Best places for spearfishing in NZ or Pacific?

[Ergo_Rapido]

Hey everyone, just wondering what you think the best places for spearfishing in NZ or near are? I've got three weeks of uni holidays and I'd love to got somewhere better then Banks Peninsula... So any thoughts, links or pictures would be much appreciated. Cheers!

 

[Shadowkiller]

If youre after 15-20kg Kingies, head north to Auckland and try to get onto a dive charter.

I dove Little Barrier with the Auckland Uni club (joined up because I'm at uni here in Oz), and had a blast.

Didn't land any decent fish except a 2kg Snapper as sharks ate the big kingies we shot. :crutch

Even on a shore dive in 6m over sand we were schooled by good kings.

 

[Ergo_Rapido]

Hey thanks for the reply, didn't think I'd get anything :waterwork
Anyhow, yeah I have family up there, plus in the Bay of Islands, so I'm really keen to go up over Christmas when I get months off uni, as I imagine you do too. Pity about the sharks though. Cheers

 

[Don Paul]

Hey thanks for the reply, didn't think I'd get anything :waterwork
Anyhow, yeah I have family up there, plus in the Bay of Islands, so I'm really keen to go up over Christmas when I get months off uni, as I imagine you do too. Pity about the sharks though. Cheers

I would think about Bay of Islands, check with the guys at the Bay Island Marlin club. They had some keen speros that were very friendly the last time I was there. I love New Zealand and If I didn't have a young son and little league baseball, I would be heading there more.

Cheers, Don Paul

 

[Ergo_Rapido]

Hey, thanks for the advice Don, I'll have to look into it if/when I get up there. Cheers

 

[Shadowkiller]

You may have already found it, but if not, check out:

Project Local - Welcome to Project Local - Everything Fishing, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing in New Zealand

Andy MacDonald is one of the guys who runs it. He's a top bloke and a great diver. Well worth contacting if you visit the North Island. He'll have a better idea than me whats going on with fish and boat trips.

Also ring or email the guys at Ocean Hunter dive shop:
Spearfishing New Zealand, Freediving, Spearguns, Wetsuits, Ocean Hunter

They looked after me really well when it came to hiring a weight belt and other gear I didn't bother packing for my flight to Auckland.

 

[Ergo_Rapido]

No, haven't seen that site before, not for a lack of looking for them though...
Cheers mate Having a look at it now.

 

[Hebs]

Nz is good but take a flight to the tonga islands, (it's a couple of hundre bucks for a return flight) I wen't there and every day I dream of returning.

The islands are cheap, not plagued by massive turism and have absolutely superp game.

 

[Ergo_Rapido]

Hey, cheers,

I actually just did an engineering project on tonga (I'm a uni student), and from that I was led to believe that around the main island the fishing wasn't so flash due to the commercial fishing, but on some of the other groups it was very good. Then again its probably still better then here.
Could you give any more details of your trip, like where within Tonga you went, what sort of fish you were after and how you were catching them etc etc? Thanks very much

 

[Hebs]

I hooked up with an american guy who does a lot of spearfishing around the main Island (he lives in Tonga Tapu) and from there we went fishing from his boat and from the shore aswell. We'd pretty much shoot anything but sharks, rays and other endangered species, because the fish we didn't keep for ourselves he would sell to the locals. I was not experienced back then, but I did play a lot with the aspetto dives, where you go to the bottom and wait for the fish to approach you and then shoot them. It seems the most easy and effective way is to sneak up on them from above and go for a fast kill.

It is a couple of years past now, and back then it was small game, mainly parrot fish which they have in heaps, but also sea bass, trigger fish and other fish aswell. I've kept in touch with the guy on facebook, and it seems that now he has really stepped up his game, shooting fish ranging from 10-40 kg. He's sent me many impressive, jealousy-inducing pictures I think theres definetely still a lot of fish in the main Island area. I went to the other Islands but that was without speargun, so I didn't hunt there. It looked good, though.

His name is Ben Carlson, and I believe he has a profile in here called coral_sniper. Back then I came with him for free, but he's perhaps made himself a business taking guys on tours on bigger boats, so he might charge you for tours, but I'm sure it will be worth every penny. He'll definetly be your go to guy, at least for recommending places to go.

I've written to him asking if its okay to pass on his contact info, just in case

 

[Ergo_Rapido]

Thanks very much for that Hebs,

I'll certainly have to have a look into it when this semesters over and see who would want to go with me! Cheers

 

[Hebs]

Hi again

It' seems my old friend have made a business out of taking people on tours. Take a look at his website, he's posted a really cool video. He's definetly livin' it up

Tonga Fishing Charters, Tonga Spear Fishing, Ben Carlson, Nuku'alofa Tonga

Happy hunting