Fishing with Family in Auckland 2:Wairangi Wharf!

The other day, the weather was good on the weekend, so we had another go at taking kids fishing in Auckland. As usual, we are taking our primary school-age son and pre-school age son, so we need to go to a reasonably safe spot for fishing rather than going on a boat or a rock.  This time, we tried a little wharf called Wairangi Wharf, and it was a very cute nice spot for a family fishing.

Where is Wairangi Wharf?

We found information about Wairangi wharf on the internet when we were looking for a good family fishing spot. It is located near Home bay, west of the Auckland harbor bridge connecting Auckland CBD and north shore city.

We drove from west Auckland where we live, through Ponsonby following car navigation. We came out to a small street called Wairangi street which has a dead end.

We parked on this street, and found a stairs on the side, at the end of the street. When you walk down the stairs, you arrive at the Wairangi Wharf, today’s destination.

A short wooden walkway stretches over the water. Surrounding the bay is all quiet residential area, and you don’t see any shops or commercial buildings nearby.

So if you wish to spend a good hours here, you will need to bring everything with you including food and of course, the fishing gear.

Beautiful fishing spot with view of the Harbor Bridge

It was a beautiful day for fishing. Wairangi Wharf was a great spot to see the ocean view.

On the right hand side, you could see the famous Auckland harbor bridge, without noise of cars going by. Just you, bridge and sound of waves.

When we turned back the way we came, we spotted a small patch of sand (small beach?). We wondered if we could access there but first, started getting our fishing gear ready.

There were few people coming for a walk while we were there.

According to information on the internet, this place could get pretty busy in summer fishing season. On this day, it was a beautiful day in July, just one other man was fishing there.

We stayed for a good hour and half, and during that time three pairs of people came for a walk, but no one else joined for fishing.

Caught a Bait Fish!! Yay!

After about 20 minutes into fishing… OH? Something is pulling our line!

A huge excitement for our school-age son! So we careful pulled our line out and…..

We caught a piper!


We were so excited, especially after the last trip when we didn’t catch anything.

It was about 30cm long piper. Pipers are supposed to be awesome bait fish for people aiming for snapper and kingfish. Fresh live pipers are the pest for catching these fish, apparently.

But today, we are not going for snappers…. well our fishing gear is not catered for such a big fish. we are actually using Sabiki hooks that is only good for catching bait fish. But that’s OK! We (both parents and kids!) are all fishing novice and we need to get some experience fishing safely before going for the bigger fish!

So for us, even just a bait fish is a GREAT CATCH! A Successful fishing day out!!

Home Bay Beach on the next street

Now our elder son was super happy after the first catch, but our younger son (pre-school age) was getting quickly bored. So while Dad and elder son continued to fish, I (mum) and younger son went for a walk.

We went out to see if we could access the small patch of beach that we spotted earlier. We walked back to Wairangi street then we walked to another street east of the Wairangi street.

We found a sign saying “Home Bay Beach” and stairs. Going down the stairs, we arrived at the small beach we saw from Wairangi wharf.  We could see dad and elder son fishing on the wharf, and they could see us on the Home Bay Beach, too.



This Home Bay Beach was very small and we quickly finished having a look there. There were some small broken shells on the ground, but it was too small beach to enjoy beach combing.

It is however, safe small patch of sand to let little one run around.

Two Pipers caught at Wairangi Bay!

In the end, after about hour and half there, we caught total of two pipers!  Well, our last fishing trip on Tamaki drive was zero-fish caught in the end, so compared to that, it was a big improvement.

We decided that we are going to use these pipers as bait for our next trip. So we took them home and put them in the freezer straight away.

We as novice fisher family, are thinking of getting a little bit bigger hock and line, so we can use this piper as bait to aim for other types of fish, on our next fishing trip.



Also checkout anther article about fishing in Auckland!

