game until nature throws the switch and

a feeding frenzy begins.

SMORGASBORD

he beauty of ishing around anchovy schools is the variety of

predators they attract. Kahawai are usually the most obvious,

pushing the bait to the surface and slashing through it, but all

kinds of ish get in on the action.

his is especially true if the carnage has been going on for

some time, or the bait has been concentrated in a restricted area

• predators often trap anchovy schools against the shorelines
  of bays and coves where they are more easily picked of in the
  shallow water.
  As well as kahawai, expect to encounter snapper, kingish,
  john dory and trevally around anchovy schools. You might also
  hook blue cod, jack mackerel and gurnard. Depending on the
  location, skipjack tuna might also igure in the mix.
  If the bait has been pushed up against a rocky shoreline,
  a variety of reef species like pig ish, scarlet and sandagers
  wrasses – even spotties and parore – can also be taken.

THINK SMALL

It’s lure-ishing heaven during the anchovy run, though you

should adapt your approach to ‘match the hatch’ by presenting

lures that approximate the size and shape of the anchovies the

predators are eating.

Anchovies range in size from very small to around 10 or

12cm, so small lures are the order of the day. hese include soft

plastics, especially small ones, micro-jigs, small sinking stick

baits and saltwater lies in silver/blue/green ‘baitish’ colours.

Fly-ishing during the anchovy run is the ultimate buzz,

ofering consistently good catches of kahawai, snapper, trevally

and kingish.

And while individual anchovies are small, taken together

they present a lot of food, so they attract large numbers of

predatory ish in a range of sizes. You never quite know what

you’ll hook.

It’s unusual to encounter large kingish feeding on

anchovies, though they may prey on the kahawai and mackerel

that are, so it doesn’t hurt to throw a few large topwater

lures around. Generally though, kingish tend to be under the

750mm legal size limit, unless you are lucky enough to come

across mixed schools of anchovies and pilchards, which can

mean larger kingish and larger snapper too.

GETTING PAST THE KAHAWAI

Kahawai are great fun to catch and pretty good eating when

treated right, but ishing around the anchovy schools, it can

sometimes be diicult to catch anything else.

If it’s snapper you are after, the best strategy is to ish

around the fringes of the action rather than casting to the

splashing kahawai and diving birds at the heart of it. You’ll still

hook plenty of kahawai out on the edges, but you have a much

better shot at snapper and other species.

Kingish tend to be an incidental catch, but you can speciically

target them with small stick baits, metal jigs/micro-jigs and

larger soft plastics. Like everything else during the anchovy

run, kingish tend to be keyed in on small baits, but sometimes

throwing a larger or diferent lure can trigger a kingish bite when

a small lure only catches kahawai and snapper. BNZ

LEFT Seabirds give

away the presence of

anchovy schools.

BELOW Even

normally vegetarian

species like parore

get in on the

anchovy action.