Tairua Fishing Spots (Easy to get to spots when you have no boat)

Estuary Fishing Spots

Estuary Mouth:
This is a good spot especially after a storm or when there is rough sea. The snapper creep into the eastury mouth here and feed off the shellfish and debris. The best time to fish this spot is at low tide very early in the morning. (4-5am). The current can be strong here and most people use break away sinkers. be careful of the snags, if you cast close to the big buoy you shouldn’t get any snags

Paku Wharf:
Paku wharf can be hit and miss at times. Its a great place to take the kids to catch sprats, yellow tail mackerel and small trevally. You can however catch decent sized fish from this wharf at night or on an overcast day. You tend to get a big mix of species from this wharf, including dog sharks, kingfish, snapper, parore, kahawai and big trevally. People have even caught john dory from this wharf so there is a big range here. No snags here but there can be a fast running current. Best baits are pilchards, salted bonito and pipis (local shellfish collected at low tide from the estuary)

Low Tide Pipi Beds:
At low tide if you walk out from the Pepe park towards the wharf at Pauanui you will come to the channel. This channel fishes well for parore, big kahawai and also trevally. The best and cheapest bait to use here is just the pipi shellfish located all along in the sand at the waters edge. At certain times of the year it is not uncommon to catch 10 large parore in an hour. These are good to eat if bleed straight away. Not commonly eaten in New Zealand but in Australia they are considered a fine fish and they call them black fish or luderick.

Main Tairua Wharf:
This wharf is located corner wharf road and tui terrace. This wharf can fish really well but you have to go at the right time. The best times are just on the change of the tide or half way through the incoming tide and halfway through the out going tide. After a big storm when the water is brownish the kahawai are known to go crazy around this wharf. You can catch monster sized kahawai here. Big trevally and king fish also frequent this wharf. This wharf is ideal for fishing at night because it has a light. When the water is very clear here at night it can be hard to catch fish. You will see heaps but they may not bite.

Beach Fishing Spots

Ocean Beach:
The whole section of the beach produces fish. The easiest consistent spot is the north end. Just park your car at the car park walk down the steps and you can start fishing. Best baits here is squid, pilchards and salted bonito. Target species are kahawai and snapper although you will sometimes catch other species like gurnard, trevally and even king fish. Large sharks have also been known to be caught from this beach.

Sailors Grave:
To get to Sailors grave beach (Te Karo bay) you follow Main Road, north directly out of town. Keep following main road until you get to Sailors Grave road (about 5-10 minutes drive out of town). Turn down sailors grave road and follow it to the end. The beach at the end is relatively shallow but holds good kahawai at times. There is a walking track you can take on the left hand side (as you are facing the beach). This track will take you to Otara bay. This bay fishes very well and you can catch snapper off the beach at most times of the year here.

Rock Fishing Spots around the Coromandel Peninsula

The rock all around the Tairua coast are good fishing spots. Some of the popular spots are:

The Needle - You can access this spot by following a path that starts at the end of pacific drive. You can find pacific drive on our maps section here

Sailors Grave North Rocks - These rocks are accessible only at 3 hours before low tide and 3 hours after low tide. You can walk out quite far and the water is fairly deep.