Fishing in Auckland with Kids 1: Okahu Bay Wharf

<*Checkout fishing gear at fishpond.co.nz>

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Pink Kids' Fishing Pole Starter Set for Girls by Fishing Gear Plus

Fishing in Auckland with Kids 1: Okahu Bay Wharf

Our 8-year-old son loves fishing, and wants to give fishing a go on a sunny weekend. Being new to the area and having no prior fishing experience ourselves, we started off by looking for potential fishing spots with my children.

  

Fishing in Auckland with Family

New Zealand is a beautiful country surrounded by the sea, and Auckland being the “City of Sails”, fishing is a popular hobby. We see many people with their own boats and fishing gear enjoying fishing.

There are also various fishing boat charter services providing half-day or day-fishing tours. We would love to give these a shot one of these days.

But for now, our son is only 8-year-old, and we feel it is a bit too early to go on a whole-day cruise to catch a snapper. He might get too tired during the trip, or worth sea-sick. These tours are quite expensive too.

So we have been searching for a local wharf where we could get some fishing experience first. Ideally, somewhere easily accessible and safe with children. This time, we tried “Okahu Bay Wharf”, which was described to be a popular spot around Mission Bay, on the internet websites.

Tamaki Drive, Okahu Bay Wharf in Auckland

On the day, we traveled from Auckland CBD towards mission bay on Tamaki drive. The target location, Okahu Bay, was on the left hand side along the stretch of the Tamaki drive. It was right opposite to the car parking area of the Auckland’s famous Kelly Talton’s SEA LIFE aquarium.

We parked on the road along side the Okahu Bay wharf and unloaded our fishing gear, food and drinks.

At the Okahu Bay Whar, there is a long stretch of walkway out to the sea, about 150m in length. At the other end, the walk way splits up to T-shape.

It is fenced all the way, but with plenty of gaps so I would not take an eye off little ones. But we our primary school age-son was quite comfortable there. Overall it looked like a nice spot where family with kids could give fishing a try.

Okahu bay wharf

Okahu Bay Wharf is a Popular Fishing Spot

On the day we visited, it was cloudy with some wind and occasional shower. So it was cold day.

When we arrived Okahu bay wharf just before lunch time, there were already three groups of people enjoying fishing there. At the far end of the walkway, there was a group of young man who were enjoying swimming! Oh how nice it is to be young…..

After we started fishing, people with fishing gear kept on arriving every now and then. A lot of people came passed us just enjoying walks too, some with kids and some with dogs.

The wharf had visitors on even such a cold cloudy day, so I would imagine that on a sunny day of early summer, a perfect fishing day, this wharf will be quite busy with people trying to do fishing here.

At the end of walk way

No Fish for This Day!! (Danm It!)

We tried fishing for about two hours on this day. But unfortunately we could not catch anything ourselves. A guy who was fishing before us, had caught something that appeared to be Kahawai, a locally seen type of Arripis. It was quite large, not fitting his small chilly bin, as he was taking it home.

Other than that, no one else caught anything while we were at Okahu Wharf. According to some website or fishing forum though, you could catch some snapper by casting your line as far as possible in summer.

We did see some “hard-core-fisher” people who had really nice fishing gear and setting multiple of them along the wharf. So there is little doubt in us that this is a good fishing spot that attracts a lot of people.

We did not have any luck this time, but we would love to give it another shot at Okahu Bay Wharf.

Bring Your Own Fishing Gear (and Food!)

This Okahu Bay Wharf is a public domain and there is no entry fee for fishers. But it also does not have any manager on site or shops nearby. So you will need to bring everything you need with you, including fishing gear, bait, drinks and snacks.

We picked up our fishing bait at a petrol station between Auckland CBD and Okahu Bay. You can normally pickup bait and ice from a petrol station located within short range from a coast. They are often kept in a freezer outside of the shop with a lock, and you may need to ask the shop staff for them.  

So that was Our First Fishing at Okahu Bay Wharf

Unfortunately we were unable to catch anything, but we did enjoy the experience there. It seemed like a nice spot and we will definitely give it another shot! 

It is near mission bay so we could plan a whole day outing with kids; some fishing at Okahu bay wharf followed by icecream and playtime at the mission bay